On December 12, under the sponsorship of Ucom, the “Bookinist 90” celebration and the “Book Awards 2022” took place in Yerevan’s “Aram Khachatryan” concert hall.
This year marks the 90th anniversary of the “Bookinist” bookstore operating at 20, Mashtots street, which is a unique and important event in the country’s cultural life. During these years, having gone through all the difficulties, the bookstore not only did not exit the market, but also played an important role in the formation and development of generations.
“We thought that there are few cultural or business entities in Armenia that from the very beginning, from the day of their foundation until now, still operate within the same profile, perform the same work. In our case, it is Mashtots 20 bookstore, which was established in 1932 and operates to this day, currently on a wider scale. In Soviet times, we worked there on 75 square meters, now we have more than 350 square meters. There used to be 4 employees, now 20 people work in that facility, while in general, “Bookinist” LLC began its activity in 1997 with just 4 people, now 110 employees work in Bookinist”, said Khachik Vardanyan, director of Bookinist.
During the award ceremony, 7 nominations were awarded (“The Most Wanted Fiction Book of the Year”, “Non-fiction Book”, “Children’s Book”, “Armenian Author”, “Foreign Armenian Author”, “Children’s Book”, “Publishing House”) and one special award: “The Best Reader”, which, by the way, was awarded to Karen Gasparyan, the head of the Information Security department at Ucom, for the regular acquisition of a large volume of professional and fiction literature throughout the entire year.
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Gagik Arzumanyan, the strategic development director at Ucom, said: “I think that in modern Armenia, there must be a few institutions of a kind, which have passed the test of time and delight the Armenian public with their dedication for nine decades already. On behalf of the “bookworm” staff and subscribers of Ucom, I congratulate the “Zangak” publishing house for presenting the “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” to the Armenian reader in Armenian and for getting mass approval of the work done”.
The criteria for identifying the winners were simple and unbiased. The authors of the best-selling books of the year took home the statuettes. In order to be unbiased, Bookinist withdrew the books of own publication from the competition and included them only in the nominations related to the authors, because in those cases the prizes were not awarded to the publisher, but rather to the writer.
The award ceremony was interspersed with concert performances. Yerevan State Chamber Choir, pianist Lilit Artemyan, singer Tatyana Hmayakyan and violinist Polina Sharafyan performed.
The celebration became full-fledged when the composer Robert Amirkhanyan took the stage and congratulated the “Bookinist” on the 90th anniversary, performing his landmark creation “My dream, my fatherland.”
