Fortunately, I grew up in a home where there were lots of books. My parents were enthusiastic readers, and I guess that habit was quite catching. I studied English at the University of La Plata in the 1970s and graduated as an English Language and English Literature teacher. I had awesome professors there, many of them native speakers, like unforgettable, dear George Lewis. In those days, we students didn’t use photocopies and the Internet was still science fiction. Therefore, we used to buy books. Up until last week, I had masterpieces on my bookshelves. Novels, essays, plays, short stories, you name it, by the greatest US and English authors. Lately, I’ve felt the need to give something back to my college (“Facultad de Humanidades”), in return for the sound education and training it has given me for free. Without hesitation, I contacted the Department of Modern Languages and offered them that treasure, so that current and future students would be able to read them. I didn’t want those books to gather dust on the shelves, and I wasn’t going to read them again. Therefore, the best choice was to give them away to the UNLP library. In good hands now. Maybe someone who reads these lines decides to do likewise. There are so many public and school libraries which would welcome good literature. Maybe I’m just being sentimental, but I feel it’s been worth it.
Buenos Aires Times, May 17, 2025