A Treasure at Home

The home library might seem like a burdensome fad from the past, especially now that books are produced with digital rather than paper formats. Libraries are now going virtual in the cloud rather than physically in our homes. It certainly makes moving easy and we can practice minimalistic living. Nevertheless, the advantages of a traditional home library outweigh those of a digital library.

The government of Sharjah campaigns for families to have a home library due to their emphasis on the education and development of their people. Every year, they hold the biggest international book fair in the UAE, which is visited by the whole population. The streets of the Buhairah Corniche become clogged and parking near the venue becomes elusive.

Amazon was a breath of fresh air in terms of the availability of books outside North America. In the early 2000s, it was considered a luxury to have the latest books delivered to your door through Amazon. Yet now online shopping is ubiquitous making the desirable physical books available almost everywhere. 

In those parts of the world where public libraries are rare or are for just show, there is little recourse but to purchase books to read. This is even more so when our subjects of interest are not very popular. It is rare to find Islamic books in English, not tainted with orientalism or popular Western bias, in the public library. We also struggle to find books on history, Islamization of the sciences, self-development from an Islamic perspective, etc. A home library should have books of interest to all members of the family.

In a home where a physical library exists, the likelihood that family members taking advantage of it is more than if they know that a digital library exists in the cloud somewhere. This is especially true if there is a culture of self-education in their parents. The home library can be better utilized if there are restrictions on digital distractions that most homes have, e.g. TV, movies, video games, social media, smartphones, etc.