“The Percy Jackson stories and the Canadian book of Poetry are the favorite books of my personal library” Sagar-my elder son answered as we went through Walter Benjamin’s essay -Unpacking My Library-in which the author remembers the different places, events, memories associated with acquisition of books.

Polish Film Festival-
Mississauga Central Library-
A kaleidoscope of 20th century European life and civilization

Where did you acquire the book?

What did you like about it?

What is special about it?

THE RELATIONSHIP OF OWNERSHIP

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is now recognized as one of the most important social critics of the 20th century. He was also a passionate book collector, though he spent far more than he recouped as a sometime book dealer. Alarmed at the growth of fascism in Germany, Benjamin resettled in Paris. Benjamin was attracted both to Marxism and Jewish mysticism’ his intellectually powerful friends- the Judaic scholar Gershom Scholem, the communist playwright Bertolt Brecht, the Frankfurt school philosopher Theodor Adorno –each tried to pull his into their own orbits. Scholem wanted his to emigrate to Palestine to escape the Nazis; Adorno tried to get him to New York; but Benjamin was reluctant to leave Paris and his library on which he so depended.

Sahil-Readings in Swieqi-Malta

See blog-Walks and Readings in Malta..https://prashantbhatt.com/2012/06/12/walks-and-readings-in-malta/

THE MALTESE COLLECTION

The book commemorating 75 th year of St.Edward’s College Malta is special.

It has many currents of life in this institution and the Maltese islands through the better part of the 20th century. The origins in a building which was earlier a Military hospital . The World War years when they shifted to Medina. Being from a family with military background, (my father was a doctor in the Indian Army) added to the special link. Having studied in a convent in Pune (St.Vincent’s High School) myself, made this experience of being associated with a teaching institution like St.Edward’s even more special.

The Chapel of St.Edward’s College-Malta-Christmas Eve-2010

THE EXPERIENCE OF READING

Does reading in different phases of life, with different people enrich the experience
of reading a work.

As one reader said..Reading a book for the second time, is like reading
a new work.
As we browsed through the articles of this work commemorating the 75th year of
St.Edward’s College many memories came alive.