Monthly Archives: June 2019

Bicycle Library in Afghanistan

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from Global Citizen

This bicycle library is raising literacy rates in Afghanistan

Every weekend, the children in Afghanistan cannot wait to welcome this school teacher!

By Gina Darnaud  APRIL 27, 2016

Every weekend, the children in Afghanistan cannot wait to welcome the teacher Saber Hosseini!

In Afghanistan, access to education is obstructed by a lack of resources and this is especially true in rural areas where the nearest school may be hours away. Saber is trying to change this unfair reality with his “bicycle library” that offers  children in these communities the opportunity to access a world of knowledge.

Literacy is one of the most accurate measures for predicting a child’s future. Unfortunately, where a child grows up often decides her access to education.

Saber is a schoolteacher in Bamiyan, the capital of the Bamyan province in central Afghanistan, which is one of the most poorest provinces in one of the poorest countries. Its mountainous geography and barren land often make education inaccessible…but that doesn’t stop Saber!

#MyAfghanHero is Saber Hussaini, man who runs his own children’s mobile library for 5 #Bamiyan villages

Many schools were destroyed through the violence of the past several years and children from remote villages were often forced to drop out, reversing earlier educational progress that had been made.

Saber came up with the idea for a bicycle library six months ago. After conversations with friends in literary circles, Saber was able to raise enough money to purchase 200 books. Working with volunteers, Saber traveled to the Iran border to purchase most of the library’s books because the publication of books in Afghanistan is severely limited.

Now six months later, through the support of communities and people around the world, the library has grown to 3,500 books and Saber has even opened the first public library in Bamiyan.

The literacy rate is on track to rise again all because because of a library stationed in a box on one man’s bicycle.

In the beginning of the project, Saber admits that he and volunteers would choose simple books, but now many of the children are able to read more advanced ones. The library has become so popular that some of adults are even using the library service and checking out advanced level children’s books.

Each time he visits a community, Saber speaks to the children about an important topic. He most commonly speaks of peace, the dangers of drugs, and the need for tolerance between people with different beliefs or cultures.

One time, he spoke to children about guns, and used the slogan “say no to guns, say yes to books.” The next time he returned to the same village, the children collected all of their toy guns and handed them over to Saber. This was a heartwarming gesture, but the kids wanted to bargain: they would forfeit their guns if they could be the first village in the next round of book deliveries so that they could get the first pick.

Saber has brought joy to many communities, but there are costs to his endeavor. He has received many threats and many have opposed his caring works. Even still, Saber continues to make room for the opportunity to learn. A library is more than just a pile of books, it is also a community of individuals willing to learn and discuss and grow.

Saber makes this library possible with his little bike, but in Afghanistan a bike is actually commonly seen as a negative object. The Taliban used to use bicycles in their bombing techniques, but Saber is rehabilitating the image and reassociating it with practicality and fun.

“When I hand the books out to them, I can see their excitement and joy,” Hosseini said. “It is the joy of being able to learn. I am also inspired.”

The power of education is something we should hold on to just like Saber did and still does.

Watch Saber in action here:

12 More Book Dedications to Make You Smile

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12 More Book Dedications to Make You Smile

by Kath      May 5, 2019      from For Reading Addicts

Previously, we brought you a blog of 10 book dedications that we thought you might like. They were pretty funny, touching, or witty. Today we’re following that up with 12 more book dedications, but this time we’ve gone for pure humour!

Here are 12 book dedications almost guaranteed to raise a chuckle or two, and the books they come from.

Enjoy!

From

No Way Back – Matthew Klein

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From

An Introduction to Algebraic Topology

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From

This Book is Full of Spiders

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From

Ruins

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From

You Might be a Zombie and Other Bad News

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From

Otherland #1

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This joke continues through the book series too

#2: This Book is dedicated to my father Joseph Hill Evans with love.
As I said before, Dad doesn’t read fiction. He still hasn’t noticed that this thing is dedicated to him. This is Volume Two—let’s see how many more until he catches on.

#3: This is still dedicated to you-know-who, even if he doesn’t.
Maybe we can keep this a secret all the way to the final volume.

#4: My father still hasn’t actually cracked any of the books—so, no, he still hasn’t noticed. I think I’m just going to have to tell him. Maybe I should break it to him gently.

#5: Everyone here who hasn’t had a book dedicated to them, take three steps forward. Whoops, Dad, hang on there for a second…

From

The Selection

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From

Ready Player One

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From

Psychos

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From

Lets Pretend this Never Happened

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From

A Memoir of Heartbreak, Hookups, Love and Brunch

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And a double whammy to finish from

This is Going To Hurt

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We hope you enjoyed those!

Bats Act as Pest Control at Two Old Portuguese Libraries

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Bats Act as Pest Control at Two Old Portuguese Libraries

It’s not clear how long the bats have been doing this important job

The University of Coimbra’s grand old Biblioteca Joanina houses both books and bats.

By Rachel Nuwer
smithsonian.com

For their new book, The Library: A World History, architectural historian James Campbell and photographer Will Pryce travelled the world to documentary of the architecture of book storage. And they found that libraries, writes Campbell, “can be much more than the dusty, dark wooden shelves.” Indeed, as The Boston Globe‘s Brainiac noticed, in a couple of cases, Campbell and Pryce found that these age-old institutions act as houses for not only books, but bats, too.

At Biblioteca Joanina and  the Mafra Palace Library, both, curiously, located in Portugal, and both built in the 18th century, small bats, about an inch long, act as guards against book-eating insects. The Globe reports on the bat-friendly places:

In an email, Campbell explained that the bats, which are less than inch long, roost during the day behind “elaborate rococo bookcases” and come out at night to hunt insects which otherwise would feast on the libraries’ books. The price of this natural insect control is paid in scat: The bats, Campbell writes, “leave a thin layer of droppings over everything. So each morning the floors have to be thoroughly cleaned…and the furniture has to be covered at night.”

It’s not clear how long the bats have been doing this important job, but Portugal, at least, is letting them take care of scaring away the book-eating bugs ( and probably certain human bookworms, too).

 

10 Book Dedications to Make You Smile

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10 Book Dedications to Make You Smile

by Shan Williams   Jan 16, 2017    from For Reading Addicts

When you open the pages of a book for the very first time what do you do? Do you read everything that is available to you or are you a skipper? Do you ever read the dedications? I do, especially as now I have the honour of being mentioned in a dedication and also as we at For Reading Addicts appear on the back cover blurb for another.

Ever since I began reading these little gems from the many authors whose books I’ve read I’ve been pleasantly surprised by just how much many of our favourite authors share with us in those final few pages before the back cover is closed and some of them are outright hysterical. Take a look at these book dedications and then make sure you keep an eye out for any humorous ones you come across in your day to day reading.

House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Short, sweet, and to the point. Fair enough Mark, but I still read the book.

The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer

Always listen to your grandmother; she knows.

Moorchild by Eloise McGraw

How amazing to know that there is someone out there who knows just exactly how you feel.

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Embrace your inner Titan Rick.

The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell

You can see into my heart Jen.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

You’re right Neil, we love you too.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Come on Jenny, let’s not beat about the bush; say it like it is.

Over Seventy by P. G. Wodehouse

Nothing better than proving someone wrong is there.

No Way Back by Matthew Klein

Cringe.

Austenland by Shannon Hale

You blew it Mr Darcy, you had your chance and you blew it.

I’ve often heard of mystery book buys where the book is wrapped in brown paper and you purchase it purely on the basis of how the first line of the book sounds, I wonder if anyone has ever bought a book just because the dedication caught their eye?