Our minds are shaped by the books we read, our character by the people we meet and our spirit by the love we give. I truly believe that culture is the solution to the world, including our islands of Malta and Gozo. We are living in a world that is giving more importance to what we possess and not to what we are. We believe that to be happy we need to have our pockets full of money while we forget that the most beautiful things in life cannot be bought namely: love, friendship, sincerity, respect, trust and especially serenity.

Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, not only loved books but also wrote many and published hundreds. He believed that the book was one of the most important tools to educate his young boys. So much so that the first thing he did during his mission was to set up a printing press. He truly believed what J. K. Rowling said: "Wherever I am, if I have got a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy."

Don Bosco's library was never too neat or too dusty as he was always with the books in his hands and staying up late. He read about God and he believed that to organise his preventive system, he needed books to help him realise and understand reality. The Bishop of Alba, Mons Eugenio Galletti wrote this about Don Bosco: "It is true that his intimate spiritual life penetrates his writings, more in some than in others. This explains the effect his writings had on the souls of readers who were not prejudiced."

Frederick Douglas used to say: "I think that once you learn to read you will be forever free." Moreover, Plato is quoted to have said: "Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything."

A book addict used to say: "I love books. I love reading books. I love smelling books. I love browsing book shops. I love pursuing libraries. I love rummaging friends' bookshelves. Did I mention I love books!" While Tahereh Mafi used to say: "I love walking into a bookstore, it's like all my friends sitting on shelves waving their pages at me." Moreover, Mark Twain used to say "the man who does not read good books, has no advantage over the man who reads". The purpose of Literature is to turn blood into ink.

I think that reading forces you to be quiet in a world that no longer makes place for that. Marcus Aurelius is quoted to say: "Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you will have more time and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment: is this necessary?" A friend of mine in Rome used to tell me: "I read old books because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than from those who tore it down or doing their utmost to eradicate it." Nowadays, in Malta, we are going through a cultural crisis. People do not know how to choose right from wrong! No principles, no conscience and especially lack of faith!

When we read a book, we do not fall in love with characters but with their words, their thoughts and especially their souls. I believe that books wash away from our souls the dust of everyday life. In every book we read there are bits and pieces of yourself. Elizabeth Hardwick wrote: "The greatest gift is the passion for reading, it is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives the knowledge of the world experience of a wide kind. It is normal illumination." A Professor at the Salesian University in Rome used to say "don't take me into a book store unless you are prepared to drag me out". The famous Vittorio Sgarbi, an Italian art critic and historian says: "What are books today: is a form of resistance of social communication and against the ephemeral thinking." Antonio Gramsci, an Italian philosopher, wrote: "Illusion is the most tenacious weed in the collective consciousness: history teaches, but it has no pupils." While Malala Yousafzal, a Pakistani activist for female education and a Nobel Peace Laureate wrote: "If you want to terminate the war instead of sending guns, send books, instead of sending tanks send pens and instead of sending soldiers send teachers."

In my opinion, a city is not a city without libraries, even if its inhabitants pretend to call it a city. A city without books and a city without libraries is like a graveyard. People today are addicted to a monitor, to social media and many other futile things. It is true that technology is a must in today's life. The future of every country are the youths and so we have to lead by example. They must see us read books and we must radiate happiness after reading a good book.

"Providence has delivered me of every worldly passion, save this one; the desire to acquire books, new or old books of any kind, whose charms I cannot persuade myself to resist."  John Henry Newman