Ukraine has taken another step toward the European cultural space when the Kyiv-based Ye bookstore joined the BookCrossing project by launching a new shelf filled with books in foreign languages. BookCrossing boasts over 500,000 participants in more than 150 countries. Its main idea is “the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.”
Ye’s director Kateryna Fedorenko has told The Day: “We launched this BookCrossing shelf and filled it with books in Ukrainian. The BookCrossing project has been around for many years, across the world. This is mass culture that does not only belong to the younger generation. With time we noticed that Ukrainians are fond of reading books in other languages, so we decided to launch yet another BookCrossing shelf, this time filled with publications in other languages.”
The officials of foreign embassies and noted Ukrainian figures who had been invited to attend the launch ceremony brought along so many books that one shelf could not accommodate them all, so a small table was quickly set up.
Ola Hnatiuk, counselor to the Polish Ambassador to Ukraine, brought books in Polish because, despite the tremendous market demand for these books in Ukraine, market supply is clearly inadequate.
The noted Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko said: “If you know a foreign language, you are free; no one will be able to manipulate you. This exchange of books is a good idea that exists in all parts of the world. There are [BookCrossing] clubs in Europe, and this tradition dates back between thirty and forty years. In a civil society, people are joined by interest; they form hobby groups and exchange books. This is standard and widespread practice. In Ukraine this process is spontaneous. After reading an interesting book, you give it to your friend. Books must be in constant functional circulation.”
Zabuzhko believes that reading books is a very personal, private matter, whereas literature per se is a social phenomenon.
“After you read a book, you want to share it with your close and dear ones. This is the mandatory functional aspect of literature. I have brought some fifteen books to contribute to this project. Such projects are extremely important. We are still collecting leftovers from Russia’s information table. Thanks goodness, we have other sources of information, the Internet, travels — and all of this is very accessible. Our young Ukrainians now have the BookCrossing effort to help them learn other languages,” Zabuzhko told The Day.
Yurii Makarov, co-organizer of the project and editor of the journal Ukrainsky tyzhden (Ukrainian Week), stresses that BookCrossing will help Ukrainians, as well as people in other countries, learn the truth about Ukraine and the rest of the world without the aid of mediators or translators.
