The Wandering Bibliophile

While most of this project will focus on fiction, I’m going to kick it off with one of my favourite nonfiction titles (and an essay) particularly relevant to the topic at hand. Bookshops: A Reader’s History by Jorge Carrión was published by Biblioasis in 2017, and hit shelves just after I left my post there as the Director of Marketing. (Humblebrag: contributing the subtitle for the North American edition was one of my proudest moments in publishing so far). Carrión’s book, in Peter Bush’s excellent translation from the Spanish, is one of those remarkable reads that somehow both satiates and stimulates the mind. The book is an intelligent and charming combination of travelogue, manifesto, and love letter. Reading it makes you want to visit bookshops in other cities and countries, exchange anecdotes and recommendations with the author, and fight the forces threatening to destroy these incredible spaces of social, cultural, and intellectual community.

And, of course, it makes you want to read more. I had to have a pen and notepad handy when reading so I could add titles to my TBR list, or make notes about things I wanted to read up on. I found the behavioural contradiction inspired by the book hilarious and frustrating: I wanted to get up and go traveling to bookshops both near and far, but I also wanted to snuggle in and keep reading Bookshops and do some deep-dive reading on all those wonderful ideas and new reading recommendations I had from within its pages. It was almost like those wonderful chats you have with people sometimes, where you follow one another down the “Have you read…?” rabbit hole. That was my favourite part of being a bookseller, the increased frequency of that rabbit hole and the joy everyone had falling down it.

Here are just three of the books added to my collection after reading this one. All three of these authors were already represented on my shelves, but these books were sought out specifically because of what Carrión said about them in his book. I’ve often wanted to map my books autobiographically, a project far beyond practicality now, but these small connections are satisfying. Two were purchased from Biblioasis bookshop (Biblioasis was a bookshop first, and in 2004 became a publishing house thanks to the determination and will of the intrepid Daniel Wells) and the Kiš was a lucky find in an amazing secondhand shop—Alhambra Books—here in Edmonton. Notice they are also mostly indie publishers:

Given the subject matter of Bookshops: A Reader’s History, it can come as no great surprise that Carrión is not a fan of the big bad Bezos and his Amazonian empire (what decent human being is, really?). Carrión’s essay, Against Amazon: Seven Arguments/One Manifesto, (also translated by Peter Bush)—printed as a chapbook by Biblioasis and posted later at LitHub—is a great companion piece to Bookshops: A Reader’s History (and more support for my lecture in the SIPS launch post). The chapbook made a big splash with indie booksellers and at the Frankfurt Book Fair, as Publishers Weekly reported. For anyone who still needs convincing that Amazon is not the right place to spend money ever, the essay makes a good case.

But I think the book makes an even better one. Why? Because the shops Carrión writes about have individuality, history, purpose, and his book makes you want to be a part of that. Reading this book makes people want to become part of the community created by bookshops, by the immediacy of the connection between author, publisher, bookseller, and reader in those spaces (through books, or shared knowledge/experiences/desires, or events), and by the special knowledge and personalized touch those stores can provide. While a local shop might not be able to guarantee delivery in 24 hours, it can guarantee you the space to explore, and the booksellers who know the literary landscape and who can recommend your next favourite read with much greater success than any algorithm ever will because they also know you as a reader and a person, not just a consumer. In this culture of instant gratification, a little patience is a good thing. It allows room for desire. I just got a phone call from my local shop (Audreys) about 3 special orders that are in from the UK that I have been waiting almost 8 weeks for. And I am so stoked to go pick them up!

Indie bookshops are the best place for indie publishers to find their champions in booksellers, because otherwise their titles are drowned out in the algorithmic noise and the clamour for bestseller status.There is no room for individuality in Bezos’s algorithmic future, which is why the big publishing houses are now all chasing trends and not good literature (if I ever see another blurb declaring “the next Gone Girl,” I’m burning it all down). But the individuality, history, and purpose of indie bookshops perfectly suits the indie publisher. It’s also why indie publishers matter. They take risks. They’re interesting. They are a glitch in the matrix—a commercial enterprise with a cultural heart. Each indie publishers list has a distinct editorial flavour because at a small press every project has to be a passion project. I’ll be writing more about those passion projects as the summer continues, and I’ll be returning to Biblioasis for a closer look at some of their fiction in a later post. But, in the meantime, if you are looking for an intellectual, charming, and engaging read by a kindred spirit, look no further than Jorge Carrión’s Bookshops: A Reader’s History. Happy reading!

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