In recent weeks, important bookstores have opened in Bogotá, Barcelona and other cities around the world. Once the pandemic is over, the book spaces par excellence enjoy maximum validity. It has been the theme of this year’s international conference of booksellers and publishers, in the United Arab Emirates.
The new bookstore in Bogotá is called Ficciones, it occupies a stately house and is defined as a “book bar”, because in the back it has a bar and several tables where you can have a coffee or eat surrounded by literature. But its defining feature may be the hopscotch that decorates the floor of its children’s section: between play and ritual, every bookstore invites a journey between two worlds, that of the printed letter and that of ideas, and that of objects and that of imagination and criticism. That is why bookstores have become crucial in our time: because they are the ideal interfaces between physical and virtual reality.
Together with several partners, he has promoted the project Consuelo Gaitán, who directed the National Library of Colombia. At the opening party, which brought together both readers from the area and cultural figures – from the bookseller María Osorio to the writer Piedad Bonnett – he told me that “after having worked in the public sphere and mobilizing the reading rate through of public libraries, we set out to open a literary bookstore with the conviction that the language of fiction illuminates and enriches reality.” The objective is to prescribe and trade, but also to promote the culture of democracy and peace. Gaitán adds: “We want to support the Sierra Nevada Indigenous Memory Library project, which collects the knowledge and culture of the indigenous peoples.” Curating good books unites bookstores with libraries. Also the will to defend the power of data and facts in the current post-truth context.
Ficciones is located very close to Prologue and Wilborada 1047, two Bogotá institutions. And in the neighboring neighborhood of Teusaquillo, which has become the book district par excellence of the capital since the pandemic. Among its bookstores, the classic Casa Tomada and the new Garabato and Matorral stand out, whose iconic architecture goes viral on Instagram profiles. But there is more. Many more. Of all sizes, general and specialized, with a commercial spirit and an activist and social soul. It is one of the bookstore booms that have also occurred in other Latin American capitals, such as Buenos Aires. Apparently, they can’t imagine themselves without bookstores.
An international phenomenon. The inaugurations travel throughout the American continent, from south to north. La Librería Atlántica has created a new branch in Santiago de Chile, which also stands out for its design (and its virality). And late last year, Californian bookstore The Ripped Bodice opened a twin branch in Brooklyn, New York. It is difficult to find a metropolis that has not recently inaugurated a magnetic establishment dedicated to books. In February, Back Story Bookshop opened in Barcelona’s Eixample, with a wide range of books in English and a literally dreamlike children’s space: it invites boys and girls to lie down and read. And in March it did so in the Gracia Sonora neighborhood, also focused, but on titles about music and audio.
2023 was already an important year for bookstores around the world. Just three examples. In Paris, Babylone opened its doors, in an impressive brutalist space, under the structure of the Saint Laurent brand. In New Delhi, the prestigious independent bookstore The Bookshop Inc inaugurated a new, also spectacular, headquarters in a shopping center. And in Florence, Odeon Giunti, which merges the bookstore with a cinema with a hundred years of history, became the new tourist attraction for literati from around the world. As stated on the final page of the publication that tells its story, the metamorphosis has wanted to “make the Odeon a place of culture that projects into the 21st century: open every day from morning to night, and where to go to meet, choose a book, watch a movie or contrast opinions.”
All these trends were analyzed on April 27 and 28 at the Sharjah Booksellers Conference, which took place in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Arab emirate that has dedicated itself completely to the world of books (it is the first free zone in the publishing world, tax exempt). Among its speakers were the Italian Andrea Giunti, who heads the largest bookstore chain in his country, a new partner of the old Odeon cinema; or Emile Tyan, from another chain, Antoine, which has twelve stores in Lebanon; together with colleagues from the five continents.
One of them was the Mexican expert in the book chain Fernando Pascual, responsible in Latin America for the publishing services company Lantia, which publishes the magazine Publisher’s Weekly in Spanish. His perception was that “there is new encouragement to believe that it is worth fighting to have a physical space to share the voice of a catalog” and that we are facing “a growth in the consumption of paper books through points of sale.” specialized.” The pandemic reminded us of the importance of contact and encounter, that life has to be both digital and body, paper, skin. That is why Amazon and online sales have consolidated but have not eclipsed traditional commerce.
From New York to China. Reading Rhythms is defined as “a reading party” and not “a book club.” In exclusive New York bars, terraces or parks, dozens of young people buy a $20 ticket to read accompanied but in silence, while good music plays. If you don’t register, you don’t know the address of the meeting. It’s about belonging to a community of booklovers with whom you know you will feel comfortable, safe, and related. To turn a lifestyle into a password and a commodity.
The Chinese digital publication Jing Daily said it on March 12 in a headline: “Bookstores are the latest obsession of brands in China.” Thanks to them, they can connect with young consumers who prioritize cultural experiences, gender issues and a less fast-paced life. That same month, the Australian cosmetics brand Aesop gave away 23,000 books written by female authors at an event in Shanghai. At the headquarters of the feminist bookstore Paper Moon and that of the Japanese chain Tsutaya, now also present on the continent, perfume brands also designed window displays or pop-ups.
But bookstores aren’t just sexy, they’re also hypercritical. In Putin’s Russia, independents sell books on the history of Ukraine and the USSR, on pacifism and on LGTBI culture. And, as Li Yuan explained on February 23 in the New York Times, Chinese migrants are creating a network of gatherings and debates in bookstores in the cities where they live. He quotes the bookseller Anne Jieping Zhang, who after working in Hong Kong for two decades moved to Taipei in 2022 and opened a bookstore that already has a branch in Chiang Mai, Thailand: “I want my bookstore to be the place where Chinese people from all over the world can exchange ideas.” At the same time she has promoted Matters Lab, a non-centralized social network. The name of her bookstore is perfect: Nowhere. In fact: it is everywhere and nowhere.
