An Intellectual Powerhouse

Will Durant, the famous American philosopher, whose invaluable contribution to culture and civilization is ineffable, rightly says in his Great Men of Literature about books and library: “If I were rich I would have many books and I would pamper myself with bindings bright to the eye and soft to the touch, paper generously opaque, and type such as men designed when printing was very young.

I would dress my gods in leather and gold, and burn candles of worship before them at night, and string their names like beads on a rosary. I would have my library spacious and dark and cool, safe from alien sights and sounds, with slender casements opening on quiet fields, voluptuous chairs inviting communion and reverie, shaded lamps illuminating sanctuaries here and there, and every inch of the walls concealed with the mental heritage of our race.”

If an avid reader, who is a frequenter to libraries, questions himself whether there is a single library in the country that comes to the nearest approximation to this ideal, the immediate answer he gets is a simple ‘No’. There is, however, the possibility to improve the State Central Library in Hyderabad to satisfy this ideal at least to some modest measure if genuine efforts are made by all concerned.