“I have read many great books in my life and it is impossible for me to choose one” – Toomas Hendrik Ilves

©All Rights Toomas Volmer

Let me tell you a story. Some time ago, a nice person brought me an old German-Latin dictionary, which had once belonged to our family library at the Ärma Farm. When the farm was requisitioned during the Soviet occupation, then this German-Latin dictionary was by chance salvaged from amongst a large number of other books.  When I studied Latin at the university I never imagined that such a book could have belonged to my grandparents—to the library of an Estonian farming family. We are a book nation. We have always cherished books. When I returned to Estonia then one of the first things I did when renovating our family farm, was to create a library at the heart of it. One of the coziest libraries in the world. I have read many great books in my life and it is impossible for me to choose one, which would be my absolute favorite. 

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia