Residents of Estonia throw away books for which they were previously willing to stand in line | Estonia

Books have always been held in high esteem in Estonian homes, but that time has passed and Estonians are willing to get rid of books. Even from those for whom decades ago they were ready to stand in line.

In Soviet times, people were willing to go to great lengths to get their hands on some books, but now many of the volumes they so coveted become waste paper.

“Now people throw away any books, you can find all kinds of books in containers. I go to the waste collection station every week. New literature is also brought there,” Rene Noni, leader of the Raamaturinglus (Book Circulation) project, told Actual Camera.

Recently published books from which the protective film has not even been removed are also included in the book circulation. According to Noni, people often throw away Soviet-era books, and some of them are literary classics.

“The font, text and paper are of poor quality, today people don’t really want to read them. But the works of Tammsaare published in our time are pleasant to read, the distance between the lines is correct, it is much more convenient to read,” Noni stated.

Despite the fact that prices for used books are many times lower, finding a new reader is not so easy. From fiction, the series “Adventure Stories from Land and Sea”, as well as books by Astrid Lindgren, are in demand. The most popular books are all kinds of reference books and textbooks.

The repository library collects old books throughout Estonia.

“Along with Soviet literature, which, of course, is no longer so needed in homes, a lot of new literature is coming in. People read it and are happy to give the book to a new reader. This is how we get Scandinavian detective stories and excellent children’s literature. And this is what libraries are really looking forward to throughout Estonia,” said the head of the repository library, Kai Lugus.

Of the nearly 380,000 books received by the library last year, 45% of the titles received a second chance, while the rest were sent to a waste collection station.

“We really need Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, the works of George Orwell and, of course, Lindgren’s children’s books. Plus modern youth and children’s works by Estonian authors,” Lugus said.