Books like houses to live in, spaces of imagination and knowledge Promoting reading: the BookCity and #ioleggoperché initiatives
Promoting reading: the BookCity and #ioleggoperché initiatives
Books are like a nest: a welcoming refuge, a source of knowledge and security, and a path to a better life. Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, puts it well: ‘I began my life as I shall no doubt end it: among books. In my grandfather’s study, they were everywhere; it was forbidden to dust them except once a year, before the October term. Even before I could read, I already revered these raised stones; upright or leaning, wedged together like bricks on the library shelves or nobly placed like avenues of dolmens, I felt that our family prosperity depended on them. […] The books were my birds and my nests, my pets, my stable and my countryside; the bookcase was the world closed in a mirror; of a mirror had infinite depth, variety, unpredictability.’
The words of Sartre on ‘a life among books’, as well as those of the great French cultural figure Michel de Montaigne (‘Books are the best provisions I have found on this human journey’), spring to mind when considering two current events in Milan, a cultured and literate city where 10% of books sold in Italy are sold in Milanese bookshops. First is BookCity, which will see more than 1,300 debates and 2,700 participants in meetings and presentations from 10 to 16 November. The theme is ‘The power of ideas/the ideas of power’, covering topics such as freedom, creativity, knowledge and responsibility. The second event is the presentation of a documentary on #ioleggoperché (I read because), an initiative launched ten years ago by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE). This major social project has distributed over 3.7 million donated books to 28,000 schools since 2015, involving 4,000 bookshops and reaching more than 4 million students throughout Italy. And this is a commitment that must continue: more books, more donations and more school libraries to establish and develop.
Let’s start with this latest initiative. ‘This is a collective commitment that has turned reading into a shared, participatory activity capable of uniting different generations and territories,’ say the leaders of the AIE.
The results of this vital activity are detailed in the documentary Leggere può cambiare tutto (Reading can change everything), produced by AIE with the support of Pirelli. It was premiered yesterday morning at the Pirelli headquarters in Bicocca, Milan, as part of BookCity, to an audience of hundreds of students. The 25-minute film offers a unique perspective on the role of the narrator, taking the form of a school library that evolves over time. It will be available on Rai Play from today until 16 November. It includes contributions from various parties, including promoters such as the Cariplo Foundation, as well as authorities including the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the Ministers of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, and Education, Giuseppe Valditara. It also features insights from professors and students of all ages.
What is the meaning behind the story? Innocenzo Cipolletta, president of the AIE, explains, ‘For us, if a child discovers the joy of reading through a book that was delivered to their school as part of the #ioleggoperché campaign, it means that we have opened a door to the future for them. Over the past ten years, the project has helped transform the way reading is approached in schools. Reading, which was once a private experience for many children, has become a shared, collective moment that unites students, teachers and communities.’
Cipolletta continues: ‘We are proud to have made this documentary based on contributions from schools which shows how the country is changing thanks to the project and school libraries, which have become real reading infrastructures.’
Marco Tronchetti Provera, Executive Vice President of Pirelli and President of the Pirelli Foundation, adds, ‘Supporting #ioleggoperché means helping to strengthen school libraries, which are also linked to company and neighbourhood libraries, and therefore offering young people greater access to books. Reading is a fundamental tool for developing knowledge, critical thinking, and civic participation.’
‘Pirelli, through its Foundation, has been committed to dialogue with schools and the promotion of culture as a means of personal and collective growth for many years. This project is a tangible example of collaboration between institutions, the local community, and the business world for the benefit of young people.’
This is the key point. Libraries are cultural and social centres, spaces for knowledge, gathering and building community spirit. And books are like homes to live in. They are boats that sail through space and time. Probes to reach the skies of imagination and the depths of knowledge. They are tools to help us navigate the changing seasons of our lives.
The pleasure of the text. Memory, knowledge, freedom for the imagination and the responsibility of democracy.
To understand this better, we can refer to another famous quote by Umberto Eco that we mentioned in our blog post on 10 December 2024: ‘the book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. This also serves as a reminder of the importance of reading, the pleasure of the text and the thrill of discovering knowledge, adventure and new things. ‘Don’t hope to get rid of books,’ Eco said, in a brilliant conversation with Jean-Claude Carrière, published in 2017 by La nave di Teseo. So, let’s pick up our books again and cultivate a love of reading, both now and for the future. Let’s get children used to seeing books as normal, enjoyable and fun objects that add to our daily lives from an early age, just like spoons!
This is also the basis of the project developed by Confindustria’s Culture Group to promote the establishment of company libraries and relaunch an initiative that was discussed a decade ago. The Publishers’ Association is collaborating on the project, which will involve the network of Confindustria associations and companies in the local areas. Libraries are being founded and developed as part of a political and social commitment to restoring space and dignity to education, study, research and the values of knowledge and science. These values are also essential for a corporate culture that wants to play an active role in facing the challenges of complex and controversial modernity. The Pirelli libraries in Bicocca and Settimo Torinese serve as a prime example of this.
Neighbourhood and school libraries full of books suited to the interests and passions of children and teenagers (the mission of #ioleggoperché). Apartment building libraries, libraries in factories, offices and all workplaces where communities of people gather. A public and private investment in reading.
These libraries could all be put into common use and connected to municipal and regional library systems. They could also become places for meeting, conversing and discussing. These would be places where the social capital of a community grows and matures.
Now, let’s return to #ioleggoperché. A broader editorial project has been launched alongside the documentary, designed to extend and amplify the narrative. This project consists of a series of short videos available on Rai Play, in which authors and other notable figures share their personal experiences and thoughts on the power of books and the joy of passing on a passion for reading. The short stories include one by Rudy Zerbi, the project’s long-standing ambassador. He opens with a ‘family’ memory linked to books. In another story, Olympic champion and #ioleggoperché ambassador Sofia Goggia reveals the book that inspired her in her youth. Vincenzo Schettini, a teacher and populariser of science, reflects on the differences between the worlds of books and social media. The stories are interwoven with the voices of Massimiliano Rosolino, Manuel Bortuzzo and Andrea Lo Cicero from Team Illumina Sport e Salute. They share anecdotes and personal reflections, as does director Riccardo Milani, who reminisces about the books of his childhood and how he came across the project. Finally, Miriam Candurro, the lead actress in Un Posto al Sole, recounts the moment she fell in love with reading.
The students of the Galilei Technical Institute in Rome captured the essence of the documentary and the project when they said, ‘Reading is a simple gesture, but it can change everything’. Even after ten years, this project continues to inspire readers, one library at a time.
Promoting reading: the BookCity and #ioleggoperché initiatives
Books are like a nest: a welcoming refuge, a source of knowledge and security, and a path to a better life. Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, puts it well: ‘I began my life as I shall no doubt end it: among books. In my grandfather’s study, they were everywhere; it was forbidden to dust them except once a year, before the October term. Even before I could read, I already revered these raised stones; upright or leaning, wedged together like bricks on the library shelves or nobly placed like avenues of dolmens, I felt that our family prosperity depended on them. […] The books were my birds and my nests, my pets, my stable and my countryside; the bookcase was the world closed in a mirror; of a mirror had infinite depth, variety, unpredictability.’
The words of Sartre on ‘a life among books’, as well as those of the great French cultural figure Michel de Montaigne (‘Books are the best provisions I have found on this human journey’), spring to mind when considering two current events in Milan, a cultured and literate city where 10% of books sold in Italy are sold in Milanese bookshops. First is BookCity, which will see more than 1,300 debates and 2,700 participants in meetings and presentations from 10 to 16 November. The theme is ‘The power of ideas/the ideas of power’, covering topics such as freedom, creativity, knowledge and responsibility. The second event is the presentation of a documentary on #ioleggoperché (I read because), an initiative launched ten years ago by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE). This major social project has distributed over 3.7 million donated books to 28,000 schools since 2015, involving 4,000 bookshops and reaching more than 4 million students throughout Italy. And this is a commitment that must continue: more books, more donations and more school libraries to establish and develop.
Let’s start with this latest initiative. ‘This is a collective commitment that has turned reading into a shared, participatory activity capable of uniting different generations and territories,’ say the leaders of the AIE.
The results of this vital activity are detailed in the documentary Leggere può cambiare tutto (Reading can change everything), produced by AIE with the support of Pirelli. It was premiered yesterday morning at the Pirelli headquarters in Bicocca, Milan, as part of BookCity, to an audience of hundreds of students. The 25-minute film offers a unique perspective on the role of the narrator, taking the form of a school library that evolves over time. It will be available on Rai Play from today until 16 November. It includes contributions from various parties, including promoters such as the Cariplo Foundation, as well as authorities including the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and the Ministers of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, and Education, Giuseppe Valditara. It also features insights from professors and students of all ages.
What is the meaning behind the story? Innocenzo Cipolletta, president of the AIE, explains, ‘For us, if a child discovers the joy of reading through a book that was delivered to their school as part of the #ioleggoperché campaign, it means that we have opened a door to the future for them. Over the past ten years, the project has helped transform the way reading is approached in schools. Reading, which was once a private experience for many children, has become a shared, collective moment that unites students, teachers and communities.’
Cipolletta continues: ‘We are proud to have made this documentary based on contributions from schools which shows how the country is changing thanks to the project and school libraries, which have become real reading infrastructures.’
Marco Tronchetti Provera, Executive Vice President of Pirelli and President of the Pirelli Foundation, adds, ‘Supporting #ioleggoperché means helping to strengthen school libraries, which are also linked to company and neighbourhood libraries, and therefore offering young people greater access to books. Reading is a fundamental tool for developing knowledge, critical thinking, and civic participation.’
‘Pirelli, through its Foundation, has been committed to dialogue with schools and the promotion of culture as a means of personal and collective growth for many years. This project is a tangible example of collaboration between institutions, the local community, and the business world for the benefit of young people.’
This is the key point. Libraries are cultural and social centres, spaces for knowledge, gathering and building community spirit. And books are like homes to live in. They are boats that sail through space and time. Probes to reach the skies of imagination and the depths of knowledge. They are tools to help us navigate the changing seasons of our lives.
The pleasure of the text. Memory, knowledge, freedom for the imagination and the responsibility of democracy.
To understand this better, we can refer to another famous quote by Umberto Eco that we mentioned in our blog post on 10 December 2024: ‘the book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. This also serves as a reminder of the importance of reading, the pleasure of the text and the thrill of discovering knowledge, adventure and new things. ‘Don’t hope to get rid of books,’ Eco said, in a brilliant conversation with Jean-Claude Carrière, published in 2017 by La nave di Teseo. So, let’s pick up our books again and cultivate a love of reading, both now and for the future. Let’s get children used to seeing books as normal, enjoyable and fun objects that add to our daily lives from an early age, just like spoons!
This is also the basis of the project developed by Confindustria’s Culture Group to promote the establishment of company libraries and relaunch an initiative that was discussed a decade ago. The Publishers’ Association is collaborating on the project, which will involve the network of Confindustria associations and companies in the local areas. Libraries are being founded and developed as part of a political and social commitment to restoring space and dignity to education, study, research and the values of knowledge and science. These values are also essential for a corporate culture that wants to play an active role in facing the challenges of complex and controversial modernity. The Pirelli libraries in Bicocca and Settimo Torinese serve as a prime example of this.
Neighbourhood and school libraries full of books suited to the interests and passions of children and teenagers (the mission of #ioleggoperché). Apartment building libraries, libraries in factories, offices and all workplaces where communities of people gather. A public and private investment in reading.
These libraries could all be put into common use and connected to municipal and regional library systems. They could also become places for meeting, conversing and discussing. These would be places where the social capital of a community grows and matures.
Now, let’s return to #ioleggoperché. A broader editorial project has been launched alongside the documentary, designed to extend and amplify the narrative. This project consists of a series of short videos available on Rai Play, in which authors and other notable figures share their personal experiences and thoughts on the power of books and the joy of passing on a passion for reading. The short stories include one by Rudy Zerbi, the project’s long-standing ambassador. He opens with a ‘family’ memory linked to books. In another story, Olympic champion and #ioleggoperché ambassador Sofia Goggia reveals the book that inspired her in her youth. Vincenzo Schettini, a teacher and populariser of science, reflects on the differences between the worlds of books and social media. The stories are interwoven with the voices of Massimiliano Rosolino, Manuel Bortuzzo and Andrea Lo Cicero from Team Illumina Sport e Salute. They share anecdotes and personal reflections, as does director Riccardo Milani, who reminisces about the books of his childhood and how he came across the project. Finally, Miriam Candurro, the lead actress in Un Posto al Sole, recounts the moment she fell in love with reading.
The students of the Galilei Technical Institute in Rome captured the essence of the documentary and the project when they said, ‘Reading is a simple gesture, but it can change everything’. Even after ten years, this project continues to inspire readers, one library at a time.