Why I Reached Out To This Book Aficionado In Albania

Let’s begin with a LinkedIn post that landed in my news feed. 

This is where I was introduced to Ardita M Gjeçi who hails from Albania, a small mountainous country along Southeastern Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. Nestled in the city of Lezhë, Ardita has amassed over 4,000 books as a part of her library collection. 

In addition to being a voracious reader, she refers to herself as a problem solver. Ardita is also pursuing a Doctorate of Business Administration from the Swiss School of Business and Management which she is on target to complete in 2022.

“Great Books Great Minds” recently interviewed Ardita about her vast interest in books and her voluminous library at home. Here’s what she had to share: 

A little about your life and how you developed a lifelong obsession with books. 

I was born in a very small village in northern Albania but was fortunate enough to be raised in a very big family from both my mom’s and my dad’s side. So I was lucky enough to have a few book obsessed people in my family from the time I was very young. 

My mom and two of my uncles were also very talented writers and initially, I followed in their footsteps. By the age of 16, I had two small poetry and prose collections published.

That’s neat that you had so many early influences? 

For sure. One fond memory I have from when I was growing up is that my mom would regularly visit the bookshops with us to buy new books. When I was “old enough” she just dropped the habit and passed it over to me.

How did you come to acquire such a vast library of books?

I became so attached to books that I would always discuss them with her. I wanted to make sure that our family library would be inherited by me and was willing to exchange everything I had for them. 

What books have had the greatest influence on your life? 

Perhaps the book that impacted me the most was the Van Gogh biography. It is exceptionally well-written and I was so young when I read it. I found myself profoundly shocked and moved by it. Through that book, I learned and experienced how humans struggle with themselves and with the world. I discovered how they hope to be understood through art and how it often resulted in the shocking and sad end of such talented people. 

Can you share a bit more about the significance of this experience? 

After a while of reading biographies, I was also having the feeling that if you are talented and very attached to your form of art or expression, you will somehow end in suicide. I remember being one of the reasons I quietly moved away from poetry at the time. I do laugh at this reason now, but as a teenager, reading how these people ended their life or lived in such dark places, put me in a position that I wished to be somewhere in between, and of course avoid that “path” entirely. 

Are there any other writers that you are particularly connected to? 

I also have a bond with two north Albanian writers: Migjeni and Martin Camaj. Migjeni died very young but left behind powerful books of poetry and prose. Martin Camaj was an extremely elegant and hermetic poet and writer, who left behind whole great works for the reader. 

You have mentioned having 4000+ books on your shelves at home. Can you share a bit about the significance of this for you?

First of all, it started with my mom before I took home the collection at around 14 years old. Let me say there is nothing exceptional about this, truly. Some like to buy shoes (even if they never wear them), and some like to purchase books (even those that never read). But books are a part of you and your way of being - and in my case, it is the only thing I like to surround myself with. 

Can you share a bit more about the significance of your book collection? 

There was a huge fuss about the positivity of having these huge libraries at home (the “antilibrary” term from the author and thinker Nassim Taleb - for unread books - became also very famous during that time). But one does not need to think about all of that. The belief that you can match your thoughts and ideas with a book just right across your living room is beyond everything. 

What are your reading habits like?

Books are something that can challenge, motivate, and satisfy you all the time. I have piles of books on my bed, on my desk, on my sofa - I know they are waiting for me and I am somehow always looking for something else to discover. Or let’s just put it this way —- It’s the only habit that I never regret spending my money on. 

So you have become quite the reader and book collector?

Yes, but there is a downside to this though for which I have some stories. When I was a student in Milan, I kept acquiring books faster than I thought. So when I had to move back to Albania, we put all my books in my father’s car. When we turned the car on to drive, the car would not move. You can imagine, how heavy those books were. So, we had to make two trips from Milan to Tirana! 

[Laughter] 

My library is also deeply hated by moving people. It so happens that I have had to move a few times and when I finally bought my own apartment, they swore that the next time I had to move my books, they were going to burn all of them. I do sympathize with them! Whoever thinks books and the knowledge they bear aren’t heavy should try buying more of them! 

What is your favorite bookstore in Albania and why? 

I mostly buy online lately or at airports. But I do have sweet memories of Adrion Bookshop, in the very center of Tirana. I was studying at “Harry Fultz” high school at the time, and they had a good collection of foreign books that you could not find elsewhere. I used to save my lunch money so that I could buy books from them. And because it would take a while to save the right amount, I remember spending so much time going through their shelves until deciding which book to buy each time. It opened a world to me at the time!

Are there any other bookstores come to mind? 

I also had this small bookshop in my neighborhood and the lady, the owner, would always give me the books even though I might have been like 1$ or 1.5$ short. Considering the prices of books in Albania at the time, that amount might have been her entire earnings for the book. But she would always make sure I got my book every other Friday, on my way home from school.

How has the pandemic and the lockdown impacted your reading interests and habits? 

The pandemic put me in a position where I ended up being the only breadwinner for my family, as our family business and my office completely shut down. The only thing going on was my remote job. The pressure was so high and I was under a huge amount of stress until I decided that this was a great time to learn more about leadership and how to face change. 

Sounds like you are making the most of challenging times. 

Yes, it has been an amazing gift of having a huge library. As a result of my trips there, I have already collected more than 100 books on these topics. So I started cross-reading them in order to decide where the ideas overlap. I am also interested in what these authors commonly agree is a must in life in terms of overcoming obstacles, difficulties, and achieving good and desired results for themselves and their families. 

I also started sharing them on Linkedin or created a few audio presentations for some of them, under these two hashtags: #booksagainstcoronavirus or #bookoftheweekend  

Are there any books you are hoping to read before the end of 2020? 

I am looking forward to completing “Couples That Work” by Jennifer Petriglieri; “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell, and “Who Rules The World ” by Noam Chomsky.