From Physical Shelves to Digital Archives: How Books Can Inspire and Foster Connections

A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with my mom. While we talked about how things were doing, she mentioned that my nephew, Juan Diego, who is 12 years old, wanted to borrow one of the books that I left in my house in Venezuela. When I moved to Canada, I could not fit all my books in my luggage, so I decided to leave them on the bookshelves. I didn’t have much choice. Some books were big and heavy. I thought that I would be able to find them online if I need them, and I also left them feeling that one day, one of my nieces or nephews would grow up and benefit from them. I still recalled that Programming in Turbo Pascal by Luis Joyanes Aguilar, was a gift from my dad. Although I don’t have the exact number, I remembered, It was a three-level bookshelf packed, and I couldn’t squeeze anything else in. I used to buy new and used books from the local bookstores in Barquisimeto, my hometown, but my favourite place to buy books was a street market downtown adjacent to a square called “La Moneda,” the “Coin” in English. In “La Moneda,” There were all kinds of books, from novels by Gabriel García Márquez to non-fiction science and technology books.

When I started learning computer programming, I begin to accumulate a vast number of books. The Turbo Pascal book was a heavy one. It was already outdated at the time. Colleges were replacing the Pascal programming courses with Java programming, but the chapters on programming logic could still be helpful. This book taught me many things, including variables, arrays, and If/else statements at the age of 13. Many things I learned from this book helped me learn more complex subjects later in my career. Pascal was the first programming language that I learned. Even today, I see myself using some of the techniques and foundations I acquired through these books.

Some weeks passed after that chat with my mom, and in another call with my mom, she mentioned that Juan Diego, my nephew, told her that he wants to study computer science and be an engineer. He has been checking out the books since then.

Things have changed in Venezuela. I was curious to know if the book’s street market was still there. So I asked a friend of mine. This friend told me that the market still existed. He is a lawyer and is currently working in the same area, downtown Barquisimeto. He frequently visits the market for law and business-related books.