A mobile library with hundreds of books is visiting three Plovdiv parks this month with an eye on May 24. It was symbolically brought on a retro motorcycle and is always accompanied by conversations about favorite books.
Mothers read excerpts from books to their children, and when the little ones want, they can also exercise outdoors – books and sports go hand in hand.
“Sports and culture at the same time in the park. Here we do various workouts for young and old, which are accessible and open to everyone“, points out Rumyana Kirizieva from “Satellite – ES“, organizer of the mobile library.
Young and old reading enthusiasts can exchange books with the mobile library or with other readers in the park.
“We have brought over 400 books, and the number is kept the same, even growing, because people come prepared. They arrive since the morning, bring books – take new ones, leave theirs, talk to each other, say: “Oh, I haven't read this book, I'll take it. Give me this one“, says Rumyana Kirizieva.
Among the fans of the mobile library in the park is also 5-year-old Kaloyan, writes bTV.
“He really loves fairy tales. Bulgarian ones mostly, but now we are on the topic of Bulgarian literature mostly. We are very interested in historical figures“, says Zoya Molova, the child's mother.
Reading books is a fun and now forgotten hobby, the organizers comment.
“It's true. I also have a teenager who is starting to read less and less. When he was little, he even read more. Actually, the problem, in my opinion, here is - we very often comment that the new generation is going lower and lower. I think the problem is cultural. We are all used to phones, with those quick 15 seconds that provide us with all the information. We don't have the patience, we don't have the imagination to read. So the way we hope that more children, and adults, will read is that we are here with them, part of their daily lives, and not their duties, because we very often command the children: “Go, take it and start reading!“. The idea is for them to do it with fun, with desire“, says Rumyana Kirizieva.
The idea is that the mobile library will restore the fascination of reading books and prevent imagination from being stunted by excessive digitalization.