You're reading: Best English-language bookstore: Dinternal

Dinternal, ltd.

2V Museyny Provoluk. Tel: 228-1362.

Open Monday through Friday 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Have you ever found yourself poring over the back of a Tide box, hungrily consuming the English-language instructions? Do you read the PostХs employment ads, even though youХre not looking for work? Do you cherish junk e-mails announcing that Disney chairman Michael Eisner and Fidel Castro have been running a white slavery ring in Senegal?

DonХt worry, you are not alone. There comes a time when everyone in Kyiv runs out of English-language reading material. Whether you didnХt bring over enough books, youХve plowed through the ones passed around the office or you donХt have any Western friends, the spring eventually dries up. But there are a couple unadvertised alternatives to contemplating triphosodiumenthadide.

While Kyiv does not have a large selection of books in English, the choice is not as grim as it seems at first. Those not looking to buy should check out the American library in the fourth korpus of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, on Skovorady. Membership costs only Hr 10, books are loaned out for two-week periods and they have a decent selection.

If you are looking to start a private library, however, youХd better look elsewhere. For starters, there are the Penguin Classics, which occasionally appear at area kiosks. Petrivka open-air book market, near the metro station of the same name, is crawling with them. They are cheaply made, cost Hr 8 and allow you to catch up on those high school books you know only from CliffХs Notes. On the down side, Oscar WildeХs generation is the last to be considered Тclassic.У

Those not in the market for dead white guys face a narrower selection. ThereХs Eurobook Service, tucked away on 4/18 Komandarma Kamenyeva. The literature is limited to a selection of cheap classics, in English, Spanish and French. But, they specialize in art books, and offer an amazingly comprehensive selection of high-quality, glossy architectural books (prices starting at about Hr 150). We donХt know who exactly their target audience is, but the books are quite nice.

Probably KyivХs funkiest English-language book outlet is Planeta, at 30/1 Kreshchatyk. As a combined UMC, Kodak, Lego, CD shop and bookstore, they bring multimedia to a whole new plane. Here, there are boxes of used English books from God knows where. Mostly it is just pulp detective and science fiction, but it is fun to dig through the boxes anyway. And the persistent can sometimes walk away with forgotten books that caused a splash when they were published five years ago. Also available are a selection of dusty French (Marguerite Duras) and German (Bertold Brecht) language tomes.

But the best shop with the biggest selection and the only attempt at a somewhat contemporary collection, easily goes to Dinternal. It is tough to find, located on the second floor of a building off a small street near Dynamo Stadium. It keeps terrible hours. But itХs got the books.

Dinternal is more like a wholesale operation dealing in basic educational texts (catering to people with reading levels on par with the average Antifreeze reader), but it sells single volumes to more literate passersby, too. In addition to classics, they have about 100 more-or-less new fiction, ranging from popcorn (Tom Clancy) to beatnik (William S. Burroughs) to avant-garde (Viktor Pelevin). These titles run about Hr 50 each. Dictionaries are also available.

Even better is that they are currently planning to triple the size of their contemporary collection. At that rate, with a bit of luck, theyХll soon be giving Borders a run for its money on the international market.