Coming on the heels of the anti-casino archive, this could be the coolest story ever. From Radio Free Europe:
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has called on the city’s gambling halls to eventually be turned into libraries.
“More than 2,000 gaming halls were opened in a short time in Moscow and we are now actively closing them down. Let’s make book clubs out of gambling centers,” AFP quoted the mayor as saying today in a statement.
The measure is seen as part of an effort to increase falling reading rates among Muscovites. A city official today cited statistics that show that half of the city’s residents do not purchase books, 40 percent don’t read books at all, and 60 do not subscribe to any publication, AFP reported.
Under legislation passed last year, thousands of Russian casinos and gaming halls are to be shut down and moved to four special zones in different parts of the country, all outside cities.
Gambling venues will begin closing this summer and continue through to 2009.
Moscow Mayor Plans To Replace Casinos With Libraries – RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
This might be the best idea I’ve ever heard. It would be good to get Russian reading rates up.
There’s just one problem–you don’t want people to go cold turkey from casinos to reading rooms. As a trained professional, I suggest that each of these 2000 gambling halls buy 100 or so copies of a single book for their patrons to read.
Like I said, we don’t want anyone going into gambling withdrawal or anything, so the book should be about gambling. It should be about 600 pages, so the new recreational readers have a sense of accomplishment when they finish it. And, even though this is in Russia, I think the book should be available in English.
I can think of only one that fits the bill: Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling.
The book has been out for a few months now, but I’ve still got to promote it, you know.