114 Of the Best-Selling Books That Might Make A Great Addition To Your Library

First of all, we were desperately curious to know how one becomes an editor and what qualities are needed for the job, since reading books as a profession seems like a dream job to us! So this is what Audronė answered—“I don’t really have a definite answer to the first part of the question—it’s usually some coincidence or a chance that takes you on one or another path of life. You might’ve been planning to do something else entirely, but once the time comes, the alternatives are pretty limited… That’s the grim part of life.”

“Mine seems to be the optimistic one: the unfathomable, indescribable, intoxicating ways of the Lithuanian language have had their grip on me since I was a schoolgirl. At the time, I worked on a project that I made up myself—I was secretly writing down how my father talked, his usage of language, and the phraseologies that he had for seemingly every minutia of life. It was beyond intriguing to me! Once I completed my project, I won a national contest with it, which granted me a summer in the most prestigious camp of the time.”

Dear readers, be sure to note that Audronė was attending school during the years of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. To win a contest with a project based on the Lithuanian language was relatively unheard of at the time since national languages were basically non-existent. 

“The next leg of my journey seemed pretty clear—studies at a university. However, it has only supplied me with a basic knowledge of historical grammar (a fascinating way to learn about your language!), lexicology, grammar, syntax, stylistics, language culture… It’s a deep ocean of knowledge that’s so worthy of diving into, but in reality, it takes years upon years to master keeping yourself on its surface. A few lucky ones have the chance to work alongside a well-versed editor; that’s the fastest way to learn to swim by yourself.”

“Language, any language, is an ever-changing matter, continuously shapeshifting and forming new outlooks for researchers; that’s exactly why, like any other professional, an editor should always be learning and deepening their knowledge.” And as for the needed qualities—“You have to have infallible patience as more often than not, you are spending your days with ‘disease-ridden’ texts. You have to be quite unbendable, and at the same time, flexible when dealing with the author’s ambitions. A vital part is to understand the text’s individuality and discern its value, even if at first sight it seems lacking. Nonetheless, if you enjoy what you are doing, these hardships aren’t that hard at all.”

Since Audronė has read an incomprehensible amount of books, we wanted to know her opinion on these bestsellers and what makes them so. This is what she had to share: “If we’re not talking about the Bible, Madame Bovary, or Crime And Punishment, but rather about ‘the beauties of the day,’ then I have to admit this—I’m not really charmed by bestsellers and rather suspicious about them. It’s most often that books become bestsellers not because of their high value or depth of thoughts, but because they cater to the taste of the masses, resonating with their need of the time—it could be a historical story, a romance, or even a book heavily peppered with eroticism… I think that it isn’t a mammoth task for a talented writer to cook up a bestseller—all you have to do is find out what’s the hottest social (not cultural) topic governing the masses, and then think of a comprehensible structure to be filled with a crafty mish-mash catering to the audience’s needs. However, I have to say that I see a significant change in readers; it seems that more and more truly valuable books reach the top positions, not some one-day hits to be forgotten tomorrow, especially various translations of foreign authors.”

Every job has its profession-related ills, so we wanted to know what those are if you’re an editor. After all, we all read books mostly for pleasure, but what if it’s your job? “Probably the most unpleasant ‘ill’ is that you cannot just simply read any book (not even a cookbook, or instructions to assemble IKEA furniture)—you are constantly editing everything that you read, especially so if the language used is flawed in some way.”

“There’s also another ‘disease’ that I’m constantly battling with—once I take up a new book, I get absorbed in it from the moment I wake up to the moment it’s time to put it down. Unsolved problems, unfinished edits, and doubts seem to creep up on you at the most unexpected time… So, the time for reading a book ‘for pleasure’ is a limited one - only when you are taking a break from the one that you’re working on.” 

Naturally, we were very curious about what Audronė would choose as her book to take to an uninhabited island with her, and the answer, well… wasn’t exactly a surprise—“Undoubtedly, the Bible. If I could, I’d also take a volume of poetry with me, most likely one that’s written by Marina Tsvetaeva.”

So that’s it, folks! We thank Audronė Kairienė for so kindly sharing her insights with us and shedding light on the work of an editor. Hopefully, you’ve learned something new; we sure did!