Benches as books to encourage reading

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
25 March 2023 Saturday 11:40
111 Reads
Benches as books to encourage reading

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

I share in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia these two photographs of two open books by different authors, in different representative places in Madrid, as a bench, in what is supposed to be a promotion of reading.

I say supposedly, because the Manuel Alvar public library has been closed for four years, depriving the people of Madrid of their huge store of books, while the Buenavista Cultural Center, with its library included, is on a similar path, after works that last months.

These book-shaped benches, authentic urban sculptures, are part of the Sit down to read campaign to promote reading with which the Madrid City Council begins to set the city in the mood for Book Day on April 23.

In collaboration with the Penguin Random House publishing house, the works of authors of all kinds have been transformed into banks. There are allusions to works by Julia Navarro, Elisabet Benavent, Javier Castillo, J.K. Rowling or Juan Gómez Jurado, as well as classics by Emilia Pardo Bazán or Benito Pérez Galdós and even comics such as Mortadelo and Filemón de Ibáñez.

Each bench shows illustrations of the book covers and includes a QR code that leads to the Sit down to read page, where information is provided about this initiative and the participating authors and works.