Los books transport us to other worlds, to other storiesto other lives. They bring us closer to different realities. There are those who take refuge in them to pass the mourning and those who seek in its pages the way to escape from what they are experiencing, the fun. The Interlibri Association of Granada is aware of the power of reading and has pursued a mission since 2010, the year in which it was founded: “to make literature, philosophy, the word present in places where it is more necessary than ever, places of marginalization, social exclusion, abuse, diseasebecause it is here that our profession carries out its true function ».
This was explained by Juan Mata, president of the association in a report by Page two 2018. A year later, the Entrelibros Association won the National Prize for the Promotion of Reading. At its premiere, A country to read focuses on how reading can help overcome illness.
Reading, a “medicine”
“People who have been lucky enough to benefit from Entrelibros work, especially those of us who have been in the hospital, in a gray room for a long time … In general, there is everything around the disease, all around death. The meds, the doctor … ‘How are you? How are you not? What happened to you? ‘”Explains a woman.” And suddenly a person comes along who is light, with smiles, with joy, with colors, and he reads you something that has nothing to do with what you are going on. From that day on, it can be, and it can be true, let the light enter the gray room and the colors start to appear and the improvement begins, “he says.
He is not the only person who has found reading to help when it comes to overcoming an illness. Share your experience even a man facing the agoraphobia: “He helped me to save the mountain. Come on, I was looking forward to the next session with the association. He helped me like medicine“.
“In my case it was a girl. I was 13,” recalls one young man. “I had nervous anorexia and I was in a stage where I could only hear the voice in my mind. I have seen other people, especially healthcare workers, as my enemies. The way of reading the books was one of the few moments in which the mind left me calm and found some peace in all that struggle “, he explains, some testimonies that support the idea of Andrea Villarubia, vice president of the Entrelibros Association:” The experience is that, after reading, people can feeling good physically and emotionally“.
