Notes, miscellanies and observations gathered for the slow seasons of the year.
— BY MARIT KOVALEVA —
Folio Press · Munich · MMXXVI
ContentsA reader's almanac
A reader's almanac.
In four parts and twenty-three short chapters.
I.Of beginnings, slowly consideredA short remark on first sentences.9
Folio PressContents
— ii —
PART THE FIRST
I.
❦
Of beginnings.
Part the first of fourAlmanac · §I
— 9 —
Chapter the firstA reader's almanac
CHAPTER I
Of slow beginnings, and other small mercies.
An almanac begins, as all good books do, by promising the reader very little. It is patient by design. It opens not with an argument, but with a small accounting of what is to come — the months, the moods, the matters of small consequence that fill the year between one quiet morning and the next.
Almanac · §I.1Of beginnings
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A short listA reader's almanac
Six small rules, kept loosely.
For the reader who has resolved, on the first of the month, to read more slowly than they did last year.
I.Begin a book in the morning, before any letter is answered.A practice borrowed, gratefully, from an aunt in Lisbon.
Almanac · §I.2Six rules
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A single figureA reader's almanac
312
❦
books begun in 2024; one hundred and four finished.
A reader's truest accounting is not what they have completed, but what they have allowed themselves to set down without apology. The unfinished book is half the library.
Almanac · §I.3An accounting
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ObservationsA reader's almanac
The year's reading, in four short observations.
Books begun312A modest rise from the year prior.
Almanac · §I.4Observations
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A passage citedA reader's almanac
“
The reading of slow books is, in the end, a quiet kind of arithmetic; the sum of attention, not pages.
— ❦ —
Marit Kovaleva
From the editor's preface · spring, 2026
Almanac · §I.5A passage
— 14 —
Two readings, in parallelA reader's almanac
A book read twice: ten years between.
FIRST READING · 2014
The plot, mostly.
I read it on a train, in two days, and remembered chiefly the ending. The dialogue, the small turns of language, the slow weather of the middle chapters — all of it dissolved into a single bright finish.
SECOND READING · 2024
The weather.
Ten years later, on a porch, in November. I read it more slowly than the first time; the ending now matters very little. What I remember is the weather of the middle chapters — the long, patient drift of the prose itself.
Almanac · §I.6Facing pages
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PART THE SECOND
II.
❦
Of middles.
Part the second of fourAlmanac · §II
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A plateA reader's almanac
PLATE NO. VII
Of margins, marginalia, and the company of a soft pencil.
A book that bears no traces of its reader is, to my mind, a book that has not yet been read. The margin is the place where two minds meet — quietly, in soft pencil, over many years.
— from the editor's notebook, October.
Plate · 4 : 5
Almanac · §II.1Plate VII
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A plateA reader's almanac
Plate · 4 : 5
PLATE NO. VIII
A short geography of the shelves above the desk.
The map of one's own library is, by any honest reckoning, a self-portrait drawn in spines. Read it with attention; what is missing tells you as much as what is there.
— a study by Rolant Lansing, 1998.
Almanac · §II.2Plate VIII
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A short chronologyA reader's almanac
A chronology of attention, 2018 — 2026.
2018.A first quiet attempt; mostly notes, kept in cloth.Three small books begun in the long winter of that year — none finished, none regretted.
Almanac · §II.3A chronology
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Figure no. 1A reader's almanac
FIGURE NO. 1
Books begun, by year, with one finished volume marked.
— figure 1 · books begun each year. the long winter of '24 is marked in oxblood.
Almanac · §II.4Figure I
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Figure no. 2A reader's almanac
FIGURE NO. 2
Books begun against books finished, in a single quiet decade.
— figure 2 · the two lines, slowly converging.
Almanac · §II.5Figure II
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A practiceA reader's almanac
A reader's morning, in four short rituals.
I.Wake before the post.Before the day's letters claim their right to your attention, the morning is yours, and so are the books.
Almanac · §II.6A practice
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A modest tableA reader's almanac
TABLE NO. 1
An accounting of the year's volumes, in four short columns.
Volume
Begun
Finished
Pages
Days held
A reader's almanac
January
April
412
96
Table 1 · An accounting of the yearTable I
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PART THE THIRD
III.
❦
Of correspondents.
Part the third of fourAlmanac · §III
— 24 —
plate · full-bleed 16 : 9
PLATE NO. XII
A study of evening light in a small reading room.
— a photograph by Naoko Mori, October 2025.
From the correspondentsA reader's almanac
Three letters, received and kept.
“
An almanac for slow readers; I have given my copy to three friends, and reluctantly bought another for myself.
— Margit HalászBudapest, March
Almanac · §III.1Correspondents
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From the editorA reader's almanac
portrait · 1 : 1
“
A library, like a friendship, is mostly silence; what little speaks is, in the long run, what stays.
❦
— Marit KovalevaFounding editor, Folio Press · twenty-two years on the desk
Almanac · §III.2From the editor
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A short geographyA reader's almanac
MAP NO. I
Where the almanac is read, mapped slowly.
— charted from the editor's correspondence, January through April.
Almanac · §III.3Map I
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The mastheadA reader's almanac
The folio's masthead, in six names.
3 : 4
Marit Kovalevafounding editor
Almanac · §III.4Masthead
— 28 —
The imprintsA reader's almanac
Houses with which we keep good company.
Northwind & Co.
Almanac · §III.5Imprints
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Three editionsA reader's almanac
Three ways to keep this almanac.
PAPER EDITION€24The almanac in its softcover form. 312 pages, sewn binding, two-colour interior. For the kitchen-table reader.
Almanac · §III.6Editions
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PART THE FOURTH
IV.
❦
A short envoi.
Part the fourth of fourAlmanac · §IV
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Questions, kindly receivedA reader's almanac
A few questions, with brief answers.
Q · IWill there be a second volume of the almanac?In due time, yes. The work of a slow press is not made faster by being asked about often.
Almanac · §IV.1Questions
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A short indexA reader's almanac
Four terms, kept short for the road.
Patience —a system, not a virtue. Defend it every Monday morning.
Almanac · §IV.2Index
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EnvoiA reader's almanac
Read it twice.Then write back.
❦
The slowest way to read, when done well, is also the only way to be changed by what you read.
This volume is set in Iowan Old Style, on Munken Pure 100gsm, in an edition of one thousand copies. Display lines are set with a fleuron from Adobe Garamond. The almanac was edited and produced in Munich, in the spring of 2026.