Avetik Isahakyan Library, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia

By Zarchka

A few days ago I visited the Avetik Isahakyan library on Amiryan Street. I have been using this library for many years now and incidentally, this is the only library that I like in Yerevan as I find the approach of the staff to be wonderful. They always greet you with a smile and are willing to help you in your search for a book. Moreover, it always amazes me how they know all the names and authors of these books by heart and can even recommend what you should read. I often wonder if they have read all those books?

Unlike the State library, one doesn’t have to pay any subscription fee at this library, and they let people take books home for 15 days or sometimes for up to a month. Of course, conditions could be better, but they do their best I think. Sometimes the books are tattered because they’re too old, but we can always fix them while reading, can’t we? On the other hand, I agree that the library system needs reform as well.

While choosing a book I overheard a conversation between two librarians, one of which had just started working at the library. The newly employed librarian said that she had initially though that youth in Armenia didn’t read books. Having worked for several days at the library she now believed that they did. I couldn’t help break into the conversation to say that I was very glad to hear that. I knew that as well, especially as sometimes I have to stand in a queue for 30 minutes, particularly during examination time.

This time I chose Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, and believe that reading always contributes to expanding our horizons and our beliefs. There’s also always something for everyone so If you don’t like history you can read Quentin Durward by Walter Scott, for example, or anything by Shakespeare. You might even gain more information by doing so, and is anyway more interesting than just reading history.

Read Dreiser if you want to become acquainted with An American Tragedy, the life of Sister Carrie, or Jenny Gerhard who threw down the gauntlet to life and tried to survive in that world. Or if you are fond of detective stories you should try Edgar Poe, or maybe you’d prefer Decameron where you can discover the unscrupulous lives that nuns, priests and monks concealed under their loose habits.

I can continue naming a long list of books worth reading from which you can always take some treasure out of. After all, we will never manage to see the whole world, especially in different eras. And for those that say, “The hell I need that past, I live in the present,” they will be right in a way, but never forget that the past is the basis on which we build our Future. Some of you might ask why I haven’t mentioned any Armenian writer.

Is it because they’re not worth reading being they’re not as famous as those from abroad? Not at all.

Armenian literature can even be more penetrative, more interesting, more educational, and more valuable. It could be more well known abroad, but it is not because we never promoted it. We can be thankful, however, that at least Grigor Narekatsi and his Book of Prayer (or Book of Lamentation) are famous after all. It is a timeless book of prayers created as an edifice, a unique work of confession, prayer, praise and worship in which his vision of self-discipline, perfection, commitment, dedication, values, and order is articulated.

In old times this book was also believed to cure the sick if they put it under their pillows at night.

I really sorry that the Diaspora is not able to read Armenian writers such as Abovyan, Patkanyan, Proshyan, Sundukyan, Raffi, or Paronyan simply because they won’t understand 70 percent of what is written and there are very few translations of these books available. Perhaps this is our tragedy. As long as we talk different dialects we can never be united and we continue to argue about which dialect is proper. The Western Armenian spoken and thought in the Diaspora, or that which is spoken and thought in Armenia.

This breeds a confusion and resembles a tug of war. Unfortunately, literature is one of the main areas that falls prey to it. That’s not fair, especially as there is some reason to believe that this division is artificial and created for some purpose.

Anyway, I would really advise those who know Armenian to make an attempt to read Paronyan’s Metsapativ Muratskanner (High Honored Beggars- I hope this translation is correct, even though I don’t know whether it s been translated into English or not) at least. Once someone said to me, “Everyone in this country has the mentally of thieves and beggars.” Unfortunately, that is about right and so, this book is worth reading. Hatci Khndir (The Problem of Bread) by Proshyan is also another book I recommend.

It tells the story of a village with corrupted politicians, who always have an axe to grind and throw innocent people into prison.

While reading we can built up a multi-faceted pictures of our own inner self by drawing our attention to different aspects of our own mind and thoughts. After all, these real and self-created aspects of our own inner thoughts and mind are complementary and exist to help us constitute a multidimensional awareness of ourselves.