Wondering how many books I’ve read in Greek.

I arrived in Greece in August 1998 and couldn’t read newspaper headlines. Because I’ve always been a book addict I’d hang around the second-hand stores in Thisseio and browse and buy books I’d not read very soon. One of the first Greek books that I bought on Greek soil was Lily Zografou’s novel Profession: Whore. [ΛΙΛΗ ΖΩΓΡΑΦΟΥ ΕΠΑΓΓΕΛΜΑ: ΠΟΡΝΗ] It’s actually signed by the author. But it’s also signed by, I assume, it’s very first reader: Glyfada (Athens neighbourhood), 4 June, 1982. I can’t tell the name of that first reader.

Anyway: there on the first page is the author’s “Warning” [ΠΡΟΕΙΔΟΠΟΙΗΣΗ].

Δεν πουλώ ύφος, στυλ, λογοτεχνία. Δεν γράφω διηγήματα. Καταθέτω γεγονότα και συμπτώματα της εποχής που ζω. Όλα όσα γράφω συνέβησαν. Σε μένα ή σε άλλους.

Which means:

I don’t sell attitude, style, literature. I don’t write stories. I record the events and symptoms of the time. Everything that I write, has happened. To me or to others.

I never read past that. I will.