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The Little Hungaropedia book series now has three new volumes
Capturing the essence of Magyar culture with creative graphics and informative-yet-lighthearted text, the six-volume Little Hungaropedia book series was launched in late 2014, presenting the humorous self-image of Hungarians in a witty and ironic way. Now the collection is further expanded with three new volumes that highlight life in the Magyar countryside, the impressive heritage of Hungarian inventors, and special culinary customs.
Magyar designer Zsófi Szabó started the Little Hungaropedia series as a diploma project, but it soon grew to become so much more: following up on the six-volume series presented earlier, now three new eagerly awaited volumes were released, that still aim to replace corny souvenirs to instead present Hungary from the perspective of talented Magyar writers (including two from the team of We Love Budapest), all accurately capturing the essence of Hungary’s often-entertaining culture. The first six volumes became immensely popular, due to their directness and credibility; nearly 10,000 copies have been sold since November of 2014.
The Little Hungaropedia team started working on new volumes in the autumn of 2015, investigating such themes as gastronomy in the Little Gastropedia (by Nóra Pákozdi); Hungarian inventions in the Little Inventopedia (by Kriszta Katona); and colorful countryside life in the Little Plainopedia (by Szabina-Ughy and Balázs Dezse). Zsófi Szabó once again provided the colorfully vivid illustrations for all three books.
The choice of themes were not selected by chance: the aim of the Little Plainopedia is to depict the rustic Hungarian countryside; considering the creative courses of the Hungarian kitchen, there has always been a great need for the Little Gastropedia; and the Little Inventopedia is a proud showcase of clever Hungarians. The most complicated process in this series was creating this latter tome, as it is not very easy to pick only a few out of the numerous Hungarian inventions and inventors.
The series is also available in new languages now.
There is a German edition to satisfy the ever-growing interest, and a Japanese version, as the Land of the Rising Sun seems to be truly open to Hungarian culture. Besides all of that, the new books were released at the perfect time, as this summer the series will be offered at the Művészetek Völgye (Festival of Arts), and also at the Sziget Festival. You can find all of the shops that sell the Little Hungaropedia , sold for 1,850 forints each, on the official project website.
Besides the entertaining and revealing presentations of Hungarian culture, the Little Hungaropedia series also aims to create a relationship between people from different cultures: the descriptions subconsciously show shared human characteristics, that increase the unity between different nationalities. The proof of that is the “we are exactly like that, too” feeling that you often get when reading the Little Hungaropedia.
