At a time when Romania's national public library network is shrinking year after year, a mini-library created aboard a train by a young literature enthusiast keeps stories in motion, enriching the journeys of travellers along a route crossing Buzau.

'A mini-library has been installed on a train heading home, perhaps a little sooner than the final destination. A small place, yet full of stories that can continue travelling with each of us. If you pass by it, take a book, flip through it, read a few pages or carry it with you until the end of your journey. And, if you can, leave another one in its place. In a world where everything unfold rapidly, on screens, I would like us to preserve the simple joy of keeping a book close. Let's keep stories moving,' wrote the young woman who managed to bring reading aboard a train.

The mini-library was installed on a passenger train linking Buzau with Bucharest and Galati. The initiative belongs to Georgiana Gilescu, a graduate of the B.P. Hasdeu National College in Buzau. At the age of 17 she published her first poetry volume after winning a national competition, while her passion for literature led her to study Romanian and German language and literature at university. An Erasmus scholarship recipient at the University of Vienna and participant in the summer school programme of the University of Bremen, she later pursued studies in ethnology, cultural anthropology, folklore, accounting and management informatics. At 35, she launched an ambitious project for travellers passionate about books.

'I sent messages to several railway operators using the e-mail addresses listed on their websites. The only ones who responded positively were those at TFC. All congratulations should go to the people who made this small gesture possible. I think the whole process took more than half a year, especially because all communication took place by e-mail. Still, I am happy the idea finally took shape, and that is what truly matters. The train runs on the Bucharest-Buzau-Galati route. I was delighted to learn that it passes right by my parents' house, although the route was not chosen by me, but by the TFC team for logistical reasons. I call it a 'mini-library'. The greatest cost, if I can call it that, was time. The time of the people at TFC, to whom I am deeply grateful, who answered my e-mails, measured the space, sent me the dimensions, welcomed me to the depot even late in the evening after my working hours, and installed the shelf. Then there was my husband's time - he built the mini-library from chipboard, helped me carry the books - and the time of everyone who listened to me from the very first spark of the idea and encouraged me to turn it into reality,' Gilescu told AGERPRES.

Passengers can choose books from a variety of literary genres, along with magazines, during their journey, in the hope that reading will awaken their appetite for literature and make the trip feel shorter. A book read by the train window while villages, landscapes and railway stations drift past can help travellers relax and perhaps begin a lifelong relationship in which the greatest beneficiary is always the reader.

'The books gradually gathered in my home. Some were bought from second-hand bookstores, others were gifts or donations from people who no longer wanted them after reading them. I have a simple motto: 'Don't throw books away, give them to me' - and now I can also say: 'Take them to the mini-library'. Somewhere, someone needs the information you may be ready to throw away. Besides, I do not believe a book is meant to be read once and then forgotten on a shelf as a decorative object. When we give away a book, we also give away the perspective we believe in. On the train I left dictionaries, fiction and magazines. Among the better-known authors I parted with reluctantly were Haruki Murakami, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Arthur Conan Doyle, but less famous books also found their way there. The feedback has been extremely positive. Many people offered to donate books, others suggested creating a mini-library for children as well, while some encouraged me to look for newer titles, believing these would attract more readers, although personally I am more fond of older books - even if I understand their point of view,' the young woman said.

The initiative comes at a time when most passengers seek refuge in mobile phone applications or online platforms during train journeys. Some continue working on laptops, while fewer and fewer people still read books or solve crossword puzzles. Yet technology and printed books coexist in the same world, and it is up to travellers to use both for personal development, imagination and the enrichment of knowledge.

'I do not think we should feel threatened by AI, tablets, phones or laptops, nor see them as competitors to books. On the contrary, we should view them as tools that, when used wisely, can facilitate reading. Think of audiobooks, e-books, or books difficult to find physically but available in PDF format. Entire communities exist on social media - such as bookstagram groups - where books are recommended, discussed and appreciated. What matters is learning how to use these tools for our own development and continuing education. I will not pretend gadgets are not seductive or that it is difficult to slide into the comfort of endless scrolling. But in those moments when we remain trapped in scrolling for too long, I believe the simplest remedy is to put devices aside and pick up a book. In that gesture, no algorithm can fool us anymore,' the reading enthusiast stressed.

For the project's initiator, a mini-library aboard a train becomes a space where anyone can approach books without barriers, especially considering the rising costs readers face when trying to buy books or build a personal library. Public libraries remain another important option for literature lovers, places where they can certainly find stories and titles capable of opening new horizons into the endless world of dialogue with authors and fictional characters.

'If I had to recommend a top three of libraries in Bucharest, I would choose the Faculty of Letters Library - I believe simply looking at that space makes you fall in love with reading - the Central University Library and the Metropolitan Library. As for school libraries or those in Buzau, for me the library of B.P. Hasdeu National College remains a place I would return to anytime, like visiting a dear person you have not seen in a long while. Yet the first school library I ever entered was the one at School No. 16 and, although tiny, I still remember it with great affection. The Buzau County Library is already a cultural landmark: a beautiful central space, richer in books than school libraries, as is only natural, with warm staff. I have many favourite books, but the passage that impacted me most remains the one by Viktor Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning: 'Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the freedom to choose one's attitude.' It is a sentence that has always accompanied me,' Gilescu concluded.

'The project's idea is of interest both to TFC and to our passengers,' passenger railway operator Transferoviar Calatori (TFC) told AGERPRES, while representatives of the V. Voiculescu County Library said any initiative centred on books and the cultural emancipation of communities deserves praise and support.

'Romania's Cultural Consumption Barometer for 2024, published at the end of 2025, highlighted a significant reality: lack of interest is not the main reason people do not read, but rather unequal access, with reading and library visits increasingly becoming privileges of large cities. Finding a book on a train that you can read and take with you free of charge may change someone's life, awaken curiosity, alter perspectives or influence decisions,' librarian Iulia Irimia from the Buzau County Library told AGERPRES.

According to the librarians, by 2025 only 44 out of the 86 municipal, town and communal libraries in Buzau County were still functioning, while many others had been closed because of severe building degradation or staff cuts. Even a branch of the Buzau County Library in the city had already been shut down for safety reasons. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Florin Zafiu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)