It’s not easy to select a present for a person that we love, especially if we want it to be special, to bring joy, to warm the heart and to become a precious piece of memory. If you ask for the value – ask what the smile of that person costs or ask about the feeling of the person who offers the gift when it has touched with love the beloved one. What shall we select? An expensive object or something useful? If we are parents, we will opt for whatever we think is necessary for our kid. And what should it be: a smart phone, yet another toy or a book? What about the person that shares our life, what about our parents?

Years ago, when we were kids, we were happy with the book that our parents gifted us with for our birthday or for New Year. The well-designed and illustrated book would somehow attract our attention better than the nice piece of clothing or a shiny toy. The book used to be a form of communication with the author on one hand and on the other – with our parents or the friends that we shared its content with. Toys and digital widgets like tablets tend to attract more our kids’ attention nowadays, but still the good children’s book continues to be a desired present by the little ones.

“That is correct,” says Galina Zlatareva, an author and publisher of such books. “Perhaps this is one of the main reasons why the book fair is held mid-December, right before the Christmas and New Year holidays. While looking for presents, the grownups tend to add a good book to the whole pack. This is something very nice, kept as a tradition with the Bulgarian family. I am really happy that parents buy books. What I see at the Christmas fair are people at different age selecting books for presents. About 30% of those who stop by our stands want to send a book abroad, to the grandchild, residing in a different language environment, in order for the latter to learn the Cyrillic alphabet and to keep that connection with the mother tongue. That is very nice.”

Whenever such a book is handed with lots of love and brightest wishes, the child feels the message. “This magic – you fall asleep in mommy’s hands while she has been reading your favorite book to you cannot disappear, as it is part of life,” says Zhana Ivanova, a publisher of books for spiritual and personal growth. According to her, the good book still tops the rankings in terms of presents preferred, not only among kids, but also among grownups. The latest poll in Bulgaria of most wanted Christmas presents confirms that, as the book is ranked second after the good trip. The latter helps us change the reality, while the book will take us to another world or will help us discover our own identity. Being a spiritual form of voyage, it can charge us or bring some relief from stress. Here is more from Zhana Ivanova:

“One can find the answer to a certain question, the path to success, a positive example or harmonic relations within a book. We find all those things in both common literature and the specialized editions, containing pieces of advice of doctors and experts in different areas. They all give us the key to good health, to the right rhythm of work, to good nutrition, to good sleep etc. When we are rushing into a series of everyday tasks we can’t find the time to even take a look through the window, to say nothing of a trip to the Vitosha Mountain situated nearby. That is where the magic of a good book comes – one reads a few pages in the evening and falls asleep with the feeling of valuable experience. Those few pages take us to different dimensions. The book is like a mirror of what you’ve been looking for and sometimes one can see very clearly the answer in the lines being read. Just like nice music, the good book helps you relax and find a different perspective to the issues that thrill your mind…”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev