– Free book for every buyer
THE Guyana Reading and Research Centre (GRRC), at Woolford Avenue and Albert Streets, Georgetown, is hosting its first ever Annual Literacy Week, when every buyer will receive a free book. GRRC Director, Rupert Hopkinson yesterday told the Guyana Chronicle that under the theme ‘A book for every household’ books will be sold at 60 to 99 per cent off the regular prices at Bookland.
This offer started yesterday and will run until March 3.
Hopkinson said, “The event will indeed make a mark like no other, since there are more than 180,000 books on a variety of topics.”
He noted that he has been in business for the past 14 years and his main objective is to promote literacy.
Hopkinson said, “Reading is fundamental to national development, and GRCC will intensify its focus to get people to read more by continuing to provide an enabling environment.”
He added that during Literacy Week at GRCC, every buyer will get up to 10 free books with purchases of any amount, and hopes that the gesture will give true meaning to the theme.
Hopkinson is suggesting that the more fortunate members of the public purchase books and donate them to individuals, schools and community libraries.
Hopkinson told the Guyana Chronicle that having returned to Guyana as a teacher, he noticed that students were not performing as they used to in his days here as a school teacher, and the idea of opening a library was conceptualised to promote literacy.
Hopkinson pointed out that he started out with a small library at D’Andrade Street, Kitty, and he later relocated to Church Street where his business grew into a bookstore. Then he moved to the GRRC location at Bookland, where he has thousands of books on sale.
He stated that there are books on just about every topic, including sexuality, health, religion, novels, parenting, mathematics, biology, and chemistry among others.
Hopkinson said that GRRC Literacy Week comes in the middle of another book sale, where the buyer with the purchase of $2,000 gets eight free books, until March 28, 2012.