სიახლეები

პარასკევს, 20 მაისს, ამერიკელმა ავტორმა ერიკ ლიმ პროსპეროს წიგნებში თავისი ორი უახლესი წიგნი წარადგინა. The Experiment: Georgia's Forgotten Revolution 1918-1921, (რომელიც ხელმისაწვდომია ინგლისურ და ქართულ ენებზე), მოგვითხრობს პირველი ქართული რესპუბლიკის ისტორიას. მისი მეორე წიგნი Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler's Revenge - April-May 1945, რომელიც ასევე ხელმისაწვდომია ორ ენაზე, აღწერილია როგორც "უფრო ბნელ დროში", როდესაც ახალგაზრდა ქართველ მამაკაცებს არჩევანის გაკეთება მოუწიათ ნაციზმისა და სტალინიზმის ორ კოშმარს შორის. ამ ორი წიგნის შესახებ მოკლე პრეზენტაციის შემდეგ, ლიმ წაიკითხა ბაიონეტების ღამე, რასაც მოჰყვა ხალისიანი კითხვა-პასუხი აუდიტორიასთან. ლი ამჟამად არის მწერლის რეზიდენცია თბილისში, მწერალთა სახლში, სადაც მუშაობს თავის მომავალ წიგნზე ქართულ თემაზე - მოგვითხრობს 1924 წლის აგვისტოს აჯანყების ისტორიას საქართველოში ბოლშევიკური მმართველობის წინააღმდეგ. „ექსპერიმენტი“ პროსპეროს ბესტსელერთა სიაში იყო  მისი გამოცემის 2018 წლიდან.ის რამდენჯერმე დაიბეჭდა და გამოიცა ქართულად.  ინგლისური გამოცემა სრულად ამოიყიდა ინგლისელ გამომცემელთან, თუმცა პროსპეროს წიგნებმა საბედნიეროდ შეძლო ბოლო დარჩენილი ასლების საქართველოში ჩამოტანა. ორივე წიგნის ქართული გამოცემები გამოსცა გამომცემლობა ზიარიმ და თარგმნა ქეთი ქანთარიამ. გაგრძელება

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by Anthony Gardner  For the window of his bookshop, Irvine Welsh has chosen Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and William Burroughs’ The Place of Dead Roads. Terry Pratchett’s shop, Narrativia, is displaying Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves. A few doors along, Tony Parsons has shelves stacked with John le Carré and Mario Puzo. Welcome to the newest address in bookselling, Author Street.      None of these shops have a physical existence: they are part of  a recently launched website, myindependentbookshop.co.uk, on which anyone can post a selection of books they love. If another reader buys a book you recommend, a percentage of the price goes to your favourite real bookshop. Penguin Random House, who created the website, deny that it is trying to compete with Amazon – but to those who hate Amazon’s Godzilla-like dominance of the market, myindependentbookshop is a heartening salvo in the fight-back by traditional booksellers.      ‘I love the idea of this website,’ says Felicity Rubinstein, co-owner of the Notting Hill bookshop and literary agency Lutyens & Rubinstein, ‘because what they’ve identified is that Amazon and its algorithms aren’t personal – and the beauty of an independent bookstore is that it provides you with recommendations from people you trust.’      With fewer than 1,000 independent bookshops left in the UK, the success of Lutyens & Rubinst გაგრძელება

Prospero’s Bookshop and café opened its doors on the world, 17th October 1999. We were then the first English language bookshop café not only in Georgia, but the entire Caucasus region. Our purpose was to serve the local community with a full range of international literature, language teaching, and informational books in a central location. Luckily, we found a quiet courtyard at No 34 Rustaveli Avenue – which was about as good as we could get.    Our other intention was to become the first port of call for tourists, foreigners and visitors of all kinds to the Georgian capital. We would stock up-to-date guide books, maps, local newspapers, novels, have a notice board and internet café where people could meet,exchange stories and prepare for their next Caucasian adventure.    But for a good café we needed good coffee. At the time there was a shortage in Tbilisi. So not only did we begin importing our own beans, we then roasted and ground them too, actually on the premises. Prospero’s blend of coffee is still famous in Tbilisi today. Since that day we have expanded, doubling in size. We have also opened two new branches, one at Betsy’s Hotel and the other At the Exhibition Center of the National Archives on Vasha Pshavela street.   Prospero’s continues to thrive to this day – and on 17thOctober 2019 we celebrate our 20th birthday to become the longest surviving business on R გაგრძელება

Nineteen years ago The Bookseller asked for an account of our opening the first English language bookshop in the heart of the then, woolly Caucasus. Prospero's Books at 34 Rustaveli Av, Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, was born into a time of power cuts, local corruption, war across the border and very few tourists. Then our primary asset, after the books, was our generator. Reading it back now, a nervous phrase in the article stands out, 'would there be enough English speakers to keep the business going?'   When I penned those words we'd been open for 11 months. Today we are about to become 20 years old - and one of the longest running businesses on Rustaveli (the city's Oxford St).   So what allowed us to survive?   Apart from the obvious - our backbone Tamara Megrelishvili, whose managerial determination, belief and skill has been there from day one, several unforeseen factors certainly helped. First that the Georgian speakers/customers not foreigners, would form the bedrock of our business at over 50% (especially during the leaner winter months). Second that initially we became a major information source in the city, as modern Russian language publications were dwindling fast along with Russian speakers. If locals wanted to, say... start a business; travel; learn a language or computer program, or were pregnant, or just generally curious, we could help. But even when reliable internet services arrived across the country, including the remote mountain areas, still this factor never completely disappeared.   გაგრძელება