“For the 15th year. It’s time. Give a book for Christmas “, Gospodinov wrote on his personal Facebook page on the first day of the most festive winter month. Through his publication, he recalls the important campaign “Give a book for Christmas”, launched in 2007, with this text:
“We are entering in December. At the bottom of the month mesmerizing Christmas. The pre-holiday madness will be unleashed at any moment. The meek citizens of yesterday will become angry buyers. Traders are already calculating profits and rubbing their hands in satisfaction. Christmas is more and more like a huge mall, a Christmas bazaar in the National Palace of Culture, a crowded Metro, Billa… Christmas as a branch holiday for trade workers. Promotion day.
That is why I am in a hurry to announce my small personal campaign at the beginning of this month. It is not under anyone’s patronage and there is no institution behind it. It is not related to sending SMS. One in ten does not win a car or a trip for two to a Turkish resort. Not part of a promotional package. Let’s just call it “Give a book for Christmas” .
Because giving a book is a nice gesture. There is a taste and a special aesthetic in this. There is an ecology of the spirit. I do not know how to explain it. It’s not like giving away deodorant or a car.
Because the book is a very personal gift. Because you give words, you give history. And you say something through it to the person you give it to.
Because a book is a slow gift, a gift that lasts. You don’t spend it, drink it, spray it, and don’t throw away it’s empty packaging. (It’s also part of the ecology.)
And giving a book as a Christmas present is something very special. It has a retro style. Because Christmas is made from the books we read, the stories they told us. I remember very clearly the “Little Match Girl” that I received as a child and the secret tear through which I reread it. What would Christmas look like without this story? Or without the “Gifts of the Magi” by O. Henry. Or without Dickens, in which you can sink indefinitely. Or without Paul Oster’s Oggy Wren’s Christmas Story.
I present this small personal campaign to those who are already wondering how not to give the same perfume, scarf, jewelry from last year.
I hope that those who turn mainly the economic pages, the managers of banks, the heads of companies will also read it. Surprise your employees for Christmas, give them a book. Or add a book to all the office gadgets you will be handing out during the holiday.
When a society is in a long and severe crisis, it first throws away what it finds unnecessary and unnecessary. Books, and culture in general, were easily recognized as a surplus. As something that is not a necessity. It seems to me that we are slowly beginning to realize the opposite. Books and culture are essential commodities for any normal society.
I believe that if more people give each other books for Christmas, it will reduce the distraction of the holiday a bit. It will reduce the total amount of kitsch, it will mute the hysteria by one tone.
It will distinguish the celebrant from the shopper.
Because Christmas is not a promotion, but a gift and a miracle. And you can’t live without miracles. Especially today, especially here .