Today is Monday: it is usually the beginning of all great things. Ready for a change? Health expert Brett Blumenthal, in her book One Habit a Week, believes that if you start one healthy habit regularly, life will become happier. Try making a new habit of reading for pleasure.

Why you need to read

About 30 years ago, reading was wildly popular. True, at that time they had not yet come up with smartphones, tablets and social networks, which intensively entertain us today and quietly “eat up” free time.

The book contains more than all the TVs in the world. -

But reading is different: it is fraught with many meanings and imperceptibly changes us. Just imagine: when we read, 17 areas of the brain work for us at once (although not all at once)! Here we see the word "cat" on the page. First, the brain analyzes the word, then connects it with what we know about it (“Ahh, a cat, I remember it is fluffy and with a mustache”). A couple of milliseconds pass, and the brain supplements our knowledge of the cat with the new facts that we have read (“Wow, can cats really smile?”). We imagine a smiling cat - and this is also the work of the brain. So reading involves the departments that are responsible for the recognition of oral speech, motor coordination and vision. And not only them.

Each book is an encyclopedia

The very first and most important purpose of the book is to obtain information. No matter the genre, a book is like a treasure chest. From the novel by John Irving, you learn about the rules of winemakers, read the biography of Freddie Mercury, look at the musical show business in the faces. We find a lot of useful things in books about business, self-development, encyclopedias. Open your favorite children's fairy tales: they are filled with life wisdom, warmth and philosophy of kindness. You just need to choose a book to your liking.

The cure for stress

Television and social networks - something we cannot live without today - actually load us with bags of stress. Loud fast flashing images, not to mention the content of the news - all this tests our nervous system for strength.

Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of the University of Sussex Brain Laboratory conducted several experiments to find out how reading participants experienced stress that caused their heart rate to increase. Then they were asked to read.

The results were impressive: in 6 minutes, reading reduced stress by 68%.

Hello creativity!

When we read, we are exposed to new information, ideas, and perspectives. Thanks to detailed descriptions of nature, events, dialogues of characters, vivid thoughts of the author, vivid images arise in the head. We represent Natasha Rostova at the ball or the Lazy Guru. So we pump the ability to generate ideas and become more inventive.

And a couple more bonuses

By reading, we expand the vocabulary, erudition, pump the ability to write, our speech becomes richer. Books make us smarter and improve memory. And we also learn to focus - on the most important and subtle.

How to make reading a habit

Read at least 20 minutes a day. Agree, it's not that much. Here are some helpful tips to help you read more often and more.

Schedule Reading Time. The main condition is that you should not be distracted. Read before bed, at breakfast, while traveling on the bus, or at lunchtime.

Read long texts. You may think that browsing social networks or news feeds is also reading. Not really. Reading small notes, you do not develop concentration, do not “treat” the nervous system, and receive little meaningful information. Make it a rule to read books or magazine articles of decent length.

Keep books close to you. Carry books in a bag or backpack. Leave a couple in the car. If you have 5-10 minutes of free time (for example, in line with the doctor), dedicate it to reading. This is how a habit is formed.

Choose books and articles you really want to read. If you start a book and realize that you can’t concentrate on it for a day or two or three, switch to another, more interesting one. Igor Mann has a “rule of 50 pages”: if after 50 pages the book is not hooked, he puts it aside.

R develop your literary tastes. If you are a fan of detective stories, try to expand your horizons and master a couple of new genres. This way you will get acquainted with amazing ideas and literary styles, and also discover interesting topics for yourself: self-development, yoga, creativity, photography, business, biology or space. Who knows what will captivate you!

Read e-books. Thanks to new technologies: now you can carry entire libraries with you. Theo Tsousidis, a neuropsychologist, clinical researcher, and author of A Brain with Barriers, thinks the e-reader is a great choice for travelers. “When I don’t know what book to take on the road,” says Theo, “I take an electronic reader, it has everything for comfortable reading.”

Set a goal for yourself. Write down the books you plan to read. The list should be realistic: for example, two books in October, three in November. Very cool stuff. Write down in it everything about the book and the emotions that it evoked in you. When you record your impressions or favorite quotes, what you read stays in your memory longer.

Join or create a book club. This small group of people (at work, in the family, in modeling classes, chatting or Skype) who will be passionate about the same thing that you are - books. Together with like-minded people, you will want to read the works in full, and then discuss the characters, the plot, the author. Such meetings develop and keep in good shape.

Read books to children. Firstly, this way you spend more time with your children. Secondly, babies develop thinking skills, vocabulary becomes richer, they learn to listen and concentrate. You can also create a "family book club" where you discuss the books you've read.

Read. Slowly, little by little, with pleasure. Start small: this is how a habit is born, which gradually, in small steps, changes life.

How did she do it.

You may have noticed that the title for this article I came up with is quite impressive (at least I hope so!).

But the really amazing thing is that achieving such an impressive result is not as difficult as it seems at first. Actually, all results are achieved by repeating small things every day for a long time.

I'm a big fan of being smart about work and finding ways to do my job more efficiently. In two years, I was able to discover and test quite a lot of these tricks.

Today I will tell you how I achieved such goals in 2015.

The habit of taking 5 minutes every day to learn French has led me to the fact that today I can read, write and speak at a basic level.

In general, I used small daily habits to get a significant and long-term result.

Below, I will outline the four main principles that guide me when trying to develop a new habit. These principles work every time and with any case that I take on.

1. Start Small: Spend a Little Time on the Same Thing Every Day

When I first decided a few years ago to develop habits for a healthier lifestyle, one of my biggest mistakes was that I demanded too much of myself.

Start at least by trying to read one book a week after I didn't read much at all. Or getting up every morning before 6 a.m. after waking up around 9 a.m. for a long time.

The gap between where I started and what I wanted to achieve was so huge that time after time I failed. And each failure day after day made these attempts more difficult.

Habits must become routine.

And so what I really needed was small wins every day and visible progress in order to create an updated daily routine that I could stick to every day.

Finally, I came up with the idea of ​​starting small. Its essence is to focus on repeating the habit every day, and not on how effectively you do it. In other words, you need to think about quantity first, and quality will come later.

A perfect example is the use of dental floss. Let's say you decide to do this every night, although you haven't paid attention to it for years. If suddenly, for no apparent reason, you take the floss and begin to spend ten minutes every evening brushing your teeth, you are unlikely to last more than a week. This is really a big question.

But the ability to start small seems to give you super strength.. Here's what you should do with flossing: you choose the smallest part of the habit, which will not be difficult to perform. In this case, you can start by cleaning everything one tooth. It will already be considered that you have used a thread, but in this case you will not have to make any huge efforts in the field of oral hygiene.

Here's how it actually works: At first, you focus on brushing one tooth every night. You do this without fail for one week. Then two, three, four. It is not difficult for you to stick to this habit, because it is so easy. Brushing one tooth a day is absolutely no problem, so it's quite difficult to come up with an excuse to do this. not make. And when the habit enters your daily routine, and you do it without reminders, start brushing two teeth at a time.

Do this every evening for some time. Then go to three. And so gradually you will start doing more and more without making really drastic and difficult changes in your life.

Starting small means first of all taking care of bringing your actions to automatism, and only then thinking about how intensively you need to do something to achieve a result.

As blogger Scott Young noted, most often we overestimate ourselves - especially when we start doing something unusual. To be more realistic about our possibilities, Scott advises that we can give the cause only 20% of the time and energy that we would like to spend.

Here’s how I applied the “start small” principle to my habits in 2015.

Reading: one page per evening

Later, when reading was already quite firmly established in my routine, I began to read for 15 minutes, and then gradually got to the result of 30 minutes of reading before bed and 30 minutes of reading in the morning in most cases.

Reading one page a day paid off: in 2013, I read 7 books. For 2014 - 22 books. 2015 - 33 books. Almost five times more than I read in 2013.

It took me about a year and a half to develop this habit. It may seem like a very long time, but it actually flew by pretty quickly.

When I'm working on developing a habit, all I think about is how much I need to read today to make the day worthwhile. You need to focus on what to do on that particular day. But if you look back, you understand how significant the result is these daily efforts.

French: one lesson every morning

I used to study French from time to time, but it was inconsistent. When I decided that I needed to improve my knowledge of this language, I started by doing just one lesson at Duolingo over coffee every morning. (If you haven't come across it before, Duolingo is a free web and mobile language learning app).

It takes about five minutes to complete one lesson, so this is a small task that I had no trouble doing, for example, over my morning coffee. Over time, I began to do more than one lesson - two, three, sometimes four or five, if I especially liked it.

I did as much as I wanted, but at least one lesson in any case.

In order to consider the task completed every day, you had to go through only one lesson, and this is not difficult even on those days when you are not in the mood to do more. Now I've also started using Babbel (another language learning app, but paid) to better understand the intricacies of French grammar. I have already completed the French course at Duolingo.

According to the statistics in Duolingo, I learned about 41% of French. Not a bad result after just five minutes a day!

2. Work on only one habit at a time

One of the most difficult habit-forming problems for me was the desire to take on too much. I always make such grandiose plans to develop many things in myself and start with such enthusiasm that I want to do several habits at once.

Every time I started in this way, in the end nothing came out. Sometimes, a few of the chosen habits do not stay in your life, sometimes - none of them. It's just too difficult - like multitasking, when the brain has to constantly switch between tasks, because it is not able to concentrate on several things at the same time.

So I made a new rule - develop only one habit at a time. Only when this habit is brought to automaticity, and it is not difficult for me to do something every day, I take up training a new one.

In my case, I only took up French when I learned to read every evening. And when I began to do a French lesson every day, I began to think about how to learn how to wake up earlier.

Sometimes developing a new habit can take a long time. I really had a hard time getting used to regularly waking up early. For about four months, I focused on the same action, tried different techniques, tracked progress, and discussed it with friends who helped me keep myself in control. I was focused on developing one habit, and therefore, all this time I did not take on something new.

Today, I'm glad I gave so much time to developing this habit, because it's easy for me to wake up early almost every day. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

The time it takes to create a particular habit can vary. Everyone knows the theory that it takes 21 days to develop a habit, but recent studies have shown that this period of time is unique for each person. Another study showed that it takes 66 days - about two months.

I realized that I need to work on each habit separately, giving it all my attention and energy, and look for a unique approach to each habit.

3. Remove obstacles: keep everything you need at hand

It’s much easier for me to stick to a habit if I have everything I need to do it right at my fingertips. For example, completing one French lesson over coffee is much easier if your smartphone is already nearby. Or sticking to the habit of reading a page every night is easier if the book is already next to the bed.

Canadian journalist and sociologist Malcolm Gladwell calls this a tipping point. It's that little change that allows you to stop making excuses and start taking action. One of the most compelling stories showing the effectiveness of a tipping point came from a study on tetanus at a university. The aim of the study was to test whether telling students about the severe effects of tetanus would increase the number of people who want to get vaccinated against the disease. Frightening stories about the consequences of the disease had no effect, but one surprising thing helped: after a map was placed on the university campus indicating the medical center and its opening hours, the number of students who were vaccinated increased from 3% to 28%.

Breaking a tipping point allows you to begin an action that you are likely to complete. I like to think that in this way I remove obstacles that contribute to non-compliance my habits.

In 2016, I plan to start working on a new habit of playing the piano more often. Now I do it when I feel like it, but not regularly enough to improve my game. I have noticed that I want to sit down and play more often if the piano is nearby. It has recently been sitting in the corner of our living room (and part-time dining room and kitchen), so it's easy for me to sit down and play for a while while food is being prepared, or on my way to the kitchen for a bite to eat.

Another habit that I want to make time for this year is to exercise more often. I've noticed that if I'm wearing workout clothes, I'm more likely to leave the house for a run. If I wear something else, it becomes much easier for me to come up with reasons not to make this run. I’ll be more likely to leave the house if I prepare my gym clothes in the evening and quickly put them on in the morning before my brain starts coming up with reasons to postpone the workout. As I develop this habit, I will use this technique more often.

4. Combine habits: create new habits based on existing ones

One of my favorite ways to develop habits is to build them on top of existing ones. This helps build multiple habits into your daily routine, with some habits acting as a trigger for others.

The advantage of this technique is that you already have a lot of habits, you just don’t think about them. Brushing your teeth before going to bed, getting out of bed in the morning, making coffee at the same time every day are all habits. Anything you do around the same time every day without thinking is a habit that others can associate with.

If you perform a new habit after doing a habitual action, the strength of the old habit can be used to perform the new habit regularly. For example, when I wake up, the first thing I do is go down to the kitchen and make myself coffee. As soon as my coffee is ready, it's time for my French lesson. My longstanding habit of making coffee acts as a trigger for learning French.

In the same way, when I go to bed in the evening, I take up a book. My habit of reading before bed starts automatically when I go to bed and see a book.

Research proves that building links between an already established daily routine and a new habit may be the best way to maintain it in the long run. When you build habits on top of each other, you build connections between new and established activities.

You can take advantage of your existing habits by gradually building on new ones.

For me, developing new habits has become a kind of hobby. I like to think of all the skills that I can learn and develop just by putting a little time into them each day. Knowing this makes significant results more achievable.

Translation: Alexey Zenkov.

"I only read serious stuff - technical literature, sometimes scientific journals."

“I have books on my specialty on my desk, I don’t have time for anything else.”

“I work at the computer all day, my eyes get tired, I don’t want to load them even more, I’d rather take a walk.”

“I have a humanitarian education, there was enough literature at the gymnasium and at the university, I believe that I have sufficient baggage, and modern literature is empty and momentary.”

When such answers as were given above are given to me by popular actors, singers, in a word, media characters, it is somehow embarrassing to delve into the wording. And you can and should ask yourself questions. How to find time to read? How to make reading comfortable? How to enjoy reading?

Let's agree here and now: the question of whether it is necessary to read books, is it good, cultured people do not ask. And not because we are “accustomed”, “ashamed to protest”, or we have “outdated concepts” - this is how rebellious teenagers describe adults who advocate book reading. We could easily do without books if each of us had never once in our lives recognized or not, but still a positive experience, when it was book reading that opened up new things for us, delivered pleasant experiences, changed us for the better, kept us from errors.

Finding time

The famous writer and author of detective stories Tatyana Ustinova believes that reading should be turned into an absolute habit, which, in fact, it is for millions of people, especially for the older generation. Her method of developing this habit is to lay out the baits. There are books everywhere in her house: in the kitchen, under the bed, in the hallway and even (especially!) in the toilet. Flying on a plane, waiting in line, riding the subway, soaking in a hot tub, not to mention meals, it's her legitimate reading time. (If you're against combining breakfasts with anything else, then keep in mind that coffee and muesli with a book are better than watching TV or mindlessly surfing the Internet.)

All you have to do is to audit your minutes and hours. If you are on a diet, then healthy (but not as tasty as harmful) dishes will successfully go under the book. When you get to work with a good story, you are guaranteed not to check your mail and thus start the working day earlier than expected (and, therefore, later you do not complain that you work around the clock, and this does not affect your salary. If it is reflected, it’s another matter).

Scientists have long scientifically substantiated what we all know from experience at the level of sensations: activities must be alternated, then the day seems richer, and fatigue from monotony does not overtake. After a round of responsible calls, excited, we climb into social networks, start up half a turn from an innocent comment, overloading the nervous system, and there is still work to be done on documents ... Better read a couple of pages of a good novel to calm down.

Many of us subscribe to all sorts of "motivational blogs" from quotes of great people to Buddhist "wisdom for every day" from rabbits. This is a good incentive, sometimes the right phrases come to us at the right time just from such subscriptions, but be that as it may, this is someone else's and, all the more, a cropped experience. It is not as strong emotionally as autobiographies, for example. Yes, and quotes are often taken out of context, which adds depth to them, details them - and sometimes turns them upside down.

Keep in mind: replacing bad or neutral habits with good ones is part of the self-improvement that successful or striving for success people do.

Choose a method

In October, an experiment began in the Moscow metro to place posters with QR codes that lead to the website of the metro library, where books are available for free download or online reading (free Wi-Fi is also available on some lines, and will soon be everywhere). Thus, the problem of “there is no book at hand” is solved (and many will simply be interested in using this technology and testing the capabilities of their phone).

The FriendsBook company organized a rental of paper books. This is a paid library with delivery, in which you select useful novelties from the psychological and business literature on the site, and then a courier brings them to you. Read - get another one. You can buy a subscription for employees - for their professional growth - or give it to a specialist friend. A strictly defined period for which you need to read a book, the money invested, a kind of exclusivity (many copies you will not see either in a regular store or in an online store, or they appear there much later) - they discipline and again work to form a habit.

Well, the founder of the Mann, Ivanov and Ferber publishing house, Mikhail Ivanov, created a company that publishes summaries of business literature. From a 300-page work on management or psychology, Smart Reading employees make a file of 5-8 pages, and also prepare an audio version and tests for understanding the content. Their unofficial motto is "No water!", and the official one is "Valuable ideas from the best books." You can't buy summaries separately, only by subscribing. Updates happen weekly. There is a similar project - "Main Thought", not to mention foreign summary libraries. For example, www.getabstract.com, where paraphrases are available in English, German, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and French, as well as Russian. So you can improve your linguistic skills and advance in the field of management, finance, international business, logistics, IT and others. If the book is impressive, you can always take on the complete edition or other works by the author.

And these are just a few examples of how the process of reading can be made convenient, perfectly fitting into the rhythm of the modern resident of the metropolis. About such obvious things as the choice of an ergonomic device for reading, if you are comfortable with reading text from the screen, we do not mention. However, is it worth it? There are readers that are lighter than a standard book, they are not a problem to hold on weight with one hand. If you are worried about your vision, then try e-ink gadgets - such screens do not flicker. The functions of changing the font size, bookmarks, comments in the margins, translation greatly simplify the work with the text (if, for example, we are talking about business literature). The new e-readers are even waterproof, which greatly enhances your ability to read while eating or taking a bath while walking in the rain.

We care about pleasure

In general, it is somehow strange to talk on the topic “Why read, what is the pleasure in it?”, However, people are complex creatures, they are influenced by such trifles that it is wiser to discuss everything with others and even more so to be frank with yourself. Here are the answers of people reading (including philologists) who gave reasons why they do not want to pick up a book.

“The university brought up a perfectionist habit in me: I took a book - read it. I can't quit a book, even if it's frankly bad, boring, uninteresting. Therefore, I put it off all the time for later ... "

“I am familiar with the best examples of world literature, something new and ingenious rarely arises. Usually I read a few pages, I understand that somewhere it has already happened, and much more clearly, more harmoniously, and I put aside the fruits of the labors of miserable epigones.

“My life is full of stress, so I expect a book to be a 'cosy haven', but I also don't want the writer to lower the bar. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer good and comfortable books, more and more often high-quality literature is dystopias, stories about social upheavals, descriptions of hard life in the 20th century, and this is still too close to us, it is about us, it is disturbing.”

“Now they publish so much that it’s hard to navigate. I don't like lists a la Five Books of the Week, because I involuntarily begin to see a political or economic order behind everything. In bookstores, I often wander, unable to choose. The annotations are often written by marketing professionals and are either faceless or characterize some stupid book too well.”

The last problem is easiest to help: read abstracts, not excerpts. For example, on the website of the magazine "Reading". Once, during an evening ride on the subway, I discovered six new books that really interested me.

Another part of the problems can be solved by compiling a reading list for different moods. I have books for rainy days, some waiting for a long intercity bus ride, a selection of funny ones for waiting in line when someone can easily look over your shoulder.

Well, with the habit of “eating everything on the plate”, which is firmly driven into the head of every kindergarten child, you just need to fight. You don't have to finish reading books like 50 Shades of Something, eat cold milk soup, or watch the German opus It's Hard to Be a God to the end, nor do you have to comprehend only business directories or yet another fabrication of writers who strive to present society with a disappointing diagnosis. Come on, Lermontov was still doing this, let's do something new!

On the other hand, why only new? Some time ago, a reading of Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn was held at the Dostoevsky Museum, and the online reading of Anna Karenina has recently ended – for some it’s news, a revelation, for others it’s a rethinking, for others it’s a fashionable performance, a social action. The names don't really matter. One can be surprised and swear that you never do, but the desire to somehow re-read "The Quiet Flows the Don" or "War and Peace" really arises in real people, and this is completely normal.

And how long ago (or never? But it's sad...) did you arrange a nightly poetic marathon for yourself - you took a volume of Akhmatova and read poem after poem in order to start thinking in iambs and choreas, trying to fit ordinary speech into a special meter, and between 72- th and 73rd pages to find a dried four-leaf clover?

A good way to get inspired by a book is to hear about it (or read...) from someone who can describe their own experience. A person in love with a particular book will draw your attention to usually overlooked details, convey its atmosphere. In this sense, you can start with the creation of Alexander Genis “Reading Lessons. The Scribe's Kamasutra, where he describes the pleasure of literature and gives advice on how, when and what to read. Did you know that Gogol goes best of all for a delicious dinner - rich borscht?

P.S. And if you don’t have enough incentives, join the “three books in three months” flash mob or take a chance and make a New Year's resolution to read everything that is advised in the comments - it's so nice to promise something that will give pleasure!

Reading is not only an important professional skill, but also an opportunity to enjoy informative, exciting and inspiring literary works that enrich our inner world and experience. Like any skill, the habit of reading will take time and effort. At the same time, reading can be a source of joy and entertainment, a life-long hobby accessible to anyone who is ready to pick up a book.

Steps

Part 1

How to form a habit

Develop your reading skills. Start developing the right reading skills to build the habit and get the most out of the process. For example:

Texts should always be at hand. A basketball player cannot train without shoes and a ball. Reading is the same story. Here are some ways to always have a number of interesting texts on hand:

Strive to integrate reading and everyday life. Developing skills is much easier if you make reading an integral part of your daily schedule. Consider several ways to implement this idea.

• Find blogs, books, and magazines that relate to your hobbies and passions to keep you motivated and have the most fun.

1. Read the classics. A literate reader should have an idea of ​​good literature. So, it will be useful for you to read books that have become part of our history and culture. In doing so, do not forget the following:

   • read world classics written by authors from different parts of the world;
   • notice how different writers evaluate, accept and interpret historical facts important for their generation.

2. Get to know the critics. It can be said that there is no dispute about tastes, and everyone can be a critic, but trends arise as a result of the fact that some representatives of literature and culture affect the mind and soul of many people at once. Some benefits of reading book reviews:

   • Development of new reading skills. Critical text differs significantly from fiction and non-fiction. Learn to understand the purpose and benefits of literary criticism in order to improve your skills.
   • Information about the book even before purchase. Reviews and reviews are a great way to determine if a book is worth buying. In addition, they will allow you to better understand your own reading preferences.
   • Comprehensive discussion of books. Let's say you and other book club members read a book that received mediocre reviews from critics. Analyze some reviews and key messages. Listen to the thoughts of the club members and form your own opinion.

3. Make a reading list. Start keeping a list of books, magazines, and blogs that interest you so you can jump to them when you're done with your current book. You can make lists both on services like LivLib, and in a regular notebook or notebook. List anything you want to read in the future.

Part 3

How to make reading a long-term goal

Become a volunteer. Reading services can be useful in schools, nursing homes, various correctional facilities, and even homeless shelters. The Volunteer Reader brings great benefits:

Create or participate in a book exchange program. Find various services online and go to local bookstores to become a member.

• If you're into popular books, romance novels, or science fiction, the exchange program is a useful and inexpensive way to discover new books.

1. Attend book festivals. Do you want to learn about new authors or meet those whose books you have already read? Check out the book festival. Such events have many advantages:

   • Book sales. Publishers and book sellers love to participate in festivals and often give discounts on books by authors who are invited guests of the event.
   • Autographs of writers. After a book launch, authors often appear at festivals to promote their work. Ask the author to sign the book for you so that after reading it it will become a memorable thing for you.
   • Listen to other readers. Often at book festivals, guest authors read excerpts from their latest work, or open readings are held to introduce new writers or honor established authors.

2. Keep a reader's blog. A reader's blog is a great way to remember books you liked, critique books that didn't work, and keep a reading list. In addition, the blog helps:

   • Meet new people. Make your entries publicly available so that anyone can read and comment on your thoughts.
   • Practice writing. Reading and writing are two sides of the same coin. Being able to write well and even imitate your favorite styles will be a great exercise. You will learn how to carefully reread and edit your own texts in order to publish only high-quality material.

Sources

1. http://www.slovari.ru/
2. http://www.tv411.org/reading/understanding-what-you-read/using-context-clues
3. http://literarydevices.net/

Current page: 1 (total book has 30 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 20 pages]

Lev Puchkov
habit to kill

Prologue

... Shmyak. Shmyak. Shmyak ... Lumps of greasy earth reluctantly fall on a slowly growing uneven mound next to the grave. The dank chill of a damp foggy morning in the first half of September does not at all contribute to the emergence of the usual professional courage, without which any physical effort turns into an unpleasant labor service. And besides the chill, there is another circumstance that radically kills any hints of the above-named courage. There it sits, this very circumstance: sinewy, thick-set, with a dull look and a hefty non-Russian pistol. It will not give money for overtime work, definitely. He is also not going to give any other equivalent - the prerequisites are completely absent. One can only hope that he does not shoot immediately after the end of the work ...

Trofim glanced sideways at his young assistant, the deaf-mute Bashkir Sanya, and imperceptibly slowed down. The aggressor with the pistol made an indelible impression on the deaf-mute: Sanya waved his shovel like a well-oiled earth-moving machine. So, what good, in half an hour in one shovel will throw out all the required cubic capacity! And it's too early. It is necessary to take time for the damp cold air to bring the aggressor to his senses, to ventilate the brains clouded by some rubbish taken the day before. It is always easier to negotiate with a sober person than with someone who has used "dope" ...

Trofim imperceptibly pricked his assistant in the ankle with the corner of the spade - he squinted, watched the elder for several seconds, realized that he was in a hurry, and also slowed down. The aggressor did not react to the sabotage - he had something more important to do. At that moment, his companion just started to come to her senses - the cold worked - and threw the first portion of a sluggish hysteria. And what do you think? This bashi-bazouk with cloudy eyes and a hefty pistol, instead of slapping his passion with a juicy crack and growling at her, suddenly stopped watching the gravediggers and began gently stroking the capricious head, whispering something soothingly soothing in her ear. My God, how touching! What a gentle killer...

... Shmyak. Shmyak. Shmyak ... The mound is slowly but inexorably growing. Milk fog. Cemetery. Dawn without sun. Where is it? They couldn't steal overnight - a lot. Apparently, the Duma, lobbied by bandits, gave the command to hold back: so that the night would be longer. Night is a glorious time for all sorts of vile deeds. Everywhere they write: in the morning they found a corpse. Or - in the morning found. At night, as a rule, no one finds anything. Why did you find it? Because they didn’t hide it well: it’s dark, you can’t see a damn thing. You need to hide better. And if you don’t know how, entrust this matter to professionals, then no one will find ...

Trofim was not used to breaking his hump at such an early hour. For thirty-five years of functioning in the cemetery structure, he has formed for himself a completely stable system of relationships with the so-called "left" clients. These "leftists" arrive after midnight in good cars, call the watchman outside and shine a lantern in the face. Why do they shine? The devil knows what kind of whim such is, but they will certainly poke a flashlight in the face, regardless of the season and belonging to the criminal communities of Belogorsk. So: they shine in the face, they give the command to get the corpse out of the trunk. Then they give the command again - to bury them secretly, but without fail in a human way. Christian. They don’t threaten, they don’t shove the barrel under the ribs, they don’t demand to remain silent and take an oath of allegiance. They give decent money for the work and, having made sure that the order has been fulfilled, they slowly go home. In general, they behave in a businesslike way, do not fuss.

This is the audience Trofim is used to. Who wants to be human. Christian. Those who don’t need it humanly don’t disturb the cemetery peasants with their visits. They leave their improperly formed corpses at the crime scene, at worst, they take them to a forest belt or to a landfill and throw them there like carrion of animal origin ...

The morning visitors plunged Trofim into embarrassment and pretty angry. They pinned down at an inopportune time, "stoned" good, the man immediately cracked his face with a pistol and ordered to urgently proceed to an unscheduled funeral. And then he will kill both (in the sense, the watchman on duty - Trofim, that is, and the Bashkir, who lived right there in the cemetery).

The visitors were not like the masters of life who brought their wrong corpses at night. To scumbags, shooting indiscriminately at everything that moves, they also did not belong in any way. Most of all, they looked like average citizens who, due to some misunderstanding, got into trouble. In Trofim’s many years of practice, such cases took place several times, and he always selflessly helped the poor fellows, who at the time the need arose for a secret burial of an emergency order did not have a penny with them. Because he is kind, Trofim, and humane, despite constant communication with the other world.

These two, despite their seeming belonging to the most numerous average category of law-abiding citizens, in fact, were not. Trofim has an excellent memory for faces. And to a pretty lady, who is now beating in a nervous fit near the grave, and to a strong man with a gun who calms her down, Trofim rendered services in the recent past. They, as often happens with people very busy with their problems, did not remember the rare-toothed uncle who looked like a ghoul - somehow there was no time. But he sketched them and noticed. The lady, however, now looks different: at that time she was a model of a purposeful business woman who knows exactly what she needs, but at the moment she looks more like a wet cat nailed to a brick. But this is understandable - now she has trouble, grief. Grief, as you know, does not paint ...

What kind of services did Trofim provide to this couple? Yes, nothing special: for a standard fee, he dug up a grave and opened the coffin. The kids wanted to see the dead man. It happens, you know. A little man sits for himself, sips coffee with cream, suddenly bam! - Something hit the head. And rushed to the cemetery, leaving everything. Look at the dead man. Yeah. Well, this is their own business - as long as the money is paid. And I remember this why: they came at different times, it seems that everyone is on their own. And they asked to open the same grave. Agree, this is already interesting. Already intrigue. These things are remembered.

So, now the offended and angry Trofim decided, as our youth says, to “play a prank” on a strange couple. The joke, however, is painfully risky - for such hints they can easily take their lives if they doprut untimely. But when you communicate with the dead every day, and after two days on the third day you spend the night in a cemetery, the feeling of healthy fear in the face of mortal danger naturally atrophies. And grave jokes of this kind become a phenomenon, if not ordinary, then quite acceptable ...

A pretty lady didn’t want to calm down like that with a run. She beat her companion on the shoulder with her fist, shook her head in an inhibited manner, poked her finger in the direction of the rug, and wailed hoarsely, with a howl. The companion - who is the aggressor - was at a loss. He put the pistol on the ground, hugged the lady with both hands, awkwardly shook her like a bursting breast baby, muttered something in a patter - like, calm down, my joy, it will all be over soon.

Taking advantage of the overseer's connivance, Trofim instantly became insolent: he stopped digging altogether, dragged Belomor out of his pocket and, lighting a cigarette, began to watch with interest the "clients" that had fallen on his head. Fifteen meters away, at the border of the elite sector, there was a battered Niva, on which the "guests" arrived. In the "Niva", in the back seat, curled up, sleeps a boy of ten or twelve years old. These crooks also treated the boy to something: there was such a fuss, noise, but he didn’t even blink an eye, he wheezes to himself. In the same place, in the back seat, only by the other window, sit two hefty fearful dogs with shaggy muzzles. The three of us in the back seat are uncomfortable - the Niva's interior is cramped. Nevertheless, dogs endure hardships in a disciplined way - they do not whine, they sit quietly, only stare curiously out the window. The hair on the shaggy muzzles sticks out in all directions with icicles, as if on the eve of the dogs they doused something sticky. The eyes are crazy - it seems that the negligent owners, who themselves used a shock dose of "dope", and the dogs were shirked for the company. Bastards, not people!

Okay, now the rug. The rug was delivered prematurely. Experienced in such matters, Trofim immediately warned the aggressor: let's first dig a grave, then we will get a rug. So that there are no problems. The aggressor did not heed the arguments - he was in the wrong state. The result is obvious. A rug - more precisely, a carpet, something about two by three, rolled into a thick roll and ugly folded in by a third - was shoved into the trunk, lies next to the grave. It lies unevenly, it leaks, and everyone can see it - including the lady. Here's your hysteria. You need to listen to experienced people! You are all masters to beat with a pistol in the face ...

- What hatched?! - The aggressor let the lady out of his arms for a moment and sternly shouted at the arbitrarily smoking Trofim. - Work!

“Don’t drive, chief,” Trofim squinted peacefully, blowing a torn puff of blue-gray smoke from his nostrils. - I'll have a smoke, then quickly ...

Work, I said! - the aggressor roughly interrupted, picking up a pistol and pointing it at Trofim. - And then I'll arrange a smoke break for you!

- Will you soak? Trofim asked vividly, carefully observing the expression in the aggressor's eyes. - And urine. There are a lot of you walking around here - like that. And everyone can get wet. Urine - you will dig yourself!

The Bashkir did not catch the essence of the conversation, but, glancing briefly at the angry visitor, he realized that he smelled of fried food. And then he redoubled his efforts - he flashed with a shovel, as if compensating for the simple elder. He only reproachfully shook his square head: they say, you are a risky uncle, Trofim, you are playing with fire!

“You won’t work, then?” the aggressor lowered his voice ominously.

Why won't I? - Trofim was still peacefully surprised, impudently blowing smoke from his hairy nostrils. - I’ll finish my smoke, and we’ll quickly bung up a cubic capacity for you. Shcha, don't drive - we'll have time.

- Okay, smoke, - the "guest" unexpectedly gave up, lowering the gun. - Only livelier - time is running out.

“Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it in time,” Trofim winked, blowing a particularly juicy club of blueberries into nature. - Masters, after all - we live it ...

So, the elderly grave worm turned out to be right. An hour ago, the guy got out of the engine heat, did not understand anything, he was dangerous and unpredictable. And now he is ripe: he quickly sobered up in the cold, acquired normal human features and, apparently, is ready to make concessions.

Trofim grunted contentedly and rubbed his hardened palms. Aha! There is an opportunity to hit the jackpot and not share it with the manager. After all, only at an unenlightened glance it may seem that the watchman on duty with his assistant, at their own discretion, amuse themselves at night with this kind of unscheduled work, earning themselves half a liter. In fact, each double grave is registered with the manager: he even has a scheme, which in itself is probably of great practical value for a certain category of citizens. No, the manager, an old Jew Lieberman, is never interested in: who came, who was brought, under what circumstances, and so on. Curiosity in this way is extremely dangerous: the sad example of Lieberman's three predecessors is disgustingly eloquent and convincing. The manager is a smart man, he simply informs the watchmen which graves have not been visited by the relatives of the deceased for a long time. Note - no hint of crime. They don't visit, that's all. Sector three, the second section - such and such. Forgotten filial duty. If suddenly something - I did not know anything, the watchman themselves. Yeah. And in the morning, when he comes to work, he lazily asks: how are we doing there? Ah, donations for the construction of the temple! And again, grateful visitors lowered into a box with a hole, what is at the entrance? Well, come on, where to get away from you. Come on, let's pass it on to the parish. And the third sector, you say, someone visited? Well, let's note. Well done. The feeling for the deceased parent prevailed over the mercantile momentary interests. Yeah...

Like this. And the grave that Trofim is now defiling with a deaf-mute Bashkir, the head can not hand over. Lieberman's iron rule says: do not use graves for "left" burials that have been opened at least once for exhumation. And Trofim usually always adheres to this rule. But for now, an exception can be made. This grave is SPECIAL ...

... After a while, the bayonet of the Bashkir's shovel thumped dully on the tree. The deaf-mute felt the difference, froze for a second and raised his eyes to the older one.

“Everything is fine,” Trofim reassured his assistant with gestures. “They are not going to shoot us yet. Clean up ... - and climbed out of the grave, leaning on a shovel.

- What? - the "guest" started up. - Smoking again?

“We’re done,” Trofim said laconically, approaching the carpet and kneading his shoulders out of habit. “You should take her to the car,” he nodded towards the lady, who was quietly sobbing and swaying, trying to calm the chilly trembling. - I'll drag it - it will break again. Would you take it? There's only ten minutes left here.

“I’m not going anywhere,” the lady squeaked, sobbing anxiously. I want to see how you put...

- How how! Trofim muttered, leaning over and grabbing the carpet by the folded end, which looked cleaner. - Like everyone else - with their feet to the cross. Well, in a sense, to the stone. Well, let's go, dear!

"Darling" turned out to be easier than expected. Trofim rushed, trying on the average fatness of a peasant, did not calculate the effort and for the first three steps ridiculously backed away with a jog.

“Some kind of undersized,” the watchman muttered, dragging the carpet to the grave. Or a grandmother?

- And the coffin? – suddenly lit up hysterical. “What, you just put it in the carpet?”

- Ugh, core it to the root! Trofim spat irritably, squatting next to the carpet and wiping his sweaty forehead. - Well, where are we going to get those coffins?

Trofim shook his head negatively and lowered his gaze - for some reason it suddenly became embarrassing that he had lied. Yes, the watchman closed the coffin. On the veranda of the funeral home, which was only three hundred meters away from the gates of the elite sector, seven standard dominoes were drying for a simple stink. It would be easy to go there with the Bashkirs and drag them. But it's a pity. The carpenters will have to give money back, but will it be possible to remove the payment from the aggressor - the grandmother said in two.

- Mmm! M! mumbled suddenly from the grave of the Bashkirs, waving his arms briskly and nodding in the direction of the bureau. - Mmm!!!

- What is he? - the "guest" with a pistol was alert.

- Yes, fucked in the head, deaf-mute! - Trofim grimaced in annoyance: judging by the expression on his face, the Bashkir understood what the “guests” wanted, and unexpectedly decided to provide them with gratuitous assistance. Not otherwise, with a fright, poor fellow!

“Deaf-mute, you say? - For some reason, the aggressor was delighted and began to build orderly grimaces on Sanya, quickly flickering his fingers near his face. Bashkir often nodded, grinned and let's semaphore in response at the same speed. Trofim, who had been communicating with the deaf-mute for more than a year, did not understand anything from this non-verbal tongue twister, was offended and irritably dragged Belomor out of his pocket.

- He will bring the coffin, - the aggressor said a couple of minutes later - the Bashkir climbed out of the grave and skipped to the funeral home. I gave him five minutes. Plus a minute - a reserve. If your henchman doesn't manage in this time, I will assume that he has fled, and ... in general, I will be forced to kill you.

- Completely chikened?! Trofim exclaimed in dismay. - How can he single-handedly lock up a domina for you in five minutes? She's heavy! Yes, there is a cover! He will drag you all this stuff for half a day!

“He is strong,” said the “guest” imperturbably. - I didn't insist - he volunteered. And I can’t let you two go - you yourself understand ...

Bashkir did. In less than five minutes, an unpainted coffin covered with a lid appeared from the side of the gate, slowly floating down the alley on the powerful back of a deaf-mute.

“Ah…” Trofim opened his mouth, turning to the aggressor.

“I told him to bring the rope too,” the “guest” anticipated a possible question and winked gloomily with his completely sober eye. - Don't worry - everything will be fine.

“Well, a coffin,” the lady, who seemed to have calmed down a little, reminded herself in a wooden voice, staring with glazed eyes at Trofim and the Bashkir, who were tearing off the nailed lid. “It’s good… It’s normal… It’s almost normal… It’s…”

“I would have taken him away,” Trofim muttered sullenly, not looking in the direction of the couple. - Look - it won't fit in the carpet, we'll unfold it. Throws a tantrum again.

- And you try, maybe it will climb, - the aggressor did not obey. “The coffin is big, but the corpse… hmm-mmm… well, try it.”

- What is there to try! And so it is clear ... - Trofim objected, but, having run into the inexorable gaze of a peasant with a pistol, he waved his hand hopelessly and nodded to the Bashkir: come on, one or two, they took it!

The guard turned out to be right, he did not let his trained eye down. The rug did not want to fit into the domino - as they took it, they put it back.

- I told you! said Trofim. - Well, what now? Take it away, we'll unfold.

- I'm not going anywhere! the lady squealed hoarsely, pushing away her companion, who tried to lift her from the ground. - I want to see how you put it!

- Let's turn it around! - commanded the aggressor, hugging the lady and thus trying to block her observation sector. - Come on - just quickly, on three counts!

The gravediggers briskly unrolled the carpet. Inside was the corpse of a young, gracefully built woman in a tattered peignoir on her naked body, generously covered in blood.

- Fuck, monsters - they ruined such beauty! - Trofim swore softly, grabbing the corpse by the legs and nodding to the Bashkir to take it under the armpits - dirty work for a young man, it’s supposed to be like that. - You gnawed at her with your teeth ?! - he said without thinking, and stopped short - he slowly turned his gaze to two sticky dogs peering out of the Niva.

“Well, damn it…” the watchman breathed, carefully placing his half in the coffin, and, trying not to look at the face of the deceased, reached for the lid. Trofim never looked at the faces of "clients" - the old people taught that this should be avoided, otherwise they would dream.

At one time, Trofim also explained to the Bashkir why it was not worth staring at the faces of the dead, but Sanya was still young, stupid and, as sometimes happens at that age, he listened to the instructions of his elders without due diligence. Having placed his half in a wooden box, he also reached for the lid, as the chief did, but hesitated a little and, taking advantage of the opportunity, did not fail to examine the dead woman. Curiosity kicked in. The body is young, charming, riveted the gaze of the flawed guy - even though the body froze in the posthumous cast of terrible agony, but it didn’t lose some unhealthy, specific attractiveness from this!

Yes, he didn't do it for nothing. Do not look at the faces of the dead unless absolutely necessary. You need to follow the advice of your elders, even if this advice is presented to you in the form of clumsy gestures, far from perfect ...

Despite the fact that the larynx of the deceased was crushed, and the body below the level of the neck was completely covered in blood, her face was practically not affected. Sanya batted his thick eyelashes three times, peering into this face, frowned in concern, and shifted his gaze towards the hysterical lady, who stubbornly leaned out from behind the shoulder of a peasant with a pistol, who was trying to block the funeral procession from her.

“Mm…” Bashkir met the lady’s gaze, choked and, turning pale as the inside of a coconut, suddenly began to gasp for air, as if he had suddenly been struck by an asthma attack.

- Well, are you stuck? Choking on saliva, right? Trofim exclaimed in annoyance, noticing some inconsistency in the behavior of his henchman, and, without hesitation, loudly slapped him between the shoulder blades with his wide palm.

The Bashkir hiccupped in his stomach, came to his senses and, grabbing the opposite end of the coffin lid, began to help the elder on autopilot. In the direction of the couple who gave them work, he no longer wanted to look, just as he did not want to look into the face of the deceased. The hunt is over...

When the workers gave the grave mound a semblance of a rectangle, the man with the gun breathed a sigh of relief and, approaching the tombstone, asked:

Whose grave is it? Well, I mean, if it’s… well, if we want to visit, or…” He didn’t finish, got embarrassed for some reason and reached out his hand to rip off Trofimov’s jersey, deliberately thrown over the stone so as to hide the inscription.

“This is an empty grave,” Trofim lied, tensing up, and pulled his head into his shoulders: now his “joke” can result in the most unpredictable consequences. - We have a lot of these - reserve ones. And anything can be carved into the stone. Say what, we'll do it.

- Empty? The peasant lowered his hand, shrugged his shoulders, and, glancing in confusion at his companion, asked: “What should I write?” Or not worth it?

“It’s worth it,” the lady pursed her lips stubbornly. “Let them write: “Here lies Lee.” Two letters. "El" - "and". Understandably?

- It's clear - Lee ... Loin, or what? Trofim said.

- What's the difference to you? The man put the pistol in his belt and went to his companion. - Write what you said, do not ask bad questions ... Come on, my sun, we need to hurry. Stop looking there - that's it. Everyone, everyone - get up ...

This time the lady did not resist: she obediently got up, let the man hug her and stomped to the Niva standing on the alley, without looking back.

- Five grand from you. For urgency, - Trofim casually threw after them and again pulled his head into his shoulders: how will the aggressor react?

- No money, uncle, - sorry, - without stopping, the man with the pistol threw over his shoulder. - At some other time.

“There may not be another time,” Trofim remarked morally and, becoming insolent for a moment, suggested: “But you have a pistol ... Someone else's pistol, apparently. Well, you can see: it does not suit you. Imported, expensive. And it’s not good with someone else’s pistol - you never know ... Huh? And that is not Christian. Not human. BUT?

- Completely oborzel, phimosis? The man stopped, stared at the wrinkled face of the elderly watchman for a few seconds, then grunted vaguely, pulled the pistol from his belt and, peeling the clip out of the handle, threw a beautiful piece of metal into the alley.

- Take it, uncle. Let everything be human. Do not hold evil for rudeness - I was a little out of my mind, you yourself understand ...

Seeing the Niva with his eyes, Trofim picked up the pistol and, weighing it in his palm, put it in his bosom. Happened! The gravedigger knew a lot about the prices of weapons: he repeatedly had to sell the trunks taken from the "left" corpses, such a time. The barrel is cool - it will pull at least a thousand bucks. Not in vain did they work, endure humiliation and fear from the aggressor. And in general: everything turned out as planned today - although they could easily slap at least a couple of times: at the very beginning, when they were still stoned, and at the end, if it suddenly turned out what kind of grave they were offered ...

Trofim returned to the grave, showed the Bashkir with a gesture: collect the instrument, it's time to leave. Then he pulled off a jersey from the tombstone, threw it over his shoulders and squinted thoughtfully at the ornate inscription carved on granite: “Tolkhaev Grigory Vasilyevich, 1956-1998.”

“Rest in peace, daughter,” the watchman muttered quietly, following the Bashkir away from the grave. “No one will disturb you – we won’t write shit here. Will cost…