Saturday, August 27 2005 16:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Avid book reader President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Aug 27, 2005) had a piece of advice for parents who want to inculcate reading habits in their children.

"You should encourage the children and the students with the advice that if they give one hour a day exclusively to book reading, they will become a knowledge centre in a few years", Kalam said at the inauguration of 11th Delhi Book Fair here.

He said for others, make it a habit to give books as gifts especially to the youth. "These actions will enrich our youth and assist them in transforming our society into a knowledge society.

Aiming to share the "envious collection of books" in the Rashtrapati Bhawan with the world, he said a programme had been taken up to digitise all books in the library. "Our aim is to make the entire world share this collection.

"So far we have digitised 7,000 books totalling about five million pages and would soon make them available on the internet," he said adding he would be happy to invite the youth of the nation to spend a chosen day at Rashtrapati Bhavan library.