The tragedy of a society that has stopped reading

Sep 01, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – There was a time in Guyana when a child caught reading a book was considered a good thing. Today, if you see a child quietly reading for twenty minutes, you may want to call the police. Something unusual is happening. The child is either studying, hiding from his parents, or has accidentally taken up the wrong pastime.

The late Ian McDonald, the great lover of books and reading, once wrote that “a child who develops a love of reading wins a prize that will last and last until the end of life.” He regarded reading not merely as preparation for examinations but as one of the great gifts a child could receive. Reading, he said, strengthens comprehension, teaches people how to organise their thoughts and express ideas, and gives the mind a tool useful to everybody from the scientist and engineer to the lawyer and businessman.