For the past couple of years, Armenia has been celebrating Book Donation Day on February 19^th, which marks the birthday of great Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan. According to literary critic David Gasparyan, donating books is the path that brings a person closer to books. In an interview with Tert.am, Gasparyan mentioned that the thing that’s more important than disseminating the culture of donating books is seeing people learn to buy books.

“We have to raise the value of books so that people not only donate books to each other on this day, but also on occasions. After all, there are wonderful books out there. Why don’t people donate books? It’s because there is a time for everything, and it seems as though books are old-fashioned. There was a time when many people would donate books to each other. True, they wouldn’t read all those boos and would say books are like a part of the furniture in the house, but people knew the value of books and they knew that their children would read them later,” he said.

When asked if he agreed with the view that books are expensive and that people of Armenia can’t afford to buy books due to the social problems in the country, Gasparyan said: “Of course, there are social problems. Books are not cheap, but in any case, if you are a person who loves books, you can overcome those problems.”

Touching upon Armenian readers’ preferences, David Gasparyan mentioned that people today are interested in books about history and people’s biographies.

“They prefer books that tell true stories and present a person’s biography,” he said, adding that he stated donating books yesterday.

Writer, publicist Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan mentioned that when the radio was invented, everyone said nobody would read books anymore, when the television was created, everyone would say nobody would listen to radio or read books, when the Internet was created, they would say nobody would read books, listen to radio or watch television, but life proved the opposite.

“Indeed, there are people who read books today. It’s just that there is a need for good and interesting writers. It’s impossible for people to stop reading. As long as there are people, there will always be books. Books are eternal. Today, we have to revitalize the culture of buying books,” he said.

When asked if people aren’t sparing money to buy books, taking into consideration the presence of the Internet, he said: “That problem exists. The Internet played its role, but five years ago, I purchased the 12 volumes of Jack London’s book for my grandson from the Vernisazh in Yerevan. Do you know how much I paid? I paid 5,000 drams. Today, 12 volumes cost at least 30,000 drams. The reason is because there are more people who want to buy books.”

Meruzhan Ter-Gulanyan voiced hope that the culture of donating books would become more popular. “They’ll learn. Learning a new thing takes time. We have to spread the word to one another.”