How can it be that a city as literary as ours practically never appears in the lists of the most beautiful bookstores in the world? Good question, right? I say practically because, in some of these rankings found on the Internet, there is at least one Barcelona bookstore: Altaïr. If Indiana Jones came to Barcelona and had to prepare a new adventure, we would surely find him in Altaïr, the largest travel bookstore in Europe where, in addition to buying a guide, a map or the memoirs of Alí Bey, you can contact other travelers through a very busy bulletin board. Altaïr is like a kind of base camp where you can also buy travel accessories ---canteens, microfiber towels, multi-purpose knives...--- and small pieces of craftsmanship, brought from the five continents and displayed in elegant showcases that make you think of an oriental bazaar. For the lover of books and travel, Altaïr is always a promise of adventure and, now that covid-19 forces us to stay still, methadone for travel junkies.
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But let's go back to the most beautiful bookstores in the world. Which ones appear on all the lists? To begin with, Shakespeare and Company in Paris, the mythical Anglo-Saxon bookstore next to Notre Dame frequented by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald or James Joyce and, later, some beats like Allen Ginsberg or William Burroughs. El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, located in an old theater in the Recoleta neighborhood and considered by National Geographic the most beautiful in the world, is also a classic in the rankings. Of course, the wonderful Livraria Lello in Porto, which Harry Potter, by magic, has turned into a first-rate tourist attraction, although many only enter to photograph themselves on its impressive modernist staircase. Shall we continue? The Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht, a more than 700-year-old church converted into a temple of literature, leaves you speechless. Among the most beautiful we also find small, chaotic or decadent bookstores like Acqua Alta in Venice, a second-hand bookstore with mountains of books everywhere where cats take their naps. Or Atlantis Books in Santorini, a very peculiar Greek bookstore that opened its doors in 2004 on this picturesque Aegean island. It is run by an international group of friends who have managed to turn it into a cultural center and a must-visit for literati.
Altaïr is always a promise of adventure and, now that covid-19 forces us to stay still, methadone for travel junkiesI admit it: it makes me a little angry that Barcelona is not also known as a city of beautiful bookstores.Especially because the love we Barcelonans feel for books is beyond doubt. On Sant Jordi, we literally or literarily take to the streets to browse and choose books in one of the most massive and beautiful acts of love for literature in the world. Barcelona also holds the title of capital of Spanish-language publishing, and without it, for example, the Latin American boom would not be explained. Therefore, I repeat, how can it be that Barcelona does not permanently have several bookstores on the lists of the most beautiful in the world?
Honestly, I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the fact that some of our historic bookstores have closed or, at best, have had to move to neighborhoods with less tourist pressure and, therefore, with more reasonable rents, has not helped. In this sense, one of the most keenly felt losses is that of the Canuda bookstore ---Carlos Ruiz Zafón's The Cemetery of Forgotten Books in The Shadow of the Wind---, which closed its doors in 2013. For those interested, in La Canuda i el comerç del llibre de vell (Comanegra, 2020), the philologist Manuel Llanas pleasantly reviews the history of this popular bookstore. We could also mention the disappearance of Ancora and Delfín or the relocation of Jaimes or Documenta. A shame.
I prefer to live in a city where bookstores are not relics of the past turned into tourist attractions, but lighthouses that illuminate us amidst so much darknessHey! But this does not mean that Barcelona is running out of bookstores. On the contrary. I believe we have a rich and healthy ecosystem made up of large, well-established bookstores like La Central, Laie, or La Casa del Libro, and small neighborhood or specialized bookstoresthat, perhaps without making much noise or appearing on Instagram, have a loyal and enthusiastic clientele. I'm thinking, for example, of Antinous or On the Road. La Calders and La Nollegiu have become two powerful centers for promoting reading in recent years. Not even covid-19 has stopped the opening of new bookstores! If, before the summer, the new Ona Llibres opened its doors, this autumn Fahrenheit 451 in Barceloneta, Byron or Finestres have done so or will do so.
Therefore, although I would like Barcelona to be known worldwide for its beautiful bookstores, I prefer to live in a city where bookstores are not relics of the past converted into tourist attractions ---of that, Barcelonans, we are already quite well served---, but lighthouses that illuminate us amidst so much darkness.