Barbecue, sunny weather, walks, or maybe overdue TV series marathons and a trip with friends? What else? Forget it. There is no consent to this. Call me “Marcin Matczak of long weekends”, but I am planning to appeal to the ministers of the new government to implement (by resolution, because the president, you know) 16 hours of compulsory reading on every free day. However, before I achieve success in the political world, I am already presenting my ambitious and very unhappy minimum (reading) plan, i.e. books that may make your May weekend not the happiest ever. And don’t let the frivolous tone of the introduction fool you: the titles presented here are not only devoted to extremely important issues, but I also recommend them quite seriously, and you can also read them in the following weeks and during other long weekends. It’s really worth the risk!
Day 1: Working hard on Labor Day
No rest on Labor Day is out of the question. We get up at 6 a.m. and read. We read from dawn to dusk. About what? Of course, it’s about hard work. This is where the folk phrase that has been going (not only on bookstore shelves?) for months, or actually for years, comes to our aid. And a lot of folk stories. It started with “People’s History of Poland” by Adam Leszczyński, then there were, among others, “Boorishness” by Kacper Pobłocki, “Pańszczyzna” by Kamil Janicki and “Peasantry” by Mateusz Wyżga. And then – last year – came “Chłopki” by Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak, which sold an enormous number of copies (currently well over 200,000 copies sold).
So, during the May weekend, we read them all, and we also add the newest titles to the pile of folk stories, such as “Landscape of a Good Woman” by Carolyn Steedman (absolutely do not miss the beautiful introduction by Renata Lis!), “Chachary. Folk History of Upper Silesia” by Dariusz Zalega and “A folk history of women” by several authors (and one author). In this last book we will read, among others: about native servants, workers, sex workers and folk teachers. Zalega focuses on the marginalized and silenced history of Upper Silesia (from the Middle Ages to the Polish People’s Republic) and “gives a voice to poor peasants, exploited workers, overworked miners and rebelling women workers.” In turn, Magda Szcześniak wrote about “Landscape of a Good Woman” that it is “a unique story about advancement, whose author not only avoids class betrayal, but also pushes the framework of language to make room for herself and her mother in history.”
To complete the picture, let us add that Magda Szcześniak is the author of a great and exhaustive work (“Moved. Promotion and emotions in socialist Poland”), which is also perfect for Labor Day reading.
Day 2: Foreign travel
Flag Day of the Republic of Poland should be celebrated by reading books that take the reader to other countries and continents. But it can’t be nice and pleasant, so there are no richly illustrated travel books or tourist guides. NO. The point is to confront the reality about which – most often – we have no idea.
Here, for example, Szczeliny, an imprint of Wydawnictwo Otwarty devoted to non-fiction, comes to the rescue, and I devour subsequent volumes from Szczeliny with inherent fear and trembling. Recently, I’ve been reading, for example, “The Great Lazarus Group Heist” by Geoff White, from which I learn about a mysterious team of hackers operating (most likely) on behalf of… the North Korean authorities (yes, that’s not a mistake, North, not South). Did you know, for example, that just on one day, specifically on August 11, 2018, in just two hours and 13 minutes, hackers made 12,000 transactions and stole a total of over 11 million dollars? However, if you would prefer destinations other than North Korea during this year’s May weekend, then please, I also offer other unpleasant trips with great guides. Thus, Dominik Hejj invites you to Hungary (“How Viktor Orban programmed national identity”), Michał Lubina to Russia and China (“The Bear in the Embrace of the Dragon”), and Mateusz Mazzini to Chile after Pinochet’s rule (“The End of the Rainbow”).
To the set of uncomfortable journeys, I add two mandatory readings: “Treasures of the Earth” by Ed Conway and “Bloody Cobalt. How the blood of the Congolese fuels our everyday life” (WAB), about which Adam Hochschild, another great but disturbing author, wrote: “With With tenacity and compassion, Siddharth Kara evokes one of the world’s most dramatic divides between wealth and poverty. His reportage of how dangerous, underpaid child labor in Congo provides a mineral essential to our cell phones will break your heart.
Day 3: Natural born troublemakers
On the national holiday of May 3, I encourage you to read various works – what a novelty in this text! – disturbers of well-being, provocateurs and/or troublemakers. They are all worth reading, each of them is worth being irritated and angry at (at least from time to time).
And so, Robert Krasowski gives us “The Key to Kaczyński”, which is devoted no less than the title character to… the Polish liberal intelligentsia. The head of Czerwone i Czarne publishing house convinces us, among others: that Kaczyński was never about power. That there was no treaty or Rywinland (this is about the times before Kaczyński’s rule), but there was also no fascism or collapse of democracy (this is about Kaczyński’s rule). That the intelligentsia is the main pathology of Polish public life, and Kaczyński is the most toxic figure in this “intelligentsia republic”. Krasowski’s book calls for polemics, discussion and a more extensive conversation, which I hereby announce (soon on Gazeta.pl!).
Equally worth at least a good discussion, and probably also arguments and counterproposals, are the next titles from my troublesome set: “Kraków – city zero” by Rafał Matya (Karakter), “Traumaland. Poles in the shadow of the past” by Michał Bilewicz (Mando) or “Dług is good” by Rafał Woś (Ha!art). Especially for mentioning the last name, various pleasant surprises may await me (I know this from my own experience: I have “fans” who to this day accuse me of the pilgrimage with Woś to Licheń, described in “Wyborcza”), but I will take the risk. I would like to add that Woś’s provocative essay is recommended by, among others: Magdalena Okraska and Piotr Ikonowicz, Jan Toporowski and Grzegorz Kołodko.
Day 4: Szymborska, Barth and Gombrowicz
On May 4, we celebrate Firefighter’s Day in Poland, so it seems that the most appropriate reading for this day would be “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, in which firefighters who care about social order burn illegal books, i.e. all books that still exist. I always recommend Bradbury’s shocking dystopia to everyone, but for May 4, I would like to propose to you an exotic literary trio consisting of one Nobel laureate and two great writers (also troublemakers, of course!) who did not receive the Nobel Prize, even though they should have.
I also wanted to christen the day as Confrontation with “fat people”, because actually all the books I refer to in this section are colossi, volumes and monuments. So when it comes to the recently deceased (April 2) John Barth, first of all “Bakunowy Faktor”, which is the thickest work (or rather masterpiece) published in the cult Nike Czytelnik series (1,412 pages in two volumes). An additional difficulty: the item is currently very difficult to obtain, there is only one set on Allegro, PLN 159, and without dust jackets! The first to come across the sooner will encounter this masterpiece of postmodern literature.
Wisława Szymborska from year to year – this is the so-called the aging process – I appreciate it more and more, because it used to be different in the past. Euphemistically speaking. And today I can read virtually everything by Szymborska (I would say that it is painless, but that would contradict the idea of this text), and I use the pronoun “everything” here deliberately, because in bookstores you can currently find, among others, “All Poems” and “All Optional Readings” by Szymborska (Znak). Pages: 1650.
And finally, Master Gombrowicz, whose three-volume “Diary” I am reading once again, this time, however, in a critical study, which in practice means enriching the work with numerous footnotes, notes and annotations, text variations (!), afterword, reproductions, subject bibliography and subject matter or detailed indexes. To say that I have been waiting for a critical edition of “Dziennik” all my life is, of course, an understatement and too modest. But I agree that forcing you to read this particular edition would be a half-terrorist, half-psychopathic act on my part. And it’s not only about the number of pages, but also about the price – each volume in this edition costs, unfortunately, almost PLN 130 (cover price). Hence the act of mercy: the May reading compulsion concerns the most popular single-volume edition in recent years. Bagatela: 1004 pages that you can get for even PLN 50 (softcover).
Day 5: A break from bad reading?
Free jokes. Nothing of that. The fact that you have read several thousand printed pages full of unpleasant content in the last four days is not an excuse, let alone an admission ticket to the garden with a barbecue. Even God rested (and perhaps barbecued) only on the seventh day. Moreover, I learn from research that as many as 89 percent Poles are planning to spend, or drink away, part of their household budget on alcohol this May weekend. Moreover, almost half (49.4%) want to waste as much as 30-40% on alcohol alone. all expenses this long weekend. And, as we know, when you’re drunk, you can’t read well. And slower. And you don’t remember much.
Conclusions? I am fighting here for the health and sobriety of the entire nation. Even if the reading is dangerous and difficult. But OK, I understand that you’ve had enough. And that’s why you can celebrate the end of the May weekend with just one reading. Sad because it’s about you. About your tiredness. About your longing for a barbecue. About your problem with replacing your free days with intense and constant reading. What book is this?
Of course: “The Hate of Literature” by William Marx. Enjoy your grilling!
Grzegorz Wysocki. From December 2022 at Gazeta.pl. Previously, among others journalist and publicist of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, head of WP Opinie, publisher of the WP home page, editor of WP Książki, columnist of “Dwutygodnik” and literary critic. Author of many interviews (including Makłowicz, Chwin, Wałęsa, Urban, Spurek, Gretkowska, Twardoch, Świetlicki), a series of conversations with PiS voters and the “Diary of the Plague Times” written since the beginning of the pandemic. Twice nominated, winner of the Grand Press for Interview in 2022 (interview with Renata Lis). From 2023, in the chapter of the Łódź Literary Award. Julian Tuwim. President of the ugly book club Blade Kruki (IG: bladekruki). He compulsively reads paper books and newspapers and watches TV series. Born and raised in Kashubia, educated in Krakow, he recently left Warsaw for Łódź. FB profile:
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
