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Slow book

In August, 2008 at Alib.ru (russian website for second-hand books) I saw a book, that I wanted to read and could not found anywhere else. The seller, Maxim, lives in Kazan, so I asked him to send the book to Elektrostal. The package had been sent, the receipt had been scanned, but I had received no notification from post service for weeks.

In the middle of October the package returned to Maxim with «Storage time expired» message printed by my post office. The book was still wanted, and we were looking for another way to deliver it from Kazan. I asked all my friends, if any of them were going to Kazan, and some were really going. I wrote to Maxim and asked for his phone number, but his answer had been moved to Spam folder and they had not met. At this stage I transferred book price and post fee to Maxim to encourage him.

In the beginning of November Anton was going to play «What? Where? When?» to Samara, where would be some Kazan experts. I asked him to contact Maxim about the book. But now Anton’s email went to Spam, and Maxim called Tatiana just when she arrived to Samara.

Several hours later it revealed, that a friend of Tatiana would go from Kazan to Samara by night train. Maxim managed to meet him, the book reached Anton in Samara. He went to the next festival, and eventually in the middle of February, 2009 J. M. Coetzee’s «Slow man» was in my hands.
travels