Thursday, July 8, 2010

Literary adventures in Russia


'Discover new things!'
'Be guided by knowledge'
'Fill in the gaps!'
So says Moscow's government, in an ad campaign to encourage young people to read more. 100 billboards have been planted around the city by the Moscow Writers Union blaring 'Read Books' to the masses.
The Union says experts are witnessing an 'alarming tendency' for people to read less, especially the classics. Russians are developing 'an apathy toward reading serious literature, thick books written  not only by contemporaries but by classic writers as well,' and that 'such indifference can lead to erosion of entire cultural layers, to depletion of knowledge about literature, to the loss of national  self-identification'.
Who'd have thought? - a Union that talks sense.

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