For the second time on World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, books are taking to the road to find new readers around the country. This thrilling initiative belongs to the website Az cheta (I am reading) and the bookcrossing community in Bulgaria. With the help of publishers, citizens’ organizations, cultural centres but most of all of enthusiasts, they will turn urban spaces into open-air libraries. Last year’s initiative had more than 800 traveling books traversing the country to end up in the hands of all kinds of people. What are the initiatives planned for this year – the answer from Milena Zlatarova, editor of the “I am reading”

“This year we are launching our first competition for children’s drawings on the occasion of April 21, International BookCrossing Day and we are really excited. This is the date on which an American website was launched that gave the start to bookcrossing. Our idea is to provoke children to get to know the world traveling books literary movement and to draw their idea of a traveling book. The deadline for sending the drawings is 24 April. The campaign itself kicks off on 23 April when, with the help of volunteers and I hope a great many bookcrossing enthusiasts, we shall “set free” no less than 300 books in different parts of Sofia. We are hoping to see other towns join in as well. We are grateful for our partnership with the Bulgarian Library and Information Association which has spread our message to the regional libraries around Bulgaria. They too are thrilled with the idea and we hope the event will spread beyond Sofia to other towns.”

BookCrossing is a world literary movement, born in USA in 2001. At present it has over one million followers the world over and, in recent years, has been gaining in popularity in this country as well. Milena is a musician by profession but books are her hobby and she has been a dedicated bookcrosser since 2003.

“The idea of bookcrossing is to leave books in a public place where they can easily be found like parks, urban spaces or public transport vehicles,” Milena says. “There are also what are known as designated bookcrossing zones, usually cafes and restaurants or cultural centres, which are open to traveling books and which become a free library of sorts. People leave books there to be picked up and read by others, who then do the same.”

The road traveled by each book can be traced on bookcrossing.com where it is registered using a special code. New Zealand and Australia are the farthest destinations from which books have traveled to reach Milena here in Bulgaria.

English version: Milena Daynova