(“bibliomania” in the eyes of The Day readers)

There was a joke in the 60s. A policeman is looking at the notice “A book is the best gift” and quips aloud: “I've already got this gift.” The reaction of a contemporary of ours (at least a Kyivan) to this slogan of “the most well-read country in the world” is no longer as proverbial. But still, some of those who agreed to answer the question “Do you gift books?” spoke about an entirely new attitude to a gift and to a book, without smirking, bursting into laughter, or getting off with the same catch phrase.

Nina YAHOLNYTSKA, 25, student at the painting department:

“I still keep to this principle, although for many of my acquaintances whose tastes and predilections I know quite well, a book is not a gift but almost a mockery. However, this does not apply to children: they can now see a lot of colorful gift-bound publications, the very cost of which wins over parents; they develop in kids not so much an interest in the text as the sensation of a book as a quality thing, also as far as the artist's impressions are concerned.”

Oleh VASYLCHUK, beginning author:

“I collect ‘presentation copies:' they are cheap and autographed as well. Books from good writers were once marked with an ex-libris , but I have not yet reached this stage. But I have managed to pick up some turn-of-the- century rarities at second-hand book stalls — this is also ‘the gift of time.' But I could only give a book like this perhaps to a very beautiful and intelligent lady who would appreciate the special sign of attention. And I will, of course, be presenting with pleasure the books I hope to write.”

Olha MYKOLAYIVNA, advert agency employee:

“I only give books to the closest of people, with due account of their wishes. I cannot afford to do this for myself: some time ago I did not get back some books I had lent out, and now I cannot make up for this loss in my personal library, for there are almost no second-hand book stores left in Kyiv.”

Valentyn PETROVYCH, informatics teacher at a school:

“I refrain from such gifts: I do not give out books and have tactfully hinted to my friends about my unwillingness to be presented with any. As they put it, ‘eternal companions' are already on the shelf, while various vogue kitsch is not worth keeping. Or we can do this, as a Chekhov character did, ‘on a round-robin basis.' In this case, I borrow books or read them on the Internet. I recently read Sorokin's Blue Fat this way and also learned some piquant circumstances of publishing this book on the web-site. I think many books will be published like this, conveniently and compactly, in the future, for there is too little space in our small apartments.”

“Oleh SYDOR-HIBELINDA, art critic:

“Earlier, when books were relatively cheap, I would buy two copies at a time of Russian Silver- Age philosophy, poetry and prose. This was a good custom. At that time, even players on the TV quiz show “What, where, when?” enthusiastically made stakes on collections of nice books, not on money. I have been buying books much more seldom lately, I usually use the old stock. I recently drank with an artist who opened a studio of his own, and I presented him with a book — he looked so happy. It is a very rare occasion to be given a gift that ‘hit the nail on the head.' Yet, sometimes this happens. For example, I was once given a pre-revolutionary edition of Euripides: its spirit of time takes your breath away, so you don't even feel the need to restore the book.”

Sofia MILOROVA, cinema scholar:

“Now the status of a book has changed completely. You can no longer get off with a two-hryvnia booklet. This gift must be an outstanding event, for both an adult and a child. Not all can stand this test of quality, price, author's style, or the expediency of publication. On the other hand, a true love for books should be taught. The book ceases to be pure information, a household decoration, or the indicator of an intellectual level or a circle of interests; it becomes an individual, rather than a mass-scale, phenomenon, for what is known as ‘pulp' is not a book but a variety of leisure which has nothing to do with a gift.”

EDITOR'S NOTE

We remind you, dear readers, that we await your letters with reflections on books and modern literature, including Ukrainian, on your favorite publications and the authors who remain all your lifetime, on strange and miraculous stories connected with books and reading. Please mark the envelope with “The world of reading.”