The wedge that keeps our publishing industry upright

In puzzles, the scheme according to which, by incorporating a letter into a word, gives rise to another with a different meaning is called jam.. It is different from the joke on which Jesus wanted to found his Church (“You are Peter, and on this stone”) but of comparable effect, given that it keeps Italian publishing afloat. The May of books began on Tuesday, an initiative of the Center for books and reading (Cepell), whose fourteenth edition has as its theme “If you read you lib(e)ri”, expressed in three variations: “Lib(e)ri to know”, “Lib(e)ri to dream”, “Lib(e)ri to create”.

There is also a competition for reading promotion projects, the winners of which will be awarded prizes in Rome, obviously during Più libri liberi. Moreover, Cepell has involved schools in an activity to encourage reading called Libriamoci, which smacks of liberation and lightness – even if, given some illegible bricks that teachers inflict on innocent children, it could have been called Libbriamoci (the burden average weight of a book is around 400 grams, approximately the same as the British pound). That reading makes you free is a cliché contradicted not only by the dramatic trend towards compulsory school reading but also by history (it was a Mein Kampf book, as were the propaganda works of absolutism, the catechisms to be memorized, the essays that contested Newtonian physics with the auctoritas of Aristotle…) and by one’s own existence: if I have to read with a goal, I am no longer free to do it even if that goal is freedom. The wedge doesn’t even pass the etymology test: the book has nothing to do with freedom (nor with the pound) but derives from the Indo-European root lap-, “to peel”, since papyri were obtained from the bark of trees. Better to remember this, before the Scurati case brings to mind the brilliant idea of ​​renaming tomorrow’s anniversary as Libration Day; It’s also better to remember that “book” and “free” in English are called book and free, in German Buch and frei, in Norwegian bok and fri – all nations in which the play on words doesn’t work but people still read more than in Italy.

In puzzles, the scheme according to which, by incorporating a letter into a word, gives rise to another with a different meaning is called jam.. It is different from the joke on which Jesus wanted to found his Church (“You are Peter, and on this stone”) but of comparable effect, given that it keeps Italian publishing afloat. The May of books began on Tuesday, an initiative of the Center for books and reading (Cepell), whose fourteenth edition has as its theme “If you read you lib(e)ri”, expressed in three variations: “Lib(e)ri to know”, “Lib(e)ri to dream”, “Lib(e)ri to create”.

There is also a competition for reading promotion projects, the winners of which will be awarded prizes in Rome, obviously during Più libri liberi. Moreover, Cepell has involved schools in an activity to encourage reading called Libriamoci, which smacks of liberation and lightness – even if, given some illegible bricks that teachers inflict on innocent children, it could have been called Libbriamoci (the burden average weight of a book is around 400 grams, approximately the same as the British pound). That reading makes you free is a cliché contradicted not only by the dramatic trend towards compulsory school reading but also by history (it was a Mein Kampf book, as were the propaganda works of absolutism, the catechisms to be memorized, the essays that contested Newtonian physics with the auctoritas of Aristotle…) and by one’s own existence: if I have to read with a goal, I am no longer free to do it even if that goal is freedom. The wedge doesn’t even pass the etymology test: the book has nothing to do with freedom (nor with the pound) but derives from the Indo-European root lap-, “to peel”, since papyri were obtained from the bark of trees. Better to remember this, before the Scurati case brings to mind the brilliant idea of ​​renaming tomorrow’s anniversary as Libration Day; It’s also better to remember that “book” and “free” in English are called book and free, in German Buch and frei, in Norwegian bok and fri – all nations in which the play on words doesn’t work but people still read more than in Italy.