Books are meant to be read, Part One

Mar 14, 2010 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

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‘The Discoverie of Guiana’ by Sir Walter Ralegh

Books are meant to be read. In Guyana, a whole lot of reading is taking place, going on and on…. We have never fully lost the habit of and the taste for and pleasure of reading, yes, the culture of reading had diminished for a season or two but it is back with a bang. I know, this is my business (allow me to reword that lest the taxman misconstrue my role). I know there is a whole lot of reading going on in Guyana because of my commitment (mostly voluntary) to the enhancement of our literature.

Books are meant to be read. And books are being read despite the demise of the bookstore which was once a healthy, thriving culture in this country.

There was a time in this country when it was pure pleasure, pure euphoria, to walk into a bookstore and soak up the aroma of books, losing oneself in the aura of books – new books, new titles. The attraction was there – sort of mutual attraction- we were drawn to books and books, yes, those seemingly inanimate objects were engaging our senses, making themselves attractive, appealing to us to turn back the pages and start a conversation, a dialogue, a debate.

Bookstores apart, there are other ways to source books; the current and novel way is to buy books online. And Guyanese are buying books online and are satisfied with this novel way of acquiring books even though this form of book acquisition is in no way as intimate as browsing books in a bookstore.

Books are meant to be read. And books are pouring into this country. A recent deluge was the launch of eleven titles of (thirty six) of The Guyana Classics Library. This project aims to reprint rare and out-of-print books on Guyana, and it is one of the many activities of a newly established publishing house, The Caribbean Press, funded by the Government of Guyana.

Books are meant to be read. And I am fortunate to have the first issues of The Guyana Classics Library. On acquiring the books, I lined them up against the back of a brown sofa and the golden covers glowed against this backdrop. I juxtaposed them, rearranged them in chronological order, still too excited to turn the pages. I weighed them – they were worth their weight in gold. I weighed, weighing the gold of El Dorado.

Books are meant to be read. So I started reading the series at the beginning – ‘The Discoverie of Guiana’ by Sir Walter Ralegh, slowly immersing myself in the series preface and then slowly wading through the introduction, reverently working my way to the book proper.

The series preface written by the President of Guyana, H. E. Bharrat Jagdeo and is instructive and informative, obviously giving an insight into the publication of The Guyana Classics Library. This preface fittingly discusses the first book on Guyana, going on to give an outline of Guyanese Literature to present day. This preface reveals that ‘The Guyana Classics Library will republish out-of-print poetry, novels and travelogues so as to remind us of our literary heritage, and it will also remind us of our reputation for scholarship in the fields of history, anthropology, sociology and politics, through the reprinting of seminal works in these subjects. The Series builds upon previous Guyanese endeavours, like the institution of CARIFESTA, and the Guyana Prize. I am delighted that my government has originated the project and has pledged that every library in the land will be furnished with titles from the Series, so that all Guyanese can appreciate our monumental achievement in moving from Exploitation to Expression…’

The introduction of ‘The Discovery of Guyana’, was done by Jonathan Morley. His opening gambit coincides with and extends the opening pitch of the series preface. Compare those specific words of the preface, ‘Modern Guyana came into being, in the Western imagination, through the travelogue of Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘The Discoverie of Guiana’ (1595). Ralegh was as beguiled by Guiana’s landscape as he was by the prospect of plunder’ with those in the introduction, ‘Sir Walter Ralegh, soldier, sea-captain, courtier and poet, was not alone in his dreams of El Dorado, for the idea of the Americas gripped the Elizabethan imaginary’. And there is more, much more….

Books are meant to be read. And the reading of Ralegh’s book leads to the opening of new vistas and the discovering and re-discovering of the El Dorado of Guyana which is its literature.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@ yahoo.com

 

What’s happening.

· You are invited to a World Poetry Day event to be celebrated on Monday March 22, 2010 and which will be staged at the Umana Yana, Kingston, Georgetown, at 1730 hours.

· Coming in April – World Book & Copyright Day

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