Reading Russians
When I was growing up I had a hard-bound collection of collected works of L. N. Tolstoy on my bookshelf. They were bought by my mom, I think. At the time I did not care enough to read those books, something that later I regretted. The books, much like the rest of my home library, have been lost in the war. Many years later, once I was done with my MS and finally had more time for leisure reading, I started working on a reading list of books that I absolutely have to read. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov" had occupied the top two spots on the list. They are voluminous works that require many hours of dedicated reading attention, so although they were high on my list I had never been too quick to start reading them. The main reason, however, was not the length of those books. The main reason was that because those books were written in Russian I felt that a Croatian translation would do them much more justice than an English one. The language that these authors used was not too complicated, and almost any good translation into most of World languages would probably have done them justice. So over the years I had been tempted to abandon my desire for a Croatian translation. The temptation was particularly strong when I got my Kindle. The prospect of reading thick Russian books on a very slim and cool device was almost too strong, but in the end I had resisted the urge. Finally this winter during my trip to Croatia I made a concerted effort to track down "War and Peace" and "Brothers Karamazov." This turned out to be a much more challenging task than I had thought. The book selection in Croatian bookstore is rather paltry. Most of the bookstores are the size of café area at Borders of Barnes & Noble, so their offerings are severely restricted. Additionally, books in Croatia are extremely expensive, with even the simplest paperbacks selling for more than $25. Consequently, in a country where the purchasing power is well below that of the US, very few people buy books and bookstores are forced to sell mostly books that appeal to the widest possible audience. So, many classics of literature are out. For those one has to go to a specialty used-book store, which have become somewhat of a cultural icon in Zagreb. I didn't want get a used edition of the books I was looking for. I am a bit of a new-book snob, and besides if I had waited so long to read one of those books I wanted it to be a completely enjoyable experience.
Eventually, my search for "War and Peace" bore fruit. I found a deluxe hard-bound edition that was marked down from $100 to $14. I couldn't believe my luck – this was practically a steal! Unfortunately, I was not as lucky with "Brothers Karamazov." I'll probably have to use a more refined tactics to get it, maybe even tracking down publishers and seeing if they can help me with it. For now, though, I am happily reading travails of Pierre Bezukhov and other Russian nobility in the early decades of the 19th century. That ought to keep me busy for a while.