Reading Required

All the books of Polish classics stayed in my family house. And now I‘ve just realised that I don’t have even an inch of Master Thaddeus with me. Somehow I just can’t read such pieces of literature via the Internet. 

I’d rather hold a book in my hand - touch it, smell it and celebrate the moment of reading. Hey, this may be a perfect opportunity to take care of my personal library! Excellent!

I set out on the prowl of Adam Mickiewicz’s works letting myself into a Saturday feverish shopping jungle. It is hard to call the high-street bookstores any other way since they’ve become places where it is easier to buy a cappuccino, brownie or a guidebook that tells you how to deal with a kid while cooking than a piece of the big-L literature. I haven’t realized, though, until now that it would take a miracle to get Adam’s works. Just to make it clear - the action takes place in the centre of Warsaw – Poland’s capital, the heart of cultural and night life, a theatre-land and the Mecca of Polish artists. Oh boy!

Firstly, I entered a three or four-storey high-street shop where you can buy or order “everything that can be associated with culture”.

In vain I looked for Adam, scanning the bookstore’s shelves tagged “Polish Literature(!)”. What I found instead was thick and weighty tomes of scripted top Polish TV series, such as “L for Love”[Pol. “M jak Miłość”], 

or confessions and biographies of Polish celebrities – yum-yum! And so Adam wasn’t there. Not to mention 

a shelve with Lithuanian literature...

I came up to the information desk, without a complaint I waited for hours for someone to appear, and finally when I could ask “Where can I find Mickiewicz’s works?”, I heard, “Have to check it... uuuuuhm... please go to the >>Required Reading for School << section. Please turn left here, then turn right and then go straight ahead and turn left again when you reach the “Fantasy” section. This will be next to the shelf with computer games”.

“Well. O.K.”, I thought.

Off I went.

I turned and veered and circled around – I felt like a weirdo in a maze. But the perspective of buying Grażyna or The Forefathers’ Eve was so tempting that I was ready to take all the turns anyway. Phew, I reached the destination shelf in the rhythm of “Last Christmas” hit – always and forever played in the shops between December and January...

There is a massive number of books on the “Required...” shelf, including “Harry Potter” (to my surprise without a summary or literary analysis added! Pure text!). I look for “M” – and here it is! Master Thaddeus – a beautiful edition, wonderfully illustrated, 3 kg or so. I think to myself “I will buy it for my godson”, but... it turns out to be in Kashubian. In Polish, though,.. what words should I use... “the number you’re trying to reach is currently unavailable”.

Another edition of Master... only as a literary analysis and a “light” version that only consists of some sample essays. Yet I would like to buy The Complete Works of Mickiewicz or anything alike, with no essays or 20-sentence-middle-school statements in it... Didn’t get it. Too bad.

I went then to another branch of the shop. Wise enough, I decided to go straight to the info desk.

“Hello. Where can I find Mickiewicz’s works?”. A polite info-guy responded that he would search the system in a minute. Again I waited. And waited.

“Adam?” he asked!!! I might be a little of an ignorant, but the surname “Mickiewicz” as it is, to me always goes with “Adam”: the poet regarded as one of Poland’s “Three Bards”, an artist and sometimes a philosopher. Anyway, “YES, ADAM!”

“Alrighty then, ...by Mickiewicz, Adam – we have only Grandma’s Favourite Poems, Good Night Poems and Master Thaddeus with literary analysis for school”. Disaster. Absolute disgrace. But perhaps Mickiewicz wrote poems for his grandma. Who knows? I had to go and see. Unfortunately, it turned out it was a thin booklet with colourful illustrations and poems of selected top Polish poets associated with poetry for children mainly. The last pages belonged to a poem that juniors should be familiar with, the one about those who were “eating, drinking and smoking pipes” [Refers to Adam Mickiewicz’s ballad “Pani Twardowska” (“Mrs Twardowska”].

Another two visits in other branches of the high-street bookstore turned out to be another disaster. So there were only two options left: a vintage shop or online purchase. Gosh, why can’t I buy an ordinarily published work of Mickiewicz, with no frills? Quite a few professors in this country owe this classic poet their academic carriers!!!

I was heading towards the bus stop, blankly gaping at the window displays flashing with “50% discounts for everything uglier, new collection very expensive”, when I saw a CHEAP BOOK WAREHOUSE. I walked in dispassionately and asked for Mickiewicz. Fortunately, the assistant didn’t ask if I meant Adam, Tadeusz or another “Kovalsky”, but pointed to the shelf where I could find cheap editions of a COMPLETE COLLECTION of Mickiewicz’s works, with no frills, hardbacked. Nay, the same story with Żeromski, Słowacki and Prus... also some excerpts from Herbert’s works! None of the books exceeded the magic limit of 15 zloty! It means that culture in this shop is affordable for a  Polish teacher! Hooray!

I bought three books and it felt awesome. I haven’t felt like that for a very long time. However, I cannot understand why I had to struggle so hard to buy some Polish classical literature. Does it make any sense? Or maybe it is only me who doesn’t have these books at home, because everybody has already bought them? Who knows...