Contest "My book for the whole world"

The results of the photo contest "My book for the whole world" timed to the 500th anniversary of the Belarusian and East Slavic book-printing has been summed up.

More than 100 photos from 11 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa were submitted to the contest announced by Radio Belarus of the Belarusian TV and Radio Broadcasting Company. Listeners from Russia, Germany, China, Latvia, India, Egypt, Vietnam, Poland, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and also from Belarus shared their favorite books. Most of the competition photos were accompanied by comments, which also were taken into account by the jury when choosing winners. A key determinant was the Internet voting in the special section #booksgoglobal on the site of Radio Belarus.

More than 60 000 users voted in 12 rounds of the contest. The voices are arranged as follow:

• 1 place – Jaroslaw Jendzejczak (Poland) – (7 583 voices)
• 2 place – Bernd Saiser (Germany) – (7 035 voices)
• 3 place – Ditmar Wolf (Germany) – (3 470 voices)

Naum Galperovich, the chief director of radio "Belarus", noted that foreign listeners in different parts of the world had showed interest in the book and learned more about the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Belarusian and East Slavic book-printing. Many participants of the contest shared the history and tradition of book-printing in their countries in comments to the photographs, thanking Radio Belarus for the opportunity to tell the world about their favorite books.

Prizes for the winners are provided by the National Library of Belarus, which this year celebrates its 95th anniversary. Alexander Susha, the culture expert, literary critic and deputy director of the National Library of Belarus for research work and publishing, said the photo competition "My book for the whole world" was a good opportunity to see the diversity of the world literary palette. The winners will receive a facsimile edition of the most ancient Belarusian Primer, and also souvenirs for the 500th anniversary of the Belarusian book-printing.

In addition, authors of photos that received the largest number of votes on their tour will get prizes and promotional products from Radio Belarus.