Yesterday we had a poke at the appointment of “Reading Ambassadors” for the ACT.
This prompted Libraries ACT to this morning accuse via Twitter that we do not “value the importance of promoting reading”.
To be very clear, we value reading immensely. Without a literate population we have no audience.
We appreciate the promotion of reading as the creation of our future audience, quite aside from its value as a social good in its own right.
We just don’t think that a lame list of D-list celebrities and an entire roller derby league being appointed Reading Ambassadors is a very effective promotion of reading.
Instead I’ll go with Pliny the Elder on this:
True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier for our living in it.