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mazon was born as an online bookstore, offering books delivered to homes at low prices in competition with traditional bookstores. Then came the e-book, which also threatened to annihilate the supremacy of the physical book as a repository of human knowledge since the invention of writing. The paper book seemed condemned to suffer the same fate as so many other physical information storage formats. Before, we had said goodbye to vinyl records, cassettes, VHS or Betamax videos. Then would come the holocaust of CDs, DVDs, and celluloid. Simultaneously, we witnessed the defeat of the printed press. But the paper book, unexpectedly, survives with a bad health of iron.
For Amazon, today, book sales are a marginal business (it will soon drop below 5% of its total sales), although it still poses a very real threat to traditional bookstores. The phenomenon is not new: only between 1995 and 2000, 43% of all bookstores in the United States closed, with the emergence of Amazon being the main reason. Just ask Barnes & Noble, which for decades was the largest book distribution company in the world thanks to its network of physical bookstores. Today it struggles not to go bankrupt and competes with Amazon's physical bookstores which, alas, will surely reach our latitudes soon.
But, paradoxically, the crisis and closure of many traditional bookstores in the United States coincided with the emergence of independent bookstores. Borders, another large American bookstore chain, had to leave the business in 2011. But, curiously, between that year and 2015, the American Booksellers Association reported a 35% growth in the number of independent bookstores.
Barcelona is not comparable in many ways to a market as enormous as that of the United States, but we know that when an earthquake shakes the American markets, the tremor also reaches here sooner or later. 2014 was a black year: in the province of Barcelona alone, 132 bookstores disappeared, going from 458 to 326. The economic crisis, the expiration of old rent contracts, and the generalized rise in prices of premises in commercial areas also played a role. In recent years we have seen how diverse and emblematic bookstores such as Negra y Criminal, the heroic bookstore of Barceloneta, created by the recently deceased Paco Camarasa and Montse Clavé; Àncora y Delfín (1962-2012), whose iconic sign is preserved in the Disseny Hub Barcelona; Librería Martínez Pérez (1890-2012), specialized in art and which counted among its clients figures such as Picasso, Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch, Joan Miró or Salvador Dalí; Librería Catalonia (1924-2013), today ominously replaced by a McDonald's; or Proa, the Pequod, which in many ways was ahead of its time but could not overcome the crisis... the string of corpses is endless.
The phenomenon, however, seems to have reversed. In the last two years, 17 bookstores have closed in Catalonia, but 55 new ones have opened. The balance is, therefore, positive. But the success of the new bookstores is inextricably linked to new approaches. In addition to maintaining the traditional role of connoisseurs of the product they sell, the new booksellers are committed to turning their businesses into centers of cultural agitation. And often the new bookstores are located in neighborhoods, partly because a bookstore can hardly afford the rent of a premises on Paseo de Gracia, and partly due to a conscious decision to get closer to city life and seek local customers. They are, in short, much more than simple businesses. They are almost author bookstores. Not all the books that can be found online are there, but there is life and human relationships in addition to literature.
One of the pioneers of this new batch was Calders, located in the Sant Antoni neighborhood, in an alley with clearly literary resonances, that of Pere Calders, and which knew how to embrace new trends before the gentrifying flood that invades the area. It has a bar, a very intense agenda of literary (and paraliterary) events and, last but not least, it preserves the most important thing a good bookseller must have: criterion. Isabel Sucunza and Abel Cutillas' bookstore fulfills the role of the bookseller as a top prescriber, very far from the talent as a logistics genius that Amazon has become. There are those who complain that the books are not labeled with prices, and also hipsters who wander in to rent bicycles. Following Isabel Sucunza on Twitter or through her work as a columnist is also an excellent way to love books and her bookstore more. When they want to classify them, those at Calders always respond that they are a bookstore specializing in books.
Together with Calders, it was at the forefront of the new wave of independent bookstores that have opened in Barcelona. The name, [Do Not Read], is a provocation by its owner, journalist Xavier Vidal, established since 2013 in an apparently unliterary neighborhood like Poblenou (Amistat, 22). The premises, which hosted recitals, presentations, music, and performances, became too small, and it has moved to the three floors of the old Juanita store (Pons i Subirà, 3). To make this possible, a crowdfunding campaign had to be carried out, and since 2017 it has occupied its new headquarters. The sofas invite customers to sample the books before purchasing them, and a free coffee is offered if the customer does not leave empty-handed. On the ground floor is narrative, graphic novels, and a selection of poetry. On the second floor, which was occupied for a time by the Catalunya Europa Foundation, is the headquarters of the Creative Reading School linked to the bookstore with very intensive courses. They are open all year from Monday to Sunday morning, except between June and September, when they close on Sundays. A brave bet steeped in a certain hipster marketing, because commercial intelligence in the world of books should not be reserved for the Laras and the Bezos.
Linking with the long Barcelona tradition of subversive bookstores, but adapted to the zeitgeist, La Caníbal (Nápoles, 314) is a non-profit work cooperative that aims to contribute to "an anti-capitalist, (trans)feminist and decolonized horizon". Founded by Jesús Arpal Moya (artist, half of Jeleton), Amanda Cuesta Hernández (art critic, curator, editor) and Julia Montilla Campillo (artist), it is openly a center of agitation ahead of a book selling business. Consequently, its collections abound in themes of social transformation, with a clearly militant spirit. They also organize activities of high political voltage, and offer the space to transformative initiatives and projects, always from radicalism, against anything that can be described as hegemonic and with gender discourse as the common thread of most of their activities.
Born with the intention of becoming the bookstore of Poblesec (Blai, 40), it operates as a cooperative and sells both new and second-hand books. The range of activities includes reading clubs for children and adults and in several languages, poetry recitals or writing workshops. Becoming a member of the cooperative grants the right to discounts, and is also the strategy with which La Carbonera wants to strengthen ties with the neighborhood where it is located. The little ones can enjoy activities for them every Saturday morning, and they also organize events such as the recent improvised poetry contest, a poetry slam that took place in a boxing ring provided by the Ateneo de Oficios. This, too, is much more than a bookstore.
Located in the Les Corts neighborhood (Caballero, 58), it specializes in children's and young adult literature, although they are not averse to other genres. They have also incorporated coffee as a mercantile seduction element to delve into books and make the purchase a more pleasant experience. The corporate image, with omnipresent cats in the establishment, is also part of the features that differentiate new independent bookstores. And, as seems to be the norm for the new generation of booksellers, they also work on creating an intense agenda, in this case of activities for the whole family: storytelling, craft workshops, reading clubs, presentations, challenges among readers. There is also a huge blackboard where you can leave an artistic mark. Its owner, Marta Gil Soler, worked as a teacher before specializing in financial management, and then trained at the School of Bookselling of the University of Barcelona. A multidisciplinary training that has now made her an exceptionally well-prepared bookseller.
In the heart of the Sants neighborhood (Galileu, 78), Glòria Aquillo and Anun Giménez opened their bookstore at the end of 2017, in a space previously occupied by a greengrocer. The name was born as a joke after receiving numerous comments advising against embarking on the uncertain adventure of opening a bookstore in these times. In their case, the idea of setting up the business was a consequence of participating in a reading club, and after doing a postgraduate degree in the specialty, they decided to open the business. They want to be a neighborhood bookstore but also a literary bookstore with few concessions to more commercial books. Among the titles that will never be missing from their inventory are "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" by Mary Wollstonecraft, or "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino, although they understand literature as a category where Joe Sacco's graphic novels also have full rights. There are plenty of activities such as creative writing courses this June, reading groups on various topics, and even literary vermouths where they invite authors.
The UB School of Booksellers is creating a new generation of booksellers who are actively participating in the transformation of the sector in the city. From there have come the owners of El Gato Peludo and La Inexplicable, and also Nuria Carcamo and Aitor Martos, creators of Sendak (Còrsega, 461), a name that pays homage to Maurice Bernard Sendak, American children's literature illustrator and writer. This already gives a clue that Sendak specializes in readings for the youngest. They take the training of future readers very seriously, through cooperation with educational centers, libraries, entities, and cultural facilities. An initiative perhaps more necessary than ever in times when the little ones stick to screens with as much enthusiasm as adults.
Inaugurated in September 2017, SomNegra (Aragó, 108) aims to fill the void left by Negra y Criminal in the dissemination of crime novels in Barcelona. In this new incarnation, mussels are not served at presentations, as became tradition in its predecessor, and in this case the online bookstore preceded the inauguration of the physical bookstore. The basic reason is that its owner, Miguel Ángel Díaz, lived in Collbató and ran a stationery store in Esparreguera where he began to dedicate a corner to his favorite genre, but to reach his potential readers the town was too small. Although there he already tried to link the town with noir by organizing the festival Collbató Negre, which has brought numerous authors of the genre to the foot of Montserrat. Díaz maintained a personal relationship with Paco Camarasa, who passed away that same year but personally took charge of cutting the inaugural ribbon of SomNegra.
Montse Serrano is not exactly a newcomer to the world of booksellers. She was at the helm of Bernat since 1978, when she was only 22 years old and decided to acquire the transfer of a small bookstore in her neighborhood. In 2010, she recognized the need to reinvent herself. She decided to incorporate 25 new partners into her business, and with their help, she moved to a much larger premises (previously occupied by a sex shop), installed a cafeteria at the entrance, a piano at the back, and mixed tea, coffee, homemade food, and cultural events to shelter the world of books. Now there are 50 partners in a cooperative regime. This is how +Bernat (Buenos Aires, 6-8) was born, which defines itself more as a cultural warehouse than as a simple bookstore. Among its current partners are media stars like Mercedes Milán. Montse, with her wheelchair and all, appears as a character in Enrique Vila-Matas' novel "Aire de Dylan," and the writer is a regular at the bookstore.
Featured images: Photographs taken from the bookstores' social media.