May of books, Monti Buzzetti: Books never cease to be a great engine of civilization

“The book never ceases to be a great engine of civilization, of civil and social awareness and of personal training”. The president of the Center for Books and Reading, Adriano Monti Buzzettihe comments like this with AgencyCULT the inauguration in Rome of the fourteenth edition of Maggio dei Libri, a Cepell initiative born in 2011 with the aim of underlining the social value of books as a key element of personal, cultural and civil growth. The 2024 edition is guided by the theme, If you read you lib(e)ri!, accompanied by the coordinated image created by the illustrator Nicole Tecchio, winner of the Romics contest ‘Let’s draw May’.

THE MAY OF BOOKS

The May of Books is a national campaign that invites us to bring books and reading to contexts other than traditional ones, to intercept those who usually don’t read but who may be intrigued if stimulated in the right way. Everyone can contribute by organizing initiatives that take place between 23 April (UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day) and 31 May and registering them in the campaign database. In its mission, Il Maggio dei Libri extensively involves local authorities, schools, libraries, bookshops, festivals, publishers, cultural associations and the most diverse public and private entities. In Italy but not only: every year, in fact, the campaign crosses national borders, uniting different realities in the common passion for reading. As is the case this year, in which May shares a further, prestigious starting line with the inauguration on 26 April also in Strasbourg, the symbolic city and home of the European Union, as the 2024 World Book Capital.

THE MEETING WITH DACIA MARAINI AND GUIDO VITIELLO

This year, for the inauguration of May, continues the president of Cepell, “a quite original initiative was chosen: inviting two writers to inaugurate our spring of books which every year proves to have increasingly interesting results” . In fact, it was in the Cepell conference room Dacia Maraini to raise the curtain on the fourteenth edition together with the professor and essayist Guido Vitiellowho dedicated his latest work, ‘Happy reading’ (Il Saggiatore, 2024), to reading as a key to accessing the lives and emotions of imaginary strangers, with initial greetings from the president of the Center and the director Luciano Lanna.

In the meeting broadcast live on social media also by -, the president highlighted, “the desire has emerged to ensure that the book continues to be central in the cultural ecosystem of our country and the world”. The May of books, Monti Buzzetti finally recalled, “is a great web of initiatives that aim to bring the book outside its natural boundaries – such as libraries and bookstores – to bring it into real life, into the lives of people. We are strongly aiming for this, trying to financially support these projects as well.”

DACIA MARAINI

“Reading is an engine of freedom and we need to facilitate a contagion mechanism in the love of books and reading – explained Dacia Maraini -. Starting with the very young generations who already at school must learn to approach reading, without impositions. But I know that a lot is already being done, in schools there is much more awareness and ability to introduce children to reading”. The Maggio dei libri initiative, added Maraini, “is excellent and should be replicated even more often. We must then focus more on libraries that are closing by making them more automated because there is a lack of staff – this is the writer’s hope -. We need to open public libraries to everyone, even in places where there are very few people. Even in mountain villages, open libraries and leave them free so that when you want, you can go and get a book.”

GUIDO VITIELLO

“It was a very interesting meeting – explains the essayist Guido Vitiello to AgencyCULT -. We talked about the various ways in which the relationship between books and freedom can be expressed, the cases in which the book favors freedom and the rarer, but still attested, cases in which a book can convey liberticidal ideas. We agreed on the fact that it is essential to create readers capable of evaluating the good and the bad in books. In short, there are no good or bad books, but there are good or bad ways of reading.” Vitiello then expressed a hope: “I would like to see very young children discover, even a little by chance, the profound pleasure of reading, because it is something difficult to discover many years later. When that interior space has opened up, you search for it for your whole life and very often you regret those long summer afternoons where you could read for six hours straight and which will never come back.”