1001 Books, a rare and used bookshop in Beroun, Czech Republic, carries Romani titles too
In the center of Beroun, Czech Republic, the rare and used bookshop 1001 Books (Tisíc a jedna kniha), owned by Robert Balog and run by his wife, Stanislava Miková, has been open for three years now. ROMEA TV visited them to learn more about their love of books and Miková's literary plans.
Balog’s bookstore is in its third year of success despite those in the neighborhood doubting it would survive, especially because the shop opened during the COVID-19 pandemic. “People didn’t much believe in it. I think they thought it would stay open three months, not three years. I believed in it, though,” the book dealer, who first got his start online, tells Jarmila Balážová in an interview for ROMEA TV.
“I got into this thanks to my collecting, because I had been collecting older, rarer imprints of adventure books. I worked online like that for several years until I ultimately opened a rare and used bookstore,” Balog described the start of his bookselling, for which he now plans to launch an e-shop and hold various events in the brick-and-mortar store such as exhibitions, readings, or schoolchildren’s visits.
Balog’s wife, Stanislava Miková, comes from a family with authorial “genes” – her grandfather was the famous Romani writer Andrej Giňa. She is a childcare professional and author herself who is currently completing a book of short stories called Janička.
(PHOTO: Lukáš Cirok)
“It’s a cycle of short stories about a little six-year-old girl in 1989-90 and all of the events happening in [Czechoslovak] society in those days are seen through her eyes. So she experiences different childhood worries, various games, friendship,” the author revealed.
“I’m writing it in Romani, but there will certainly also be a Czech translation,” Miková said, adding that she would like to have the book ready by year-end. The couple support each others’ literary activities.
Stanislava welcomes Robert’s plans to bring children to the bookshop to familiarize them with literature and is doing her best to establish bookstands for children in the school where she works.
