(Day 64/122 of the experiment)
A little tired from active and completely unusual activities like dancing and singing, I decided to take a break and go to a reading club. Svetlana told me about it yesterday. Every month, club members meet and share what they have read in the past 30 days. They exchange impressions, discuss, argue, and at the end of the meeting, they choose one or two books to read before the next gathering.
I contacted the organizer of "KropRead" and asked if I could still join their group. She said that literature has no boundaries and they gladly welcome anyone interested. Tomorrow they have a discussion planned about the latest book by Max Kidruk. Of course, I signed up for the meeting and said that I was currently reading that exact book. I don't know why I lied, but now I had plans for today.
I quickly got ready and went to the bookstore to buy the book so I wouldn’t face the embarrassment of non-literary ignorance tomorrow.
Well, maybe I won’t like the club, but I’ve already taken away one huge plus from this situation—I realized how foolish I had been not to read Kidruk before. An exciting plot, intricate twists, characters, Ukrainian everyday life—this all was combined in one book.
My day ended at one-thirty in the morning with the last pages of a bestseller by a Ukrainian author.
(Day 65/122 of the experiment)
I haven’t gone to bed this late in a long time, like I did yesterday. The usual 6:30 AM felt like 3 AM today. I decided that forcing myself on my body is very harmful, so I sweetly closed my eyes for just a moment, and when I opened them, the clock showed 9:30. Ah, what wouldn’t one do for an interesting book – even your routine can be thrown off for a day.
While eating my porridge with vegetables and fish, I checked Instagram. I accidentally stumbled upon Tristan's message again. My heart jumped in my chest and my hands reached out to write something like "I love you, Tristan! You are the man of my dreams." But the remnants of my mind that hadn’t joined the feelings game stopped me. It’s not serious for two grown adults to talk about their feelings in a message! Call and say everything that’s on your mind. I closed the app and turned on some music.
The day flew by surprisingly quickly. First, I had a workout and delicious coffee, and then a vegetable salad at a restaurant with the members of “KropChit.” A diverse audience gathered, making it interesting to attend the reading club just to observe people’s reactions and their remarks about the same book.
There were women who didn’t like Kidruk’s work at all. But when they said that the best modern writer is Daria Dontsova, I stopped holding any hopes for them.
My attention was caught by Daryna – a journalist from a local newspaper. I don't know if it's because “a fisherman sees another fisherman from afar,” or her impeccable Ukrainian language touched me so much, or maybe our views on Max's book completely coincided. But she was saying things that made you think. She didn’t just linearly evaluate a specific book; she considered it in the context of modern Ukrainian literature. It was obvious that my conclusions about the work also intrigued Daryna, and she invited me to come to her editorial office and talk about literature.
The meeting of the readers from the big city ended late in the evening, so I went home, watched a comedy with Rich, and went to rest, so I could wake up according to my usual schedule tomorrow.