Buying Books
The talented and wise Anatole France thus once repented, "Alas! If only there were eyes fixed around my entire head, then I would have been able to see the whole beauty of this world in one sight."
You can easily realise that this is true if you close your eyes and think about it a little bit. And once you realise this, then repentance is the only thing you can do. But this is where France differs from normal people. France said in consolation, "but the eyes of my mind are not just one or even two. It's completely in my control to increase the number of eyes of my mind. The more of the arts and crafts one grasps, the more an eye of the mind opens."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Whereas all the civilised nations of the world are busy trying to increase the eyes of their minds, we make faces at the mention of increasing the eyes of our minds like the one-eyed Cyclops from the Arabian Nights.
What is the way to increase your eyes? First, to read books, and for that to develop the habit of buying books.
There's another reason for increasing the eyes of one's mind. Bertrand Russell once said, "The main way to be relieve oneself of the problems of this world is to create as many worlds as possible in one's own mind and then to submerge in them in times of distress. The person who can make as many worlds as possible would be able to develop the power to avoid distress ever more."
In other words, if there's no solace in literature then philosophy; if philosophy fails to keep up then history; if history fails then geography--and heaven knows what more!
But one question, how do we create all these numerous worlds?
By reading books. By travelling nations. However, not everybody has the health and wealth to travel, so in the end books remain. Keeping this in mind, may be this is why Umar Khayyam said:
Here with a loaf of bread
beneath the bough
A flask of wine, a book of
verse and thou,
Beside me singing in the wilderness
And wilderness is paradise enow
The loaf of bread and wine will finish; the dark black eyes of the beloved will gradually become obscure; but the book will remain ever youthful if it is that kind of a book. This is why I think that Khayyam didn't forget to put Kitabs on the list of his heavenly items.
And Khayyam was a Muslim. In the number one book of the Muslims, the first message that MisterXXXX Muhammad received was "Allama Bil Kalami"; in other words, Allah has educated men with the help of the pen; and books are the embodiment of the pen.
The meaning of the Bible is book, book par excellence, the Greatest Book, 'The Book.' The God whose name we have to take at the beginning of all good deeds, it is He Himself who took the responsibility on His own shoulders of writing our big book. The leader of man, "Gana," in other words, the god of the people. If the people fail to respect books, they become God-depraved.
But Bengalis don't listen to civil religious conviction. There's only one thing in their lips, "Baba, do we have enough cash to buy books Baba?"
There is a certain degree of truth hidden in this statement, a very slight degree. It is this much: That one does need money to buy books--that's all. Nothing more than that!
If the price of books could be lowered, then no doubt more books would sell. If it's mentioned to the publisher, "Reduce the price of books," then he snorts back, "If a good number of books don't sell, how will I lower the price of books?"
"Why Mashai, if one looks at numbers then Bangla is the sixth or seventh language in the world. Let's take French, for example. Fewer people speak in that language compared to Bangla. Whereas, prior to the War, any good book would cost twelve annas, fourteen annas, maximum a Taka and four annas. Why can't you do so as well?"
"Yes, a French publisher can suddenly publish twenty thousand copies of any good book confidently. We experience a death rattle if we publish two thousand; do you want us to go bankrupt by publishing more?"
And thus this viscous circle. People don't buy books because they're not cheap, and at the same time books aren't cheap because people don't buy them.
This vicous circle has to be broken. But who's going to do it? The publisher or the buyer? It would be difficult for the publisher to break the circle, because he has to earn his bread from this trade. For fear of bankruptcy, he won't be willing to take the risk, not willing to experiment.
But nobody has ever gone bankrupt from buying books. Even if you increase your budget allocation for books by three times, there's still no possibility of going bankrupt. Rather, in the process, there's the possibility that you'll gain many eyes like France's fly; create numerous universes like Russell.
Only the man with worldly interests buys books carefully calculating all ends...
What do I do? At the same time I am both the producer and consumer. By making tobacco mixture I, myself, am the producer and by smoking it on my own, I, myself, am the consumer; do I have to say more? I have produced one book. Nobody buys the book, so I, myself, buy a copy once in a while.
It's heard that Mark Twain's library was a marvel to feast on. There were books from the floor to the roof, only books and books. Books would be piled up even on the carpet--it would be difficult to walk. Seeing this, one friend said to Mark Twain, "The books are being spoiled; why aren't you getting a few more shelves?"
Mark Twain scratched his head and looked down at the ground for a while before saying, "Brother, what you've said is right--but the way I built the library, I failed to collect shelves in the same manner. You can't just go and ask friends to lend you shelves."
Not only Mark Twain, most of the people of the world build a library by buying some books; and by borrowing some books from friends and not returning them back. The person who would not touch another person's belongings even if he were put to the guillotine, in many cases that same person loses his sense of logic when it comes to books. What's the reason behind this?
I found the solution to the problem in the writings of an Arab Pundit.
The Pundit wrote, "The rich say that the most difficult task in this world is to earn money. But the wise say, NO, the most difficult task of all is the pursuit of knowledge. Now the question that arises is, whose claim is correct, the rich man's or the wise man's? I, myself, travel in the pursuit of knowledge; therefore it would be difficult for me to remain neutral. However, I have noticed one thing, which I would like to bring to the attention of the judicious. Money is the fruit of a rich man's hard work. If somebody puts that fruit into the hands of a wise man, then he can use it delightfully, and not only this, in most cases it's observed that wise men can spend money in excellent ways, in much better ways than can rich men. On the other hand, the product of knowledge accumulates in books and even if we put that product in the hands of the rich they don't know how to use it--they can't read books."
The Arab Pundit therefore finished his argument with Q.E.D. "So it is proved that pursuit of knowledge is superior to that of money."
Real people therefore gladly spend money to acquire books, the medium of knowledge. Except only in Bangladesh.
When I expressed my grief about this matter the other day a friend of mine told a story. A drawing-room addict went to the market to buy a gift for her husband on his birthday. The shopkeeper showed her this, made her smell that, she touched this, snatched at that, but nothing could make the proud rich woman fix her mind. Everything was already in her husband's coffers. In the end, the shopkeeper dejectedly said, "In that case, why not present a good book?" The proud dame wrinkled her nose and said, "He has one of those as well."
Like husband, like wife. One book is enough for both of them.
Nonetheless, France really knows how to pay their dues to books. Even when they want to hit a terrible insulting blow to somebody they do it with books. Say for example, your greatest love is for your country. If somebody really wants to embarrass you, then they would embarrass your country. You would probably be able to tolerate self-embarrassment up to fifty times, but insult of your country will bit you for a long time.
Andre Gide had many friends--most of them were famous people. On his return from Russia, he published a fatal book against Soviet Russia. The Stalinists of Paris then went against Gide--they made his life a hell by speaking of him in abusive terms. To his amazement, most of his writer friends remained silent, they didn't speak out on his behalf. This dented Gide's heart--he decided that he would teach them a lesson.
An advertisement came out in the newspaper. Gide had decided to auction off his library. At first, the whole of Paris fainted at this news, but the very moment they returned back to their senses, they hurried off to the auction.
After going there and observing the scenario, everybody was transfixed. Gide put on auction only the autographed books of those author friends who didn't fight in his favour. Gide was in fact getting rid of rubbish.
I heard the loud laughter of the Parisians from the middle of the Mediterranean on a ship--because calculating the gravity of the entire matter, Reuters broadcasted the news on the wireless--they published with pleasure the news in the daily hundred-line typed ship's newspaper. The insulted authors bought their own books at double, triple prices as quickly as possible--the fewer people knew of this auction, the better (It's been heard that tickets once sold like this in Bangladesh).
I hear that those authors never forgave Gide.
How much more do I have to say? Won't Bengalis ever come to their senses?
I would have understood if Bengalis didn't have a thirst for knowledge. That's where my sorrows lie. I wouldn't have had any regrets if Bengalis were idiots. I haven't observed such a bizarre mixture in the entire Indian sub-continent. Their thirst for knowledge is enormous, but when it comes to buying books they are pathetic. Again, some shamelessly say, "Bengalis don't have money." True? Where is this man standing while making this statement? In front of a football field or in the ticket queue of a cinema?
All right, all right. Please don't make me angry for nothing. It's a rainy day today. I took the pen with the hope of writing an amusing story. Let me finish this writing in such a frame of mind. Everybody knows the story, but it was only yesterday that I managed to understand the inherent meaning of the story. A story from the Arabian Nights:
A King once had his Hakim killed because he failed to get hold of one of his books in spite of repeated attempts. The book came into the hands of the King. The King lost his senses and started reading the book. The King became so much involved in reading the book that he was putting his fingers in his mouth and watering them while turning the leaves of the book. In the meantime, the Hakim had been so well prepared for his death that he took the necessary measures. He put a deadly poison on the corner of each page. The King's fingers were soaked in the poison and entered his mouth.
The Hakim wrote about this counter-measure in the last page of the book. After reading this, the King collapsed at the flow of the poisonous punch.
Looking at the distaste of the Bengalis towards reading books, it seems that they know the story, and for the fear of death they have given up on reading books, buying books.
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