In January 2013, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation published a list of 100 books* recommended for independent reading by schoolchildren. And on March 15, a presentation of the 100+ project took place at the St. Petersburg House of Writers, according to which it is worth expanding the list of already recommended books and including works of classical and modern foreign literature. Writer Mykola Kryshchuk shares his thoughts on this (good) initiative.
“The idea of creating a list of 100 books for young people immediately confused me, I must say. Even outraged. No, it probably made me laugh. It was so far from my idea of reading and how a person (a young man, a child) chooses a book and gives himself to it, that I was at a loss. And here is the decision (even recommendatory) of the highest authorities and experts that I do not understand? The matter is intimate, like a kiss for firewood. It’s more intimate than that. More intimate than a gift. No, I do not know. All this did not cross my mind. Harm, maybe not. But it won’t help, that’s for sure.
The choice of a book, I repeat, is akin to the choice in love. A man loves a woman, and a woman loves a man, not for virtues that are obvious to others. Love is when you are needed for nothing and loved for nothing. That is, for something, of course, but for the uninitiated it will always be a mystery. Not without reason, under some New Testament frescoes, it was written in Latin: “Go away uninitiated, here is a holy place of love.”
As a child, I quite quickly and without sadness parted with Jules Verne and Walter Scott, who were read by my peers. But on the other hand, V. Yan’s novels about Batu and Genghis Khan were always at hand, I read Anatoly Vinogradov’s book “The Condemnation of Paganini” three times in a row, and also secretly from the parents of all Maupassant. And not only his erotic novels and stories, but also the philosophical story “On the Water”. From the general intoxicating reading there were, of course, The Three Musketeers. But Thor Heyerdahl’s “Journey to the Kon-Tiki” did not work. It makes no sense to explain this by the merits or demerits of books. It was a personal choice, which was influenced, perhaps, by someone’s random review or recommendation of a person I valued, or even simply by the properties of my character – today I could not explain this either. Whether I read anything from the teacher’s list of recommendations that was given to us for the summer, I don’t know; in any case, nothing remained in my memory.
And so I stayed for some time at a loss from the “100 Books” action, when I unexpectedly received a very authoritative person as an ally. Encyclopedias lists Henry Miller as one of the greatest American writers of the 1951th century. This is despite the fact that the sexual saturation of his prose significantly exceeds the boundaries of the generally accepted. In any case, I did not expect this support from him. And she came to me, imagine, from the distant XNUMX. It was then that the essay “Books in my life” was published. It turned out that this singer of bohemia and tramps is a gambling, sensitive and grateful reader. It is likely that educational actions like ours take place from time to time in any country, otherwise how can one explain the amazing relevance of at least these lines: “I think that those who claim that the foundation of knowledge, or culture, or whatever it is, there are bound to be those classics that are on every list of “best” books… In my opinion, each person should build their own foundation. The essence of individuality is that it is unique. … The great works selected by the professors represent their choice … It may also happen that we, if we are left to our own devices, will eventually accept their point of view. However, there is no surer way to fail such an opportunity than to publish lists of selected books – the so-called foundations.
I so agree with everything that Miller says about the choice of books that I have only one desire now – to quote him endlessly. Most valuable of all is that seriousness, that almost sublime tone in which the author speaks of this as one of the most important and mysterious events in a person’s life. But I hope that some of you will want to read this book yourself, and therefore I will limit myself to one more extract: “Of everything that is incomprehensible in life, the most mysterious is what we call influences. …Obviously, we are not at the mercy of any influence. But we do not always know what forces and factors influence us in this or that period of our life. Some people are not able to know themselves or determine the motives of their behavior. In fact, most people. Others have such a clear, such a clear understanding of their fate that they do not seem to need to choose: they themselves create the influences necessary to achieve their goals. … We are entering a strange area here. I decided to introduce such an element that is so difficult to understand, for the reason that when it comes to books, as well as friends, lovers, adventures, discoveries, everything is extremely confused. … He can read Plutarch’s “Biographies” or “Fifteen Decisive Battles in World History” because his adored aunt shoved them under his nose. He may not read them if he hates his aunt. How is it that out of a thousand titles that fall into the field of view even in early childhood, someone unconditionally leans towards one author, and someone else? The books that a person reads are determined by what kind of person he is.
* You can see the list of 100 recommended books at http://knig100.spbu.ru/