Banning a book is pointless now: Bond

It’s pointless banning a book in today’s day and age when everything is easily available at the click of a mouse. A ban, instead, hypes up even a not-so-worthy book for readers, said noted writer Ruskin Bond.

“It has become difficult to ban any form of literature now, thanks to the easily access to the internet,” the 79-year-old told said, in an interview at the Cambridge Bookstore, here where he visits every Saturday to sign books and interact with readers. Bond was commenting on the controversial withdrawal of the US scholar Wendy Doniger’s book ‘The Hindus:

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HE PROUDLY ADMITS HE WOULD ALWAYS PREFER THE SMELL OF BOOKS OVER THE SWIFTNESS OF THE INTERNET

Alternative History’ that was taken off the market in February by its publishers (Penguin) following pressures from various groups.

“Sometimes, it also gives undue importance to the book,” the plump, bespectacled and ruddy-complexioned Bond, who will turn 80 in May and still has a fair amount of silver hair on his head, said. “Personally I think Doniger’s book did not deserve all the fuss. It wasn’t doing particularly well, but after this controversy, more people wanted to read the book,” the Padma Bhushan recipient pointed out.

Even though the raconteur understands the importance of the internet, he is unapologetic about being “technologically illiterate”, and proudly admits he would always prefer the smell of books over the swiftness of the web. “A book is something you can keep. It is something you can possess for years,” said the writer, who penned his first novel ‘The Room on the Roof ’, when he was 17.

“People like building their own libraries and these books will always be there. Other forms of entertainment will come along with it,” he added.