Amor librorum nos unit or Love of books unites us

A sunny day at the beginning of September, traffic jams, L’viv seems to be quite usual. But have a look at this! People, especially students, flood the city centre. They seem to be excited. Some of them are well-off, some probably have just 3 hryvnias to pay the entrance fee, but they are still going. Ye, that’s a Book Forum in L’viv. The event that gathers and unites all sorts of people who have one thing in common – we all enjoy reading, looking though and smelling quality books.

I personally visit this book fair every year, let me explain to you why:

1) you are surrounded by many interesting books

2) you can spend as much time as you want there, and believe me it does not take less than an hour

3) people around you – are a kind of a selected audience, well, predominantly

4) that’s a place to meet friends and colleagues

However, nothing is perfect so there are a few things I’d change:

1) awful traffic jams when some authorities arrive. Come on folk, think about your voters!

2) a larger venue would be great

3) sorry, but with all my due respect I would substitute the developed in age ticket sellers and collectors with young volunteers. I do respect elderly people but when you see an angry and rude ticket collector at the entrance, it is really off-putting.  

Anyway, the 16th Book Forum which took place this year has been the largest so far. I was there three times and bought great books connected with English teaching, my thesis and of course my dear L’viv. Perhaps you’ve heard about the book “ANNO DOMINI Latin inscriptions of L’viv” (A. Sodomora, M. Dombrovs’kyi, A. Kis’). I had seen it in bookstores before, but being short on cash had not bought it. After looking through it for the third time at the forum, I did not resist the temptation to buy it. Even though you may know some Latin inscriptions of our streets, you will discover lots of new ones. This book simply makes you look up while walking.

On the whole, a book forum brings the spirit of education, self-improvement and motivation to write your own book.

I’d like to finish this podcast with the quotation of Louis A Safian, a producer: “You can't tell a book by it's movie”.

Essential vocabulary:

1. traffic jam - a long line of vehicles on a road that cannot move or can only move very slowly (to be stuck in a traffic jam)

2. to flood - to arrive or go somewhere in large numbers

3. predominantly – mostly

4. a voter - someone who has the right to vote in a political election

5. venue - a place where an organized meeting, concert etc takes place

6. elderly - used as a polite way of saying that someone is old or becoming old

7. off-putting – unattractive

8. thesis – dissertation

9. to be short on cash – no to have much cash

10. temptation - a strong desire to have or do something even though you know you should not