Despite an under-developed state of the national book distribution system, readers in cities do have a decent choice when it comes to buying or renting a book. There are bookstores, bookfairs, and libraries (city and district ones; recently even some private libraries started appearing). After all, there is always something to read on the Internet. In the country one faces a completely different situation. A library here is perhaps the only access to the world of books. So, the culture of reading in a particular village depends largely on the librarian. If they are a caring, inspired person, the library becomes a real cultural center, a creative workshop, in which the villagers would meet. It seems that this kind of energetic librarians is abundant near Ostroh. Recently, the “Ostroh area reads!” project has started in order to promote reading, in which an automobile rally across the area was organized.
Before the action the organizers held a “book parade,” which presented the best books of contemporary Ukrainian authors that had been added to the fund of five rural libraries. Librarians impersonated “living installations,” which demonstrated that anyone can read: be it an adult or a child, a doctor, a housewife, an athlete etc. Then the column of cars departed from the Ostroh raion library (the workers of which became the main organizers) to the surrounding villages of Rozvazh, Khoriv, Brodivske, and Ozhenyn. Within the rally there were several performances: a book and sports installation “Pump up the brain – read!”; flash mobs “Khoriv likes to read” and “Reading unites”; a “Book hospital” and a “Literary cafe.” “The people we met watched the proceedings with a great interest – it is definitely not something they had seen before,” says Larysa Laptieva, rural librarian and deputy head of the youth section of the Ukrainian Library Association, who participated in the rally. “It’s nice that there were many children waiting for us in the villages. I am convinced that the books of contemporary writers which we have brought to local libraries won’t be a dead weight.” The action was supported by Rivne regional branch of Ukrainian Library Association.
