March 14 at 11 a.m. Members of the book lovers' club "Knyginyčia" gathered again at the Regional Documents and Local History Department of the Anykščiai L. and S. Didžiuliai Public Library to chat and share their news about books.
The club was joined by new members: Alma Valantinienė, Arūnas Maulius, Angelė Baltušienė, Violeta Stasiūnienė, Alfredas Motiejūnas, Aidas Deveikis and Dalina Rupinskienė. Introducing herself to the club's friends, Dalina admitted that she learned to read very early. She tried to read when she was four years old. Since her parents were teachers and passed on their love of books to Dalina, she instilled the love of books in her children. The journalist has accumulated several thousand books in her home.
All club members brought two autographed books from their personal libraries to the meeting and shared their thoughts – why those books are important to them, what event or person they remind them of, why they brought those books and wanted to tell about them. V. Stasiūnienė presented the book „Klemensas Kairys. Lost Sounds of Poetry“ with the autograph of A. Baranauskas Prize laureate Skirmantas Valentas and a collection of Dalia Saukaitytė’s poetry and recited a poem by this poet, which she remembers in both happy and sad moments.
Local historian Artūras Šajevičius told about his family's rich library. He brought two books from the treasury of his great-grandparents, the Klimčickas family, to the club "Knyginyčia", published in the middle of the 19th century. The author of one of the books presented by Artūras is the famous Polish writer, historian Juozap Ignotas Kraševskis (1812–1887). According to A. Šajevičius, the writer JI Kraševskis is little known in our country and is not properly appreciated, although he created not only fiction, but also wrote historical monographs about Vilnius and Lithuania.
Former wrestler, military man, local historian, and famous Anykstėna resident Romas Pačinskas spoke vividly about the books he read in his childhood. Romas brought to show the members of the „Knyginyčia“ club a book about wrestlers by Remigijus Naužemis „Ąžuolų giria“ (1996), which mentions the first sporting achievements of the native and is decorated with autographs not only of the Lithuanian military figure, brigadier general, wrestler Česlovas Jezerskas, but also of other famous Lithuanian athletes.
Photographer Alfredas Motiejūnas brought autographed albums of photographers Romualdas Rakauskas and Rimantas Dichavičius to the club and told about his friendship with these wonderful creators. Doctor A. Baltušienė was delighted with the cheerful poems of the local poet Linas Bitvinskas and showed his autographed book "Mažosios istorijos" (2021). Local historian and museum worker Raimondas Guobis did not bring any autographed books to the meeting, but he took out the "New Testament" from his briefcase for those gathered, which he never parted with, and quoted a few verses from the Holy Scriptures.
It is very gratifying that the well-known LRT journalist Alma Valantinienė came to the meeting of the book lovers' club members and joined the ranks of the club members. The journalist brought from her home the book "Alma" (2007) compiled by Inga Liutkevičienė, which she received as a gift from Alma Adamkienė, the wife of President Valdas Adamkus, with the inscription: "To Alma from Alma". D. Rupinskienė brought to show the audience the film novel "Kinds" (2021) by prose writer Bronius Bušma, with autographs of many actors who played in the series "Kinds". Genovaitė Ražanienė, Romalda Bražėnienė and other participants in the meeting also spoke about the books they brought.
For almost three hours, club members talked about the books in their homes, remembered the books they read as children, told about the personal libraries they had accumulated at home, and worried about how they would be preserved so that they would not be destroyed.
All members of the club "Knyginyčia" are united by a great love for books.
Audronė BEREZAUSKIENė and Birutė VENTERAITIENė
