The month
of November is a month of art and literature in Istanbul. Every year in November a couple of important
international fairs take place. The most attractive one for me is the
International Istanbul Book Fair organized by TUYAP. Contemporary Istanbul and ArtIst International Istanbul Art Fair
are the two other important annual events.
And I was in Istanbul for the two weeks this November to enjoy and
attend these important fairs.
I must
admit my favorite event is the Istanbul Book Fair. Has been since I was a child. This year I had the pleasure and honor to
attend the Book Fair as a writer. Although my books have been out starting from
the year 2009, this year I attended the Book Fair as a writer for the first
time. During my childhood years, the
Istanbul Book Fair has been one of the big attractions in Istanbul every year.
This year the Fair is in its 34th
year and it is continuously expanding. I
have been told that this year 750 publishing houses attended the Book Fair. In a very tough year for Turkey and the
World, the theme for this year’s Fair was “Humor: Looking at life with a
smile.”
Looking at the
drastic events taking place in Turkey, in the World and with the latest Paris
events sometimes it is indeed almost impossible to smile. However, to be able to cope with all that is
happening, maybe humor and laughter are the most important tools that we need to
survive. The tools that we desperately need to find the power and courage to
live, to keep on going.
The Book
Fair was packed with visitors from Day 1. The first of my book signing days was
on the first day of the Fair, on November 7th, 2015. The second was on November 13th,
2015 which was the last Friday of the Book Fair. During the Book Fair, I had the chance to
meet some of the organizers of the Fair through common friends. I learned that even though about 750 thousand
people visit the Fair, only about 20 thousand pay an entrance fee. Watching the entrance gates is enough to see
that it is very true. All students and
teachers enter for free as well as many other groups. The representatives of TUYAP emphasized that
for them this Book Fair is a social responsibility event and has been since the
beginning 33 years ago.
*
Being among thousands and thousands of books for many days during the
Istanbul Book Fair, I must admit that I felt strangely peaceful. They seemed to offer the possibility of
finding all the answers that we are and have been looking for. They always seem to do that. Then again with
my last fifteen-sixteen years of working with energy techniques like Reiki and
Jyorei, following the path of listening to our heart and soul, I know that the
true answers that we are so desperately seeking come from within. Or rather from a connection with the whole, a
connection with the Source that resonates within. The answers are not exactly in the books.
Yet, the words of many authors whether in fiction or non-fiction, through the
stories that they tell, help us identify that which we find in our knowingness.
I do not know the exact number of books that I have. Probably around five thousand or maybe more.
I have never counted. They are scattered in my different libraries in about
four different locations. Many that do
not fit in the shelves are in boxes.
I feel good around books. I feel at home around books, wherever I am. I love the possibility of being carried away
and also the possibility of being carried into different moods, emotions, thoughts
and the different possible worlds of the real and the imaginary. I loved reading. Well, I still do. I spent
years reading non-stop.
For years, the books that I had were never enough. To be honest, until quite recently. Every new topic of interest brought the
desire and the need of reading about it.
I felt best in book fairs and libraries.
The amazing libraries of Cornell University in Ithaca New York still
amaze me as they used to do during my college years. I remember feeling sad for studying
engineering because there was not enough time from school to explore the
unlimited world of books at Cornell.
And to study engineering was my choice
since I just adored math since I was five or six years old.
As the years progressed, even though I could not resist the temptation
to buy new books, I found myself re-reading a selection of less than a hundred
instead of continuing to read on as I used to do. There have been times when I read books continuously
one after the other. Sometimes a book a day.
I also discovered that I am able to read fast,
not using a known reading technique, but I seemed to be able to do it. Reading
fast made it possible to keep the pace of reading. However, it started to slow
down. My interest turned into returning
to read a favorite selection. And
introducing a more carefully selected new ones rather slowly. The desire and the actual act of buying books
unfortunately have not diminished as much.
*
My pace and my choices of reading books seem to follow a strange
correlation with my questions in and about life. As my questions diminish and/or as the
answers to my questions emerge more naturally or easily from within or from
sources that seem to appear and find me, I seem to read less. I read more
slowly. I wait between books. I take my
time.
I do not judge the various phases of my own story with books during
these last 35 years. It was in fourth grade that I realized their importance for
me. The importance of having a book, reading a book, getting lost and found in
a book. It was like breathing and
without books I usually felt as if I could not.
And today in Fethiye, I feel thankful.
For having had the chance to meet with the worlds of many through books. Thankful for having had
the chance to quench that thirst. Thankful for knowing that what we need to
know seems to have a magical way of reaching us.
I now use my personal libraries more to lend books to friends, students
and clients that for myself.
What the
next step in my connection with my books will be, for now I need to wait and
see.
With love and light.
Zeynep
Affirmation of the Week:
From Louise L. Hay
“It
is my Divine right to take my own direction in life. I am safe. I am free.”
Quotes of the Week:
“Creative minds have always
been known to survive any kind of bad training.”
Anna Freud
*
“Life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows
or trying to write a masterpiece.”
Nadia Boulanger
No comments:
Post a Comment