One of the rare positive effects of the pandemic has been a certain rebound in reading. The months of confinement, the subsequent restrictions on movement and an attenuated social life, also a certain saturation of television series, have renewed the attractions of the book. In parallel, a new flowering of bookstores has taken place in Barcelona. Years ago the trend was the reverse.
Rising rent costs had forced veteran businesses to close. On the other hand, the economic slowdown derived from the pandemic has allowed promoters of new bookstores to open them in premises that were previously perhaps out of reach. And the irruption of philanthropists in the sector has allowed larger-scale projects.
Unexpected effect
The economic stoppage resulting from the pandemic has allowed the opening of new bookstores in premises that were previously out of reach.
How are the new bookstores born in times of pandemic? They are somewhat more domestic than the traditional ones. Books have historically been the absolute protagonists on the bookstore scene. Books that filled the shelves, that overflowed the display tables, that were piled up on the floor, that were waiting in cardboard boxes for their space on the shelves. This is how it should be. What the book buyer wants is to wander among them, in search of the desired title, and also with the hope of discovering other unsuspected and no less rewarding ones.
Smoking books: relaxed atmosphere in the Byron bookstore-cafeteria on Casanova street in Barcelona
The new bookstores, particularly the central ones –which have proliferated, with surfaces often larger than those open in the neighborhoods-, exhibit their vocation of becoming oases, almost living rooms, within the framework of a busy city. Many of them include cafes, or even patios, and are equipped with comfortable reading spaces, sometimes a few armchairs distributed among the shelves, sometimes groups of them that form ad hoc rooms.
It is about offering the buyer a comfortable corner to start the relationship with a book that may end up being consolidated with their purchase. Something different from what happened decades ago in the large FNAC establishments, where so many customers were often standing, circulating between shelves, as if sitting on the floor, tasting books.
A wave of readings: this section of the Ona bookstore in Pau Claris, Barcelona, looks like a museum room
Destinations
Barcelona, publishing capital of Hispanic letters
Barcelona, the publishing capital of Hispanic literature, has always been a city of bookstores. But since the opening of Laie (Pau Claris, 85) in 1980 and La Central (Mallorca, 237) in 1996 – its headquarters in the Raval, opened in 2003, in 2019 set up a bar in its splendid and secluded patio -, it has two leading stores that have little or nothing to envy the best bookstores in Europe. They are stores with a very wide offer, also international (between 30 and 40% of their references), gathered with very good criteria and with attention to both the news and the background: authentic references, which have managed to weather the pandemic reasonably well in times of Amazon, among whose shelves it is a pleasure to walk and look for books, and whose good work and success must also have had something to do with the last flowering of bookstores. For the party to be complete, now it only remains for reading comprehension to improve: that of young Spaniards between 15 and 27 years old is the worst in the EU, only behind Greece.
Among the new Barcelona bookstores of a certain dimension, Ona Llibres stands out (Pau Claris, 94; opened in May 2020, when the first confinement ended). It is exclusively dedicated to books in Catalan. Ona’s cultural and resistance work continues, inaugurated in 1962 in Gran Vía, closed in 2010, reopened three years later in Gran de Gràcia. It has about 1,000 m2, and a large children’s area, but not all of its walls are dedicated to books.
There are also them destined to works of art, exhibition spaces or colorful panels. The transit zones are very wide; the cafe and the function room as well. As a whole, Ona Llibres seems more like a stand than a shop in which one feels continually enveloped by the heat of the volumes.
If behind Ona Llibres is Tatxo Benet, partner of Mediapro, behind Finestres is the pharmaceutical businessman Sergi Ferrer-Salat
If behind Ona Llibres is Tatxo Benet, a partner of Mediapro, behind Finestres (Diputació, 249, opened last April) is the pharmaceutical businessman Sergi Ferrer-Salat. Interior design work is evident in this shop. The tones are sometimes striking, but the atmosphere is comfortable and reminds us of a traditional bookstore.
The booksellers and booksellers are more present in it, in particular in the area dedicated to the essay, whose volumes have been arranged on the shelves by means of a playful, unconventional classification tree, which includes subgenres such as “sexuality to the limit”, “the body under the capitalism ”or“ stupidity ”.
Addictive lyrics: A detail of the cafeteria of the Byron bookstore in Barcelona
The second section of this bookstore, dedicated to literature, from novelties to classics, is completed with lounges, sofas, armchairs and floor lamps, and gives access to a patio with a long table and colored chairs, surrounded by a refreshing vertical garden.
In the founding manifesto of Finestres we read: “Reading is the second best way to be alive.” Faced with this trade, in the 250 of Diputació, Finestres plans to open a smaller sub-office with specialized content in the autumn.
The pandemic has precipitated a rebound in reading and a revaluation of the book, in the image a corner of the Ona bookstore in Barcelona
Ona and Finestres are initiatives with considerable budgets. Byron (Casanova, 32, opened last November), was born on the contrary with contained resources, appealing to the romantic and transgressive spirit of the poet who gives him his name. But, throughout its 500 m2, it is a good example of using such resources with book dignity. Located on the left side of the Eixample, in a long room, it arranges its books on side wooden and metal shelves, with spare lower and classic drawers on the upper level; also on central tables, all well lit.
Read also
The floor is made of wood and the atmosphere has a monastic touch, but it is more than decorous. A spacious room at the end of the route, with a bar counter, armchairs, fireplace and a pleasant entrance of natural light provide the domestic atmosphere to this establishment, which announces to the visitor that they will feel “at home”.
In the neighborhood
Among the latest open bookstores are La Tribu (Sant Andreu); La Carbonera (Poble Sec); o Fahrenheit 451 (Barceloneta), giving new life to the historic Black and Criminal
While these bookstores were opening in the central area of the city, they have been opening today in other areas. Many of them with a neighborhood vocation. Among the latter, La Tribu, in Sant Andreu; La Carbonera, in Poble Sec; or Fahrenheit 451, in Barceloneta, which has given new life to the historic Black and Criminal. Others pay attention to second-hand books, such as Restory, in the wake of Re-Read’s proposal. Others, paying particular attention to foreign literatures, such as La Piccola, in Sarrià, focused on the Italian narrative.
Windows to culture: the Finestres bookstore occupies the ground floor of an Enric Sagnier building on Diputació street in Barcelona
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