ISLAMABAD: Books are losing their charm and their place is being taken over by e-books, mobile phones and computers, said renowned poet and scholar Iftikhar Hussain Arif.

“It is natural for novelty to attract people and we see old and worth-following trends forgotten to be replaced with new ones. But that should not have happened in the case of reading habits,” he said while talking to this agency.

“I started reading and collecting books since I was a child and my thirst for reading is yet to be quenched. E-books are damaging the book industry,” he said, adding that even though e-books are easier to access, are cheaper and easy to carry around, they cannot create a bond between readers and the book.

Mr Arif said book corners could be seen at every corner in foreign countries in the past and that these too have now disappeared. Only the bigger bookshops and publishers can be found now, he added.

He blamed the current education system for the decline in reading culture and said drastic changes in cultural values and the adaptation to new and easy ways to get success has also contributed to this decline.

“We see students carrying heavy bags and gaining enormous knowledge but they cannot often think critically. We put a lot of burden on young shoulders and they seek freedom and comfort in weightless gadgets. It is their shortcut to quick knowledge without exhausting research,” he said.

“They do not feel the need to go through different books for their assignments and simply get the information from the Internet. We need to change the education system altogether and create a love for books in young minds,” Mr Arif said.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018