Find out what book had a huge impact on the life of Mira, one of Biblionef’s volunteers
As long as I can remember stories have spread through my life. To be honest, my mother knew only one story, about an elephant named Dorica whose son was lost, and she searches for him everywhere. But my father was a tireless storyteller. Each evening, he invented another tale about a gnome called Miško who lived an interesting life in a big, mysterious forest.
Before I learned to read, I was surrounded by picture books. The best remembered ones are Hans Andersen’s fairy tales, illustrated by Vladimir Kirin. They got lost somewhere along the way but, sixty years later, I managed to find them again in a bookshop. They still retain the magic I felt all those decades ago.
Once I learned to read, I never stopped. My grandmother didn’t permit me to read long into the night, but I found a flashlight and hid below the blankets. The books, more often than not, included adventures, distant countries, the search for secrets and different horizons. From that period, I distinctly remember not being able to resist indulging in the life of the American Indians, first of all Winnetou, his sister and their tribe. My displeasure was huge when forced to visit a hairdresser whose scissors made me look much less like a dweller of the prairies.
With time, my hair has grown long again, and the list of books increased at an accelerated pace. The one which can be called ‘transformative’ I got as a present during my time at secondary school, precisely while I was trying to determine my future path in life. The title of the book was “Indija”, written by Vesna Krnpotić. The author described the country in which she lived and which she learned to love. It was probably the first non-fiction book that I couldn’t put down. She managed to depict a faraway land, unknown to me, as something understandable and intriguing. Even more important, I realised that the secrets of other worlds are worth discovering. Diverse cultures became a treasure I must seek. And so, it began. It took me a while to find out that my path in life goes through anthropology. Better still, I realised that I could study it at the university in my hometown. That I did, thanks to Miško, Winnetou and “Indija”! And I never looked back….
