Jose Alberto Gutierrez’s life would never be the same again after finding a copy of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy in the garbage 20 years ago. It happened while he was driving his garbage truck through wealthier neighborhoods at night and seeing deserted books. It sparked his desire to start rescuing books from the garbage. He took home between 50 and 60 books every morning after his nine-hour shift. Eventually, he turned his book collection into a community library.
Colombia’s capital city of Bogota has 13 million residents and 19 public libraries. However, these libraries tend to be far away from where rural and poorer communities live. The option of buying new books is non-existent for families struggling to make ends meet. Having access to a library of books and being taken away to another world while immersed in a book is a luxury for the kids who visit Gutierrez’s library.
Gutierrez grew up poor, and his family could not afford to educate him beyond primary school. Nevertheless, his mother was a keen reader and read stories to him every night. Her love for books left a deep impression on Gutierrez, who never let a lack of formal education stop him from reading classics by the likes of Victor Hugo, Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Today, his community library, called “The Strength of Words”, occupies most of his home and is piled from floor to ceiling with fiction and non-fiction titles. Everything from school textbooks to story books can be found in his collection of more than 20,000 books!
The Strength of Words library opens every weekend. It is not just school-going children who are enjoying the benefits of The Strength of Words library. Adults are also welcome to expand their horizons and develop new skills to build a better life for themselves.
Despite having done so much for his community, Gutierrez is not yet content to call it a day. He continues to search through bins for reading material and has even travelled to book fairs in Mexico and Chile to sell his idea of building library from unwanted books.
【小题1】What inspired Gutierrez to build the community library?| A．Famous novelists he liked very much. |
| B．The dilemma he faced on the night shift. |
| C．Abandoned books he came across at work. |
| D．The hobby he has taken up since childhood. |
| A．Gutierrez’s mother was a good reader. |
| B．Gutierrez was greatly influenced by his mother. |
| C．Gutierrez led a difficult life during his childhood. |
| D．Gutierrez had a disadvantage of poor education. |
| A．Responsible and ambitious. | B．Humble and thoughtful. |
| C．Committed and sensitive. | D．Creative and courageous. |
| A．A book holds a house of gold. |
| B．Constant dropping wears the stone. |
| C．Good things come to those who wait. |
| D．One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. |
