Book Giveaway Campaign: The winners share their thoughts

As part of the Human Rightivism project, months ago we launched the book giveaway campaign. This campaign was conducted with a series of questions where online users had to answer those questions and the answer with the most likes would be chosen as a winner. For 6 weeks, we posted questions related to human rights and the environment. The aim of this campaign was to educate and challenge young people on two fundamental issues of society by providing new knowledge and information.

This online campaign reached more than 25,000 online users. We managed to select 7 winners to whom we sent the books in order to raise awareness on the benefits of reading. For more on this, read our article.

Anyhow, the campaign didn’t stop here. Rather, the winners were willing to share their personal thoughts on the books.

One of the winners, Donarta Uka shared her impressions of Ray Bradbury’s book “451 Fahrenheit”.

“I was amazed at how this book makes you think about the future in a completely different way. Makes you realize the importance of the book and how we would be lost without it. Sometimes it even seems scary to me, how the author’s image for the future has a resemblance to our world today.”

She further added some comments to the author as well.

“Ray Bradbury has written this book in the most impressive and sharp way, where through an image from his imagination he shows us how the world would be deficient without books. I do not believe that anyone could better represent our situation than Ray Bradbury. “

Era Bytyqi, on the other hand through this book, made a connection between the will to read and the society in which we live.

“Fantastic book, with a very current and meaningful message. A book that is read with one breath! The events, the characters, the message make for themselves immediately. The way the author chose to address this message to the reader is interesting. A book that makes you stop and to think about the fast and unconscious lives of our society, the great will to stand out from the others but the small will to read! ” she said.

Meanwhile, another winner, Fitore Ismaili had her own comments on the same book.

“Initially, the book was to some extent similar to the book “Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. In both of these novels, books are burned and not allowed to be read by others. One of his quotes that has impressed me quite well and that I think sums up almost the whole book: “You do not need to burn books to destroy a culture. You just make people stop reading, “, and we know that when people stop reading, they stop thinking.”

Era Thaqi, another winner, told us more about the importance of reading and what reading means to her.

“Reading is very important for a healthy mind. It helps us to develop our intelligence, to see the world with a different vision, since every time we read, our mind is enriched with knowledge. Reading enables us to develop our creativity, because we are in control, how we present the characters, the time, and the place.
Through books, we are one step ahead with new information. We can develop critical thinking, be more fluent in conversations, and create our own arguments. It enables us to perceive different phenomena with a different perspective. It gives us a new vision, new ideas and we feel more fulfilled spiritually and mentally! ”

On the other hand, regarding another book titled: “We should all be feminists” by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the winner Kaltrina Rrafshi, wanted to share some thoughts as well.

“Gender does not matter in a job, because the will and sacrifices to achieve what we want are above all. As a message, I got that even though you are a woman it does not mean that you can not do what you want. When you look ahead and do not hear the rumors that others say, success is close. Believing in yourself is one of the traits you need to have to embark on a path where it reaches its end as you wish. The author has done her best and has managed to translate this book of hers into several languages ??and read it in several countries.”

// This campaign is part of the Environmental activities, which is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) through its Human Rightivism Program.