The late Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram owned more than 10,000 books and journals. This we came to know when his family gave them away to the Universiti Malaya law library two weeks ago.
It took a five-tonne lorry to move them there. What a voracious reader he must have been. But are Malaysians prodigious readers as he was? Sadly, no.
A recent study by the National Library of Malaysia shows that Malaysians only read 20 books a year, a slight improvement from the 2014 record of 15 books per year.
That is pathetic for three reasons. One, our literacy rate is 95 per cent, which means almost all Malaysians can read.
Even in India, where it is not unusual to find one with two or three degrees, the literacy rate is only 80 per cent. But here is the thing.
In a 2019 survey of nations that read the most per week, India topped the table of 30 with 10 hours, 42 minutes. Thailand, our neighbour with whom we share borders to the north, was placed second, with nine hours, 24 minutes.
We must not only wonder what's happening there, but possibly copy that. Just for context, South Korea, which was placed last, managed three hours and six minutes. Malaysia missed the hours and minutes by miles.
Two, the 20-books-per-year readership isn't what it seems. The score is due to the prodigious reading record of a section of people, like the late Sri Ram. Averages aren't always the real story.
Three, in a 2019 survey by Picodi, an e-commerce firm, Malaysians emerged among the world's top spenders on books. We even beat the Philippines (ranked fourth, with seven hours, 36 minutes per week) and Indonesia (ranked 17th with six hours per week).
As it turned out, buying books isn't the same as reading them. This disregard for books must worry us into action. The Education Ministry did spring into action in 1999 with its Nilam, aka "Nadi Ilmu Amalan Membaca". Or loosely translated, reading habit is the pulse of knowledge.
The score of 15 books per year is rightly attributed to the success of the programme. If a 15-books-a-year score is a call for celebration, one can only imagine how close to being a non-reading nation Malaysia must have been before Nilam saved us.
But it appears Nilam itself needs saving. Not all schools are keen on getting their students to read non-academic books. The reason is obvious: the reluctant schools want to preserve their academic score. This is selfish for two reasons.
Firstly, they are denying the students a future they deserve. Secondly, they, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are turning Malaysia into a nation of non-readers.
Granted, reading is not an easy habit to cultivate. But it should be easier in highly literate Malaysia than in many places elsewhere.
It is not that Malaysians aren't able to read, but are unwilling to do so. They must be made to want to. Nilam was one idea that turned the unwilling non-reader into a 15-books-a-year bibliophile.
This newspaper, too, and others in the stable, have done their part in growing the reading habit. So have libraries, publishers and whatnot. What is obvious is this: we must try harder as a nation.