Flights

CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, PICK UP YOUR PENS!

Jasmine, the nice Muslim woman I’d spent the whole evening talking to, was telling me about her project: she wanted to encourage everyone in her country to write books. She had noticed that you don’t need very much in order to write a book – a bit of free time after work, not even a computer. Any such intrepid person might end up writing a bestseller – then their efforts would be rewarded by social advancement. It’s the best way of getting out of poverty, she said. If only we all read each other’s books, she sighed. She’d founded a forum on the internet. Apparently it already had several hundred members.

I love the of idea of reading books as a brotherly, sisterly moral obligation to one’s people.