Borrow a person! Just listen for 20 minutes and start a conversation! Our living "books" are different people who tell their personal stories. Hear about surprising perspectives and touching fates. In a friendly, protected atmosphere, you can start a conversation and receive gifts.

The Living Library works just like a normal library. Visitors come to borrow a book for a limited time. There is only one difference: the books in the Living Library are people who tell stories about their lives. They answer the readers' questions and enter into a dialogue with them. The Living Library is therefore suitable for bringing people together who otherwise have no contact with each other. The credo is: talk to each other - not about each other.

Under the heading "Living with passion", our living books tell how they are passionate about something, how they are fully absorbed in their job, hobby or voluntary work. They report how they found this "calling" for themselves and how enthusiasm gives them the strength to set things in motion and move them forward. If you are passionate about something, you can also burn yourself and encounter incomprehension and resistance - our books are also about that.

On November 8th, 2024, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., visitors to the Zittau Reading Night will have the opportunity to borrow a "living book" alone or in pairs for 20 minutes each. There are set rules for borrowing that ensure mutual respect. The Dialogue Working Group and the Zittau Partnership for Democracy, as organizers, with a team of volunteers, the librarians, ensure a protected setting that enables a pleasant atmosphere for conversation.

Stop by! We look forward to seeing you!

The Living Library is part of the Zittau Reading Night, which will take place on November 8th, 2024, from 7:00 p.m. Under the heading “Living with Passion”, literature enthusiasts from Zittau and the surrounding area read stories at special locations in Zittau’s city center.

This event will take place in German language.