Imagining a future

A space for books, paintings, wine and….ideas? A possible new concept for Sofia – European City of Culture?

As well as conducting my usual haunts of galleries and bookshops here in Sofia, I’m looking at property – and feel that any flat has to be large enough to take my present (let alone future) stock of books and paintings. 

I found a dream flat – on the edge of a forest a mere 20 minutes’ drive (or metro) from the centre – but it’s only 70 sq metres; and does not allow the flaneur life I love in the centre of town.

And the second-hand and remaindered books whose titles appealed to me in the last few days (and now lie around the flat) speak powerfully of the importance of serendipity and conversations - eg 

• JG Ballard’s dystopian novel Kingdom Come (2006); 
• Charles Bukowski's collection of despairing poetry - War all the time (1984)  
• a book about the Anglo-Scottish borderlands between the 14^th and 16^th centuries -The Reivers; 
• Desperately seeking Paradise – journeys of a sceptical muslim (2004) by Ziauddin Sardar;
• Dinner with Persephone; travels in Greece by Patricia Storace (1996); 
• Hungarian Antal Szerb’s 1937 masterpiece Journey by Moonlight ; 
• the final (third) part of Russe-born Nobel-prize winning Elias Cannetti’s auobiography The Play of the Eyes (1986);  
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and
• The Language Wars; a History of Proper English (2011) by the improbably-named Henry Hitchings

So why not a small gallery space in the centre where I can hang the paintings, display books, offer wines and converse in whatever language......? Fine for experience - but what would I actually sell - apart from glasses of wine?? The books (eg my extensive collection of about Bulgarian painters) and paintings would not leave the shop but simply be a catalyst for conversation.....
Now that the British Council here has closed its library of books, perhaps there is a place for people to go who wish a taste of European (if not British) culture. I could add French and German books; link with the British butcher and the second-hand English bookshop here; and with cultural centres such as The Red House........Dream on.......