No More Excuses - Books in Bulgarian Available for Rental in the UK

A while ago I read a rather shocking article in a Bulgarian newspaper - the Bulgarian buys on average 1/2 a book a year. Simple mathematics means that two people share 1 book for a year. And they manage to read it! Well, congratulations to the well educated Bulgarian nation, which finds time to go out and drink, go to the gym, go to (or pretend to) work and all those daily routine activities that make up our lives. But for books, somehow, the average individual doesn't have money or time.

Well, this article is entirely for all those of you who study, work, or both in the UK. The excuses that 1)There are only English books here. I study/talk/work enough in English and I just want a Bulgarian book but I have nowhere to get one from; 2)Well, I have so much luggage and EasyJet just allows 20kg, so if we add up the rakia, the lukanka, the lutenica, etc...well I literally don't have space for books or 3)I don't have money to eat, yet alone spend for books are no longer valid. The first online library in the UK is a fact and now the only excuse you have for not reading is that you simply DON'T WANT TO.

A little bit about Knigoteka. I found out about it from our favorite website Facebook (God bless you, Mark). The terms and conditions are more than simple. You register on knigoteka-bg.com, providing your name, e-mail address, telephone and valid address for correspondance. Knigoteka, on the other hand, promises not to use your personal data for anything else, but to deliver your book. You can order up to two books a month. If you order one the price is 6 pounds, for two - 10 pounds. All postage expenses are handled by Knigoteka. When you register you give a deposit of 10 pounds, which is returned to you right after you mail back the first book/books, of course in good condition and on time.

If you are such a passionate reader, you may as well pay for a year subscription. In that case you pay 100  pounds and you can again borrow up to two books. Once you return them (no deadline here) you can borrow two more and so on. It gets better. With the books you get a free envelope and free stamps, together with an address where you must return the book/books within 1 month.

I have skimmed through the library and it looks pretty good. You can basically choose from almost all genres and authors. I expect that the authors of the site will keep updating the available books if business goes well. And this depends only on you, guys!

I find this initiative positive and inspiring. Personally, I won't be using it because as a passionate reader most of my luggage when I fly to Manchester is full of books. Whenever I feel like I may be out of something to read, my mum sends a package and the drama is over. Of course, I have an enormous library at the university, but I always connect it to studying and textbooks, so I rarely borrow books from there. Call me weird, but I just want to know that the book doesn't come from the same place I spend day and night during exam period.

So now, what is your excuse for not reading? 10 pounds for 2 books is too much? Come on, speaking in UK terms, it is 1/3 bottle JD, two packs of cigarettes, one good dinner at Nando's, 2-3 drinks in Tiger-Tiger or Birdcage, 2 waterpipes and two teas over at the Arabs, 10 Tesco pizza's, 3 menus from the Arab shop next door...Are you still advocating you can't really sacrifice any of these for 2 books a month?

Just for the sake of it, I hope this inspires some people to at least check it out. Maybe think about it and spare 10 pounds to order 2 books. If you are wondering on which ones, I am always there to help and give advice. Just tell me when to stop talking because when I start, I just do not feel the boundary, when I begin boring my company to death.

Read, people, just read!
www.knigoteka-bg.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/KNIGOTEKA-BG/124396167580826

PS: Even Paris Hilton reads. Or at least it seems so.