It is more than a beautiful and impressive tradition. Arriving another year on April 23, Sant Jordi’s Day, invites us to reflect on the key role that bookstores play in our society. The great technological transformation that we are going through and which modifies many reading habits precisely highlights its relevance in our cultural life.
Recently the Casa del Libro in Madrid has celebrated its centenary; the space founded in 1923 by Nicolás MarÃa de Urgoiti and endorsed by José Ortega y Gasset, with an innovative architecture and interior layout, was for a long time, before and after the Civil War, an unavoidable cultural point and is in the origin of what is currently the main bookstore chain in the country with 54 bookstores, seven of them in the province of Barcelona. Today it is part of the Planeta group, and serves one in five literature and humanities books bought in Spain. At the commemorative event, the president of the group, José Creuheras, recalled that “Home” is a refuge, “where we feel safe”, and quoted the 19th century explorer Richard Francis Burton: “My home is where there are my books”.
If the Casa del Libro is an example of how an innovative initiative put into orbit a hundred years ago has been able to grow and consolidate itself as a reference bookshop, independent bookstores constitute a crucial nucleus of cultural vitality, and they are debating how to reassert themselves in the current context. The strategic consulting agency Prodigioso Volcán recently brought together a group of sector analysts in two debate sessions, in Barcelona and Madrid, to discuss “the book revolution”, and they drew interesting reflections.
Those summoned started from some objective data: 64.8% of Spaniards say they read in their free time; 52.8 bought a book last year; the traditional bookstore remains the main sales channel, with 69.9%. And the book market is in full growth, having obtained a historic 2021 in its sales.
In dealing with the strengths of independent bookstores, the study highlights the “customer experience”, which makes the bookstore irreplaceable, providing an “anchor of authenticity” to the reader who goes in search of a complete experience and a reaffirmation of their values; underlines the value of the increasingly numerous ones that become local cultural centers, with presentations, book clubs and activities for the little ones; they are a kind of promoters and catalysts of neighborhood activities, often creating alliances with other spaces.
Many new bookstores build communities of followers through social media; they bet on digital marketing, since sales through this channel account for 30% of their business. The physical and digital sections must be combined, they recommend, in phygital initiatives, bringing together the quality of one and the facilities of the other. The newsletters that filter the editorial offer to the user are highlighted; the bookseller, the study points out with that characteristic language of consultancies, is both a prescriber and a storyteller.
Many bookstores today are diversifying, adding stationery, bistros or curious objects close to books. Cross-sector practices are born, coordination in the independent bookstore sector, with thematic alliances.
The human team is its fundamental value, and this drives us to create new initiatives related to the book, extending its life cycle, thinking of a segmented and personalized offer.
Independent and neighborhood bookstores “must assert themselves as meeting places, for personal growth and discovery”, notes the Prodigioso Volcán study. “Discussing books with people is the best way to enjoy literature”, they add.
The vision of a large chain and this study on independent bookstores, complementary, refer us to the adaptation of the millennial reading practice to the new times. A key element in favor of the work of bookstores is exercised by the prescription carried out by the literary supplements of some information media, such as the one they have in their hands.
Those of us who prepare La Vanguardia’s Cultura/s supplement also consider that commenting on news with seriousness and amenity constitutes a service to readers that is as useful as it is necessary and pleasant. We try to offer it every week and especially with our Sant Jordi special. This year they were able to find an original graphic proposal on the cycles of the book, from the material substrate to the spiritual impact, the work of Jorge Carrión and Ana Galvañ; and we also offer an interview with the thinker and philologist Nuccio Ordine, who claims a personalized dialogue with the classics; reports about the book universe, and a wide range of recommendations in the different publishing genres by our specialists.
Another year, the preparation of the supplement leads us to congratulate ourselves for the privilege of working in literary information, and of having a party like the one on April 23, of which without exaggeration it can be said that it is the most outstanding in its kind in the world.
