At a time when there is a craze and compulsion for ‘everything’ online, there is someone who is trying hard to sell the idea of reading books in the form of hard copies. Apart from staying safe, she wants everyone mentally healthy and finds leaf-to-leaf book reading one of the best stress busters.
Fatma al Mashani is a name to reckon with due to her passion for books and championing the cause of book reading among people of all age groups.
An Information Technology graduate, Fatma uses only the technology of social media to connect with those who love books, offers them the list of books and tries to deliver them at the prospective readers’ doorsteps.
In the normal situation, Fatma would have been seen in any social, cultural, or academic events along with her collection of books, interacting with the visitors and convincing them to inculcate the habit of reading books in the form of hard copies.
“At a time when people are secluded in their houses, I suggest them to make books their friends, as they are mine. Apart from being engrossed and focused in a book, you are away from smart screens, because it has now been proven that too much exposure to smart screens may cause health hazard of many kinds,” she said.
Having a collection of more than 1,000 books, Fatma claims to have read most of them.
“Since I love reading books, I feel like telling more and more people to read books. And there cannot be a better occasion now when people have to choose between staying at home or inviting the disease, I suggest them to stay at home, read books and be safe.”
Fatma walks the talk. To promote book reading, she has rented a shelf in one of the major stores and finds the response “very encouraging.”
I want to promote reading in my limited way, as I find the world of books “very interesting and satisfying.”
She encourages all, especially the young generation, to pick up the habit of reading. “Take a break from your mobile phones... The world of books is so nice and so vast that you keep on learning so many things... and there is good thing about the books that the titles are available for everyone’s area of interest. When you develop an interest in books, they hold you, motivate you to read more until you end up reading more and more,” she says.
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