Estonian Folklore book Eesti Rahva Ennemuistsed Jutud by FR Kreutzwald
I love libraries. They hold secret worlds hidden on dusty shelves and inside plain brown or green covers. In high school I would ditch school and go to the library where I would read, read, and read: animal husbandry, history, novels. I would check out as many books as I could carry and then inhale ideas I understood and many I couldn’t quite grasp.
I wander the stacks at the University of Tartu library (raamatukogu) and I can’t even comprehend the titles, let alone the books. I want to inhale the ideas of Estonia like I once inhaled books in English. These Estonian (eesti) books keep their secrets from me. The raamatukogu has books in English, but I want to be able to read all the books in the library (I know it’s a fantasy).
Photo of Estonian fiction shelf in University of Tartu Library
Instead I pull books off the shelves and try to comprehend the table of contents, flip through the books looking at images, or just look at the book design as if these pieces of the book could in any way represent all the amazing ideas within the covers.
Instead I struggle to read Kadri — an Estonian young adult classic by Silvia Rannamaa first published in 1959. And of course I study the magic key: Estonian.
I hope one day to be able to at least be able to easily read the table of contents of all these mysterious books.
1 Comment
Tala Waterdragon · February 10, 2023 at 7:22 am
I am so grateful you are sharing your experience in Estonia with all – I enjoy your every post and all your pictures – it is an honor and a joy to see and feel what you are experiencing… ah, I wish I could tell you how lovely, thoughtful, and illuminating to me that your journey is, but I don’t have the words. Know I love you and I am so glad you are living your life to the fullest and growing from your challenges. I love libraries too. 🙂 Blessed be, Cyndi xoxo
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