At one time, I really enjoyed Boris Akunin’s collections of short essays on various fascinating facts—“The Life of Remarkable People and Animals“ and “The Un-Chekhovian Intelligentsia.” Both were “compiled” from different short posts the author had originally published on his LiveJournal. In a similar fashion, he occasionally shared notes about specific days of the year—highlighting interesting events that had happened on that particular date.
Of course, almost any day you pick from the calendar has seen at least something noteworthy happen somewhere in the world throughout human history. So, in the end, it would be possible to gather an entire calendar of such notes. And that’s exactly what Boris Akunin did when he released his book “My Calendar.”
However, he set a rule for himself: for almost every day, he tries to choose just one event—the one he finds most interesting—and tells its story, whenever possible, backing it up with photos or illustrations. He then wraps up almost every “day” with an optimistic message. He does this so that the book can be used like a tear-off calendar—you wake up, read about the day in the morning, get some encouraging words, and ideally, the day should go well for you.
Of course, you don’t have to read the book throughout the entire year—you can just pick it up and read it straight through. Or in any other order, since each entry is completely independent of the ones before or after it.
What’s more, Boris Akunin decided not to ‘offend’ any month, so his calendar doesn’t have 365 or 366 days—it has 372. He includes February 30 and even the legendary (at least for those familiar with Soviet cinema) June 31. In other words, every month in his calendar has exactly 31 days.
However, for these “fictional” dates, he writes equally fictional stories. And here, I felt a bit disappointed. There was potential to make these imaginary days interesting—perhaps by digging up references from history, literature, or film. I’m sure that wouldn’t have been easy for all dates like February 30 and 31, but simply making up stories felt out of place. Especially when, for June 31, I was expecting something about an artist from the future and a sweet princess from the past (see the film “31 June“), but instead, I got a short note about Erast Fandorin. I love Erast Petrovich and the entire series about him, but why here?
So, the book left me with mixed feelings. It’s an easy, fast, and engaging read. But some stories left me wondering why. And compared to his previous works, Akunin seems to have constrained himself—not just by limiting each day to a single event, but also by keeping the entries unusually short. As a result, many of them felt too brief to me.
That said, sometimes a small burst of inspiration is exactly what’s needed, especially in our difficult times. Reading about someone’s achievements or a good deed done on this day can make you feel like you’ve got a little more strength yourself.
My rating: 3/5
