This year marks the 25th anniversary of World Book Day celebrated on March 3.
Designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, World Book Day is marked in over 100 countries around the globe.
It is a day when more people are encouraged to read.
To commemorate this event, Seychelles NATION brings you a chat with one of our local authors, Dr Bernard Valentin.
A medical doctor by profession and the principal secretary for health, Dr Valentin has written three Creole novels ? Lema Paviyon published by Lenstiti Kreol in 2012, Lasapel Lanz Nikola (Gran Pri konkour Antoine Abel 2011-2013) and Moulouk Darmalinganm (Premye pri konkour Antoine Abel 2014-2016).
Seychelles NATION: With this year’s World Book day theme being ‘You are a reader’, as a local author do you feel that our children, youth and adults read enough in Seychelles?
Dr Bernard Valentin: I believe children, youth and adults do read. However, they prefer to read material that is short and sweet. They do not read as much as people of previous generations because they do not need to. Reading is neither the only, nor the main medium for education, information or entertainment. People nowadays can get knowledge from youtube, for example, so there is no need to read an encyclopaedia. Others are entertained by movies, so why read a book of 250 pages when you can get the whole story from the 250 pages in a film of one-and-a-half hours? The modern human people have a much shorter span of attention and they have no time or desire to read endless material.
Seychelles NATION: We are not seeing any young upcoming authors in the country, what is the main cause?
Dr Bernard Valentin: Writing a book is a huge undertaking in time and effort. In other countries, writing is also a collaborative project with professionals who do the proof reading, publishing, marketing, sales etc. In Seychelles, the author is a one-man show. He/she has to do practically everything. In my case, there have been instances where I have been asked to review my own work!!! For an author this is too much! And furthermore, at the end of all this, there aren’t enough people in Seychelles to be interested in one’s book and to buy it and to read it and to make it worth the effort of writing.
If one spends so much time writing a book and doing everything else, there should at least be a sizeable market to be potentially interested in the final product.
Seychelles NATION: Books are quite expensive here. What do you think can be done to make books more accessible to our younger generation?
Dr Bernard Valentin: Unless, we put books in libraries where people can have access to them at minimum price (e.g. library membership fees) or at no cost at all, there is no other way of lowering the price of new books here. In other countries, other than new books that are sold in bookshops, there are also other outlets that sell used books of good quality. This is something that can be certainly considered and organised here.
Seychelles NATION:Since the National Library has closed down there is a lack of accessibility to books. What is your advice for parents?
Dr Bernard Valentin: E-books is always an option for both adults and children. Children who are more electronically savvy than their parents may find more pleasure reading e-books than the paper versions. The internet also provides significant amount of reading material.
Seychelles NATION:Why is it important to write and read?
Dr Bernard Valentin: Reading educates, informs and entertains. Reading broadens one’s horizons and enables one to discover the world and to uncover the truth. I am absolutely certain that if I am able to write quite well today, it is only because I read so much when I was younger. I was a passionate, unsatiable reader.
Source: Seychelles Nation