Jasen Atanasov: I prefer the old, familiar books in which I feel comfortable

Co -founder of some of the first literary publications, publishers and non -governmental organizations after 1989 worked for print publications, televisions and radios as an editor, editor -in -chief, editor -in -chief and author of his own shows and rubrics. Civic activist, one of the leaders of the protests in 2013-2014.

There are four books published – « Book », « Hon », « Things », « The Wire for Drinking », which will be included in the upcoming two -volume edition of his collected works « Hey », along with the unpublished « HROBINE » and « Gen. ». He is currently working on two novels – « This is the World » and « The Knight of the Yellow Paveta », as well as on the culinary book « Our Kitchen. And Mine ». He is mostly excited by her young fig and old cat Rosha.

Why are you reading?

– The answer cannot be just one even even because of the fact that in separate periods of his life a person reads for various reasons. That and in a different way. I’ve just been in love with books since I was a child. I have been reading for four years and I have a clear memory of how at certain times my mother was tired of hanging at home, a sick nose in the second or third book of the day, and wondered how to drive me out to play with the neighborhood. In addition to the school library, I had a map for the capital, which was then housed on Gurko, I also went to her branch of Serdika, where the books of art were.

How do you choose reads?

– One book leads to another, one author to another. So the answer lies in what we like to call intertextuality. But also by intuition, of course.

What to read about on your nightstand?

– I read the day – I have all the time in the world because I don’t work at the moment, and I write at night. So specifically on my nightstand, there are no books, and my grandfather’s portrait, a thick notebook, a pencil, a pen, my favorite perfume (the scents set me up), a glass with something stronger than water, of course.

But if we accept the nightstand for a metaphor, then I am currently re -reading the noveals of Bohumil Hrabal, digging through the three -volume edition with the collected writings of Nikola Georgiev, most of which I also know well, read my « Mernerva » Men’s Men, if I have traced most texts Zen drunk by Zahari Zahariev, a truly unique poetry.

What is the last book that impressed you?

– Nothing new impressed me, and I know the good old in general. The world literature since the late 1990s – I refer to prose, is just sluggish, weak, without hum, the same applies, alas, and for the Bulgarian lately. If we take the French, the last authors who grabbed me were Syril Kolar and Philip Jian. Since then, something has been poured – yes, fictional, well -written, touched. Including authors tres a la mode.

But, of course, I am impressed with something in the 70’s, which recently came out in Bulgarian – « Avignon Quintet » by Lawrence Durel. I love his « Alexandria Quartet » and I always regretted that Durell failed to receive the Nobel Prize. But at least he lost to a serious rival – John Steinbeck.

What is your reading ritual – when, where, how much?

– When, where and as much as I can, like making love.

Ebook, audio or paper?

– Literature – be it artistic or scientific, only on paper. In my many years of work as a journalist, I have literally been predicted by electronic sources. I can’t imagine a book in audio format simply because I live, work, breathe, even bathe on music. Any music – from Brahms to Nayn Inch Neals, that is, as diverse as my literary weaknesses. So I smell of hearing with something that was not created for him? No, thank you. Ebooks – also never. I no longer tolerate screens, I hardly start the TV, some just thing left over from my longtime partner. Even the laptop screen annoys me, but there is no way.

Do you read in another language other than Bulgarian? Is there a difference in the experience? If you have a choice, what do you prefer, the original or the translation?

– I read in four to five languages. Yes, there is a difference in experience – different languages ​​speak differently. In translation or in the original – well, to be honest I do not know, often it also rests on the mood. However, maybe I prefer the translation, because as a writer I am immersed in the Bulgarian language and I want to meet the text of a colleague of a rug, so to speak.

But cluttered translations – more and more frequent, I just throw them away, and if the book is intrigued, I am looking for the original. Therefore, I have even read authorized translations into another language, as is the case with James Joyce’s « Odysseus » recreation, for which I gave myself the last pennies in the distant 1988 in Paris. We already have the magnificent translation of Iglika Vasileva into Bulgarian, but in that late social, the 17-year-old Piclo from French had to deal with the available and possible. In fact, the then -forbidden Russian authors I read in French.

What are you looking for in books – emotion, knowledge, entertainment, intellectual challenge?

– Everything. What are you looking for in every other world?

Your preferred genre?

– I prefer books and authors, not families or genres. I am equally in love with the « worthy eth » of Odyssea Elitis and in the « Report in front of El Greco » by Nikos Kazantzakis.

What is the best book you have received as a gift or recommendation?

– People do not dare to give me books because they know that my library is cosmic and I have to permanently tell it. But as a real gift, I accept my mother’s collection of books in French, collected during the stiff gray years – Proust, Apolliner, Batai, Arto, almost all of surrealism. And from my father-the first editions of everything meaningful from Bulgarian literature, published between the 60s and 90s. Not to mention the five volumes gathered by Elin Pelin, inscribed on my grandfather.

Your favorite literary character?

– An impossible answer, even because many of my favorite authors « come in » in their books and become their characters. Hemingway and « An endless holiday », for example. And Henry Miller? Bukovsky? However, mentioning Hemingway, I think of an exceptional female character – Lady Bret Ashley of « and the sun (fiesta) is rising. » No further back – Holly Golitley from Breakfast in Tiffany and Kate McLeod from Truman Capoti’s « COMPLETE Prayers ». And a man for color – Douglas Grimes from the « Night Work » of the Irwin Show. Otherwise, when they ask me this question, I answer: Godo.

Which authors do you admire the most, including poets, screenwriters, journalists?

– The crazy, the different, the extreme, which are ultimately endless.

How do you store your books?

– jealously.

What is the last book that made you laugh?

– Specifically – I don’t know, because it usually makes me laugh not the text, but the weakness or translation of a work. Then comes the annoyance. Otherwise, the sign under my laugh button says: Lyudmil Stanev.

Who wept for you?

– I am hyperemic, respectively, the roar of everything – books, movies, music. Otherwise, at every re -reading: Axel Munte’s San Michele Legend. Outside the text: The latter – and in fact, only the second – Zahari’s book because of Zahari’s fate. I also cry while I work on my new books. Because I know what I’m about to write.

The last book that disappoints you?

– Oh, they are too much to identify the latter exactly. It’s a pity for paper.

Who would you like to write the story of your life?

– Someone who is not just an author of fiction who has a sense of humor and, of course, with whom we have drunk at least a cashier of wine together. Humberto Eco, for example. And since he is gone, I’ll write it myself.

A book you failed to read until the end?

– They are still many. The last time was « My Personal Struggle » by Carl Uwe Knausgor. I am only talking about the first book.

Which classic literary work have you never read (and is uncomfortable with it)?

– They are certainly not one and two, especially given what we call a classic and what its volume is. At Prima Vista – Coker’s Canterbury Stories (but I’ve watched Pazolini’s movie several times) and Tolstoy’s « Anna Karenina ». But there is time.

Which book will you not stop reading?

– I read constantly. I prefer the old, familiar books that I feel comfortable with. Here are at least three that have already been mentioned anyway – « Legend of San Michele », « And the Sun is rising », « prayers fulfilled ».

How does your taste change in time?

– For culture, as as symbolic animals we call our residence in the world, a special split between old and new, conservative and liberal, traditional and revolutionary is characterized. Logically: Its function is to store, on the one hand, on the other – to develop, breaking. In my opinion, the taste is part of our personal, our private conservatism, so it doesn’t change much, not to say – hitch. If you are used to reading Derrida, you are unlikely to return to Schlegel. About my person, maybe I got tired of too many words outside the books and too little in them, I don’t know.

What is the most interesting thing you have learned from a book lately?

– The Hrabal Ranking of the Best Prague Pubs and their beers.