Language: English

Romania today, read between the lines: what 2025’s books reveal about Romanians’ new priorities

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  • 5 out of the top 10 titles overall focus on health, emotional balance, and well-being
  • BookTok is setting the bestsellers again: Animal Farm and 1984 rank high in Fiction, alongside two other “classics” boosted by TikTok.
  • Fyodor M. Dostoevsky leads the authors’ chart in 2025. Ioana Pârvulescu is the best-selling Romanian author.
  • The Little Prince, the undisputed winner in Children’s Books: No. 1 in the category for the past three years and Libris’ best-selling book in 2025.
  • Thriller and romantasy are the subgenres dominating Young Adult and Books in English.
  • The Big Dictionary of Diseases and Conditions ranks in the top 3 in 27 counties.

Libris’ 2025 data outlines a clear picture of how Romanians are calibrating their cultural choices in a context marked by constant pressure, uncertainty, and a growing need for personal stability. An analysis of last year’s reading behavior shows that books about health, the relationship between body and emotions, and stress management are reaching the mainstream for the first time—reflected directly in the overall bestseller chart.

The fact that several mind–body balance titles appear among the top positions in the overall chart alongside classic literature and established fiction signals a shift in priorities: reading is being used as a tool for clarification, regulation, and personal decision-making.

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The perfect student

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On "Pitch Perfect" (2012)

I had no Internet access until 1997.

Until 2001-2002, I rarely had Internet access.

After the winter of 2002-2003, when I joined LEADERS Foundation and had almost 24/7 computer & Internet access, I always had Internet access at least once a week.

I can say that after 2002 lots of decisions were clearer because there was a place I could get information from, and before 2002 there was a lot of fog.

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Planuri 2026

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Too many items

Am niște proiecte personale pe care le-am tot amânat, și vreau să lucrez la proiectele mari până am timp să ajung la proiectele mici.

Pe de altă parte,

„There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.” – Bill Watterson (Nu avem niciodată suficient timp pentru toate nimicurile pe care vrem să le facem).

Dar asta nu mă oprește, pentru că cred în același timp:

“Always aim for the moon. If you miss you’ll land among the stars.” („Țintește întotdeauna spre Lună. Chiar dacă ratezi, vei ajunge printre stele.”) ― Anonymous

Concluzie: Propune-ți multe lucruri, fă doar o parte din ele, nu te opri din încercat. :)

(via »)

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Apologize, but don’t beat yourself up

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Un mic interviu

Sometimes I tend to forget this – An apology is enough!

In Romania, when you make a mistake, and you say „Sorry”/”Scuze”, sometimes the person doesn’t even look at you. You have to figure it out whether you’re pardoned or not.

The thing is, it doesn’t help the situation when you keep insisting on by saying „Sorry!”. OK, we got the message. If it was pardonable, it was forgiven the first time.

If the person doesn’t want to forgive you, insisting on the topic would likely only make things worse.

Note to self – Say „Sorry” once, try to compensate in some way for making a mistake, but don’t overreact. You are not actually Superman, no matter what you might think.

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Beggars and Helpers

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Learn from mistakes

There are people who get off trains in Bucharest. There is some difficulty in getting from the train to the Taxi. Yet, there are few people who would help you at that moment. This is a business opportunity.

While in trains, you see from time to time people begging, in various forms, with various scenarios. This is not a business opportunity, but likely make lots of people who are travelling more annoyed.

How come the people who go begging in trains don’t notice the business opportunity of helping others to get from the train to the bus/taxi/another train, while in the train stations?

It makes you think of what they would be capable of doing to get money – help others? Not so much. Annoy a lot of people in the trains. That is fine.

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How to translate and convert PDF book? (split-OCR-join-translate-open)

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Percentage of population aged 25-64 that cannot speak any foreign language

Let’s say you have a PDF file with 380 pages, all scanned images.

The first task is to split the document into lots of 50-page documents. You can use:
https://www.ilovepdf.com/split_pdf#split,range

Now, you will have a 6-pages document.

The second task is to OCR the 6 documents, using:
https://www.ilovepdf.com/ocr-pdf

Join the PDFs into one using:
https://www.ilovepdf.com/merge_pdf

The fourth task is to upload and then open the PDF in Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/

Finally, open the Google Doc and translate the Google Docs into another language.

The only downside? You generally get a poor-quality translation.

The OCR, also, can lack quality.

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MerchantPro and NETOPIA Payments launch AI Checkout with One Click Payment. Local eCommerce enters the era of agentic payments

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MerchantPro and NETOPIA Payments launch AI Checkout with One Click Payment. Local eCommerce enters the era of agentic payments

MerchantPro, the SaaS eCommerce platform used by over 2,000 online stores in Romania, together with NETOPIA Payments, announces the launch of the AI Checkout solution with One Click Payment, opening the door to agentic payments in the local digital commerce space. The integration enables merchants in the MerchantPro ecosystem to activate one-click card payments with a saved card in just a few minutes, directly from the platform, while customers can place orders instantly, even directly within the conversation with the AI chatbot developed by MerchantPro. This gives online stores using MerchantPro fast access to technology previously reserved for large players and custom implementations, marking an important step in democratizing simplified payments through One Click Payment.

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Inside the Balkans: Where the eCommerce opportunities are in 2026 – interview with Nikola Ilchev

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This interview with Nikola Ilchev, founder of the Balkan eCommerce Summit, takes a clear-eyed look at where the biggest opportunities lie across the region in 2026. Ilchev breaks down growth hotspots and standout categories, compares logistics strengths market by market, and explains the cross-border moves that actually work for sellers entering Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Croatia, and beyond. He also highlights how ecosystem maturity, marketplaces, and payment habits shape expansion timing and why 2026 is poised for faster, more integrated regional playbooks. 

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Fuckup Nights Bucharest: Three unforgettable stories, an inspired audience, and valuable lessons at the 27th edition of the event organised by DiFine PR

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Fuckup Nights Bucharest: Three unforgettable stories, an inspired audience, and valuable lessons at the 27th edition of the event organised by DiFine PR

Richard Joannides, founder Verita International School: ”Failure is not the problem. The problem is how many times you try to reach your goal. I think you should seek out those problems, because they help you build a better product, a better service, a better company. Don’t worry about your failures. Once you have the job you want, no one will remember the 50 failures you had”

Bucharest, 11th December 2025: Fuckup Nights, the global series of events organised in Bucharest by the communication agency DiFine PR, returned on November 20 with stories full of emotion and inspiration for those who don’t see failure as a dead end. Fuckup Nights Bucharest, its 27th edition, took place at the Bucharest International School of Management (BISM). The event brought to the stage a variety of speakers from different fields, all sharing the common courage to learn from the challenges they have faced.

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