SOFIA LIBRARY’S ANNUAL READING CAMPAIGN HAS BEGUN
Sofia Library’s “Green Libraries” summer campaign is one of the most recognisable and creative ways of encouraging reading in the nation’s capital, attracting young audiences and new readership every year. The initiative, now in its eleventh year, includes Green Libraries in the Parks of Sofia, and the Library in the Mountain, with the map of campaign locations expanding every year. Today, the green trails from the Central Library in Slaveykov Square lead to 18 parks around the city, including Vitosha National Park with its network of seven Book Houses. Vazrazhdane Park and Studentski Park were included in 2024 alongside smaller neighbourhood parks. This year Gerena Park in Poduyane has been added to the trails, where the Library’s Bibliobus has already been visiting for two years.
The Green Libraries campaign has attracted nearly 95,000 visitors since it began ten years ago, resulting in 16,000 new library registrations, and 6,000 books being donated through the Take, Read, Return initiative.
This year’s campaign will begin in Geo Milev Park on 2 August at 10.30 with artists Victoria Beshliyska and Ivan Landzhev, poets Boyko Lambovski and Violeta Kuneva, the winner of the Sofia schools Young Metaphor poetry championship Silvia Alexieva, Singer Georgi Arsov, the Palavi Noti vocal group, and a theatre workshop led by Iren Krivoshieva from the Essence Academy of Art. Other participating artists and creatives in the campaign include Mirela Ivanova, Anzhela Dimcheva, Ivan Hristov, Kristin Dimitrova, Georgi Gavrilov, Ninko Kirilov, Ivan Borodzhiev, Eli RAdanova, Ventsi Drenikov, Alek Kirev, Kiril Koev, and Petar Chuhov.
This year’s campaign will include meetings with poets, exhibitions and live music. There will be STEM games for children and students, sessions on programming and 3D pens, and a workshop making Korean national Hanbok costumes. The Library Bibliobus will travel around the city with its loan collection of over 1500 classic titles and contemporary bestsellers.
Campaign dates and locations are as follows (From 10.00 to 14.00)
- 08 (Saturday) – Geo MIlev Park
- 08 (Sunday) – West Park
- 08 (Saturday) – Zaimov Park
- 08 (Sunday) – Holy Trinity Park
- 08 (Saturday) – South Park
- 08 (Sunday) – Gerena Park
- 08 (Saturday) – North Park
- 08 (Sunday) – Borisova Garden
- 08 (Saturday) – Sofia Zoo
- 08 (Sunday) – Vitosha Nature Reserve – Aleko Hizha
- 09 (Saturday) – Ovcha Kupel Park
- 09 (Sunday) – Vazrazhdane Park
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Every year, well-known authors and creative personalities take part in the campaign to encourage books, reading, literary heritage and cultural causes. This year Sofia Library welcomes the support of Victoria Beshliyska (Sofia Library Writer of the Year 2024), Ivan Landzhev (most read poet at Sofia Library in 2022 and 2023), and Zheni Aleksandrova-Lecheva (children’s author, actress and singer), to meet with audiences and give out signed editions of their books.
- The popular book-sharing initiative, “Take, Read, Return” will be part of the pop-up libraries. Visitors will be able to donate a title from their own personal book collection and pick up another in exchange. Bulgarian publishing houses have donated hundreds of new books as part of this initiative. There will also be books and colouring books for children and free reader’s cards.
- There will be travelling exhibitions of books, photographs and documents from Sofia Library’s collection. Kiril Hristov, the Returned Exile (funded by the National Fund for Culture) will document the writer’s creative journey with photos, cartoons, and testimonies by his contemporaries. There will also be exhibitions focused on the history of the capital: Greater Sofia, From the Parks of Sofia – Past and Present, and With Greetings from Sofia – Postcards from the Capital from the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries. Finally, Birds of America will showcase reproductions from the iconic 1827 book by John James Audobon, and Zoo will display the library’s collection of rare zoology books.
- The children’s art programme will feature the Palavi Noti music group, a theatre workshop led by Iren Krivoshieva from the Essence Academy of Art, the Dream Team dance sports club, and clowns and entertainers leading activities, games and art workshops.
- Local history quizzes and competitions with book vouchers and signed books as prizes.