The question of how to go about developing, promoting and expanding interest in reading in a society like Egypt can be approached from a number of angles. But for the overall view that can provide an answer to this big question, it might be useful to address it from all of these angles. One possible angle of approach is from the perspective of the reader, that is, to try and pinpoint the reasons why the medium of reading is more appealing to some people than it is to others.  Many theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenon.  Perhaps the most convincing is the   one put forward by the famous psychologist and psychiatrist Alfred Adler, who ascribed the predisposition for reading displayed by some people to a desire for excellence and distinction.  In much the same way that some people strive for recognition in the domains of art or sports, so too others seek to make their mark by expanding the scope of their knowledge through reading. Over thirty years ago, the famous man of letters, Abbas El Aqad, one of the most prodigious readers of the twentieth century, was asked to explain how he had become enamoured of reading at a very tender age and how he had sustained this interest throughout his life.  His reply echoed Adler's theory.  El Aqad admitted that reading was for him a form of escapism, not from life, but from the confines of one life, his own. He had a hunger for more experiences and examples than one life could offer and to read was to gain access to the lessons and experiences of many other lives. In fact, reading was the key to the whole compendium of human history, with all its genius, creativity and uniqueness. Another angle of approach is to view the spread of reading as the natural result of certain educational systems and programmes.    Experience proves that some educational systems have been more successful than others in encouraging and promoting reading. Most educational systems in the Third World are based on teaching students by rote and on cramming their heads with facts. Although they are often also characterized by exceptionally long curricula, their results are disappointing when it comes to developing a love of reading and to instilling a thirst for knowledge in young people. The courses of study on offer in these countries are not designed to inspire students or to stimulate a love of learning among them.  To do so, they would have to place greater emphasis on quality and less on quantity than is presently the case.  This entails  cutting curricula down in length while enhancing  their content.  At the same time, teachers should be more concerned with whetting their students' appetite for learning than with stuffing their heads with unnecessarily long curricula.  Success in life is a function not of the amount of information stored in a person's head but on the development of that person's personality and faculties.  Hence the superiority of educational systems in certain countries, such as Japan, Germany and France, over those of most other advanced countries, let alone of developing countries, whose educational institutions are incapable of producing creative people with the motivation to learn, read and seek knowledge for its own sake. Reading can be viewed from yet another angle, namely, the connection between the role of the mass media in a given community and the reading habits of the members of that community.  It is very    important here not to fall into the trap of believing, as many now tend to do, that reading has lost its ascendency to radio and television as the medium of choice.  In fact, mass media, like television, radio and the press, can play a role in promoting reading and in winning over new converts to the delights it offers.  Conversely, they can impact negatively on people's reading habits by offering them a steady fare of vacuous entertainment which tends to numb their critical faculties rather than programmes that can stimulate a desire for knowledge and encourage them to read. In this connection, it is important to rebut the allegation that the decline of reading is a feature of today's world and that the frenetic pace of modern life leaves very little time for reading which was, until as recently as fifty years ago, the main tool by which people acquired knowledge and expanded their mental horizons.  This is a complete fallacy which can easily be disproved by pointing out that while modern mass media like radio and television have supplanted reading in many countries, the same mass media have been used in others to promote greater interest in reading.  Unfortunately, where the function of reading has been taken over by radio and television in the less developed countries, mass media play an effective role in furthering the cause of reading in the advanced countries. It is also important to note here that the more preponderant the entertainment component of the programmes presented by mass media like radio and television (soap operas, songs, films, etc.), the greater their role in depreciating reading.  By the same token, the greater their educational/cultural component, the greater their role in upgrading  reading, education and culture. A French, German or British programme on World War I or II, or about a historic, literary or artistic figure (the film "Amadeus" is a case in point) can serve as a bridge between the viewer and reading, by stimulating his interest in acquiring more    information on the subject.  This is in direct opposition to the reaction of viewers in Third World countries, whose cultural aspirations are badly served by the diet of often inane serials they are subjected to by their mass media, which are designed soley to kill time. If I have dwelt at some length on the mass media connection, it is out of a profound conviction that modern mass media, specifically radio and television, have an unlimited power to shape people's attitudes, that, in fact, they are capable of building or destroying. As we have seen, then, the question of promoting reading should be approached from the three angles we discussed.  Without in any way minimizing their pertinence, I would like to add a new angle that I feel has not been given the attention it deserves, namely, the socio-economic perspective.  When a society follows a market economy it is governed by the spirit of competition.   This generates a process of  selection, that can be described as social Darwinism.  In this context, reading and knowledge acquire enormous importance, with academic qualifications becoming factors in success and advancement and the means by which to differentiate between the average, the better and the best. Societies governed by the laws of the market and of social Darwinism are in a continuous quest for the brightest and best of their sons.  This invests culture, knowledge and reading with a vital strategic importance going beyond the realm of personal preference and natural predisposition.