Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky said that a person is what he reads, which means that many readers of public libraries in January turned out to be a bit of Sevaks and poets, because in the three regions, Paruyr Sevak has been the most read author. This month, for the first time in a year, poetry made it into the top 10 most-read books in the national public libraries. The culprit was a hundred-year-old but eternally young Paruyr Sevak. Readers line up in libraries to take home collections of his poems, the poems Silent Bell, Man on the Shore, and Let There Be Light. There are 89 books in the January fiction top-tens, 28 of which are by Armenian authors.

In January, due to the winter holidays at schools and universities, library visits are somewhat reduced, but the love for books remains strong. There is another Armenian writer on the January list. Raffi's book Samwell is currently not included in the school curriculum, however, even without this, the novel has significant popularity and is among the ten most popular books. A modern writer, and author of eight novels, Ashot Aghababyan, with his book Black Panther One published in late autumn confidently took second place in the top-ten. Moreover, Ashot Aghababyan became the most-read author in Yerevan libraries for the second time in a year.

Agatha Christie's The Five Little Pigs and Erich Maria Remarque's The Three Friends follow each other in the top four with almost equal scores. The Detective Queen has appeared on the shelves of Armenian readers in several new translations, so the high demand for reading her books will continue in 2024. The January top list also includes Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express which for several months has been at the top-ten at Lori Regional Library. In recent months, the most popular books have included novels by Alex Michaelides, a contemporary British writer with Greek roots. His The Silent Patient, The Virgins, Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis round out the most requested books. According to the map and summary information for all regions except Yerevan, the branch of primacy within the lists, as you can see, belongs to the books by Paruyr Sevak.