Got Books? Conversations with Booksellers

Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Alex, co-founder of the first and only bookshop selling new english books in Lisbon, Portugal, Salted Books. This conversation was yet another proof, in case you needed one, that women can indeed do it all, if they set their mind to it. Alex has started Salted Books with her partner Mark, and she has done so without giving up her work and while raising two children. She’s created a magical space that only opened its doors about 5 months ago but has already received raving reviews from readers and writers in Lisbon, and if you head over to their Instagram page you’ll see why. The book curation couldn’t be more relevant, the design of the space is bold and beautiful and it just feels fresh and exciting and like you want to be there. Alex is also hosting intimate and very safe writing spaces, where early on a Tuesday mornings writers come together to write in silence, by candlelight. She’s bringing new voices to Lisbon and encouraging those in Lisbon to write and get creative. This conversation felt encouraging and uplifting and it confirmed a suspicion I’ve had for a while now, interviewing bookshop owners all around the world: starting and running a bookshop is a bit of an art form and there’s a lot of artistic freedom in how it can be done. Here’s my conversation with Alex.

Many of you may know that the main reason Got Books started, years ago, was that I wanted to have my own bookshop and so I figured it would be good to chat to lots of booksellers before I start what seemed like ..a bit of a wild adventure. Then..years passed, many conversations with booksellers were had, but I kept putting this dream of opening a bookshop on hold, for all sorts of reasons. I’m sure you can relate..there’s never a perfect time. A couple of weeks ago though, a small, cozy, kind of perfect location became available in my village so I decided to just go for it..I’ve signed a lease and, together with a few other neighbors and friends who are also really into books, just like you and me, we’re slowly putting together what may be the world’s smallest bookshop. It will be a side project for now, as I do have a full time job that I very much love and a two year old daughter that keeps me entertained and busy, but it’s happening, I’ll open a bookshop. I see it as a community project, since so many people are already contributing with ideas, books, pieces of furniture, their time.. and with that in mind, I have a favour I’d like to ask. If Got Books is a podcast that you enjoy and you’ve been on this bookshop dreaming journey with me, I’d love to ask for you to become a small part of this bookshop too. One way to do that would be to send me one or a few books you’d like to donate to my bookshop, and I’ll post the mailing address in the show notes; if you could add a note inside each book about why you chose it, why you liked it..I’ll make sure that your notes go up on the shelves too, for all to see. It would mean so much to me to get books from around the world from Got Books listeners and have these be some of the very first books as we open our doors. Another way to support this brand new bookshop, especially if you live far from Spain and sending books my way doesn’t feel like the most climate friendly thing to do, is to send me suggestions for how to name the bookshop. It may seem strange that I don’t have a name yet, given how long I’ve been thinking about it, but..I do not, so if you feel inspired, send me ideas on how to name a bookshop that is small, cozy, in a Spanish village by the sea, selling books in both English and Spanish. Feel free to email me your ideas a gotbookspodcast@gmail.com

Thank you so much for listening and would love to get books and name ideas from you! In the meantime, I’m working on new Got Books episodes and looking forward to the second meetup of the Future Booksellers Club, happening on Feb 24th. You can come too, by registering at gotbookspodcast.com

Until next time, sit back, relax and enjoy a good book!

Mailing address for books:

Antonia Caraveteanu

Calle Embajadores 29, 04638, Mojacar, Spain

Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Edgars, owner of Robert’s Books, in Riga, Latvia. Robert’s Books was Riga’s first English bookshop and it has become, over the years, much more than that - a community space, a place to meet, work, relax, think, discuss, have fun, read and just be. It has also been a space for social experiments, one of its more recent ones involving a bit of a.. grey area: a sex shop inside the bookshop.

Robert’s Books first opened its doors in 2008 and since then has changed its location twice. Edgars story of how he came to own Robert’s Books is perhaps one of the most unbelievable stories I’ve come across, one fit for a novel. The father of Robert’s Books is journalist Robert Cottrell, who then gifted the shop to Edgars. Not a bad start to bookselling. Edgars was very young at the time, but he was not alone, he had a small team and together they not only kept the shop open, but they made it thrive and become the community and safe haven it is today. Here’s my conversation with Edgars.

Future Booksellers Club 1st Meetup

Gifts for Future Booksellers

Show notes:

Hi everyone! How are you doing? If you celebrate Christmas, are you getting into the holiday mood already? Here is Spain where I am it’s still quite warm, but I’m about to go to Romania, where I’m from, and really hoping for some snow, also so that my daughter can see snow for the first time in her life. I wanted to quickly record this short episode to tell you about a project I just started very much inspired by my conversations with booksellers on this show. Ever since I started Got Books, almost 3 years ago, I’ve been getting messages from around the world from folks who, like me, dream of one day opening their own bookshop. In my head, these are future bookseller and I hope many of them, myself included, will actually make their dream come true one day. That's how the idea of the Future Booksellers Club came about! The Future Booksellers Club is a space for those eager to one day drop everything (except their books) and become booksellers. Our online meetups cover topics ranging from naming your shop (and the shop's resident cat) to the more practical challenges, such as having a physical bookshop in the internet era. Every once in a while, we invite present-day booksellers to come along, so we can learn what it's really like to manage a bookshop.

My hope is that the Future Booksellers Club helps us keep on dreaming of our own bookshop, until we're ready to open its doors. Our first ever meetup is on January 13, because I don’t believe in bad luck so I’m happy to start something new on the 13th, and it will take place online. If you are a future bookseller, you can register to attend by going to … and this is another announcement, our brand new website, gotbookspodcast.com and look for the Future Booksellers Club page. Come along to our first meetup, the more the merrier.

On that same page and with Christmas fast approaching, you’ll also find some gift ideas either for yourself or for people in your life that are thinking-hoping-dreaming of one day becoming booksellers. These are t-shirts and sweatshirts with messages all about bookselling, like “to be or not to be a bookseller, that is the question” or simply..”I wish I were a bookseller”. Since Got Books? is and always will be free, and ad-free, any purchase you make is a small way to support me in my podcasting efforts. And they could make a fun Christmas gift too.

Alright, that’s all my news for now, head over to gotbookspodcast.com to check our this brand new website, which I made myself, and our Future Booksellers Club. And if you don’t hear from me before that, have the best Christmas with lots of love, warmth, and of course some nice cozy books.

Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Danny Caine, bookseller and co-owner of ⁠The Raven Bookstore⁠ in Lawrence, Kansas.

The Raven was founded in 1987 as a mystery-specialty store, and today you can walk in to find books of fiction, current events, environmental writing, children's books, science fiction, romance, and poetry. The poetry section in particular might have something to do with today’s guest, who is himself a published poet. But we’ll come back to that.

In recent years, the Raven and especially it’s majority owner Danny have become small business and anti-Amazon activists, through viral tweets turned into books, media appearances, such as this one, and a growing collection of activist zines. And as of 2022, the Raven is one of the very few employee-owned bookstores.

The Raven stands for something. It believes that reading books won't fix the world's problems, but they can be a pretty good place to start. It believes that Amazon is bad and the United States Postal Service is good. And it believes that small businesses and independent bookstores are vital to their communities.

Danny wrote 2 books on the topic too, so I’ve invited him on Got Books to talk about his career as a bookseller, his popular books encouraging us to protect independent bookstores and of course..books. Here’s my conversation with Danny Caine, from The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas.

Today we are going to the United States, in Madison, New Jersey, to a bookshop with the most fitting of names - The Nature of Reading. The concept of this bookshop feels quite unique to me: pulling together the joy and wonder of the natural world with the knowledge and passion to fight for its survival. It is an environmental bookstore sand it specializes in seasonal reading, nature writing, and climate change books, helping spread the messages of local environmental groups and leading both children and adults to reconnect with nature and reading.I love so many things about this bookshop - how it began as a pandemic quest for more meaning, how young and brave Hailey, its founder, is, how it first started as a pop up bookshop and then with community support turned into what it is today, how it has a tree inside the shop (ok, not a real tree..but not all kids can tell), and especially how it wants to raise awareness and action when it comes to the climate crisis by taking a gentle approach rooted in love and appreciation for nature. Here's my conversation with Hailey.

Pillow-Cat Books is all about animals in books.

Wonderland Bookshop! are all in on the Alice-in-Wonderland theme.

Robert Humm & Co. is "Britain's largest railway bookshop".

Libreria il Mare in Italy is a store that's all about H2O.

Libreria Griot is an Italian bookstore that's all about African literature.

Heading to Berlin, we've got the Bibliotheca-Culinaria Kochbuchantiquariat, a food lover's paradise, with over 15,000 vintage cookbooks.

In London, Bookmarks is the place to be for radical and socialist reads.

Now, let's cross the Channel to Librairie des Femmes, a Parisian gem that celebrates women's writing. La Anonima, in Madrid, aims to pay tribute to those women who have been silenced, unable to sign their texts, and have signed, in many cases, as Anonymous. Like Chicago’s Women and Children First

In Brussels, it's a two-in-one deal at Cook & Book. This bookstore slash restaurant offers nine unique rooms with different atmospheres and book selections.

And for all you theater buffs, head to Germany's EINAR & BERT THEATERBUCHHANDLUNG. From children's theater to operas, they've got all things stage-related.

Finally, in the heart of Madrid, we've got La Librería, a treasure trove of literature dedicated to the vibrant history and legends of Madrid.

La Casquería is a bookstore located in a stall at the San Fernando market in Lavapiés. Just like neighboring fruit stands, butchers, and fishmongers, here, everything is sold by weight."

And The Nature of Reading is an environmental bookstore specializing in seasonal reading, nature writing, and climate change books, pulling together the joy and wonder of the natural world with the knowledge and passion to fight for its survival.

Today we are traveling to the south of Spain, to get some sun and more importantly talk to Federico, a bookseller in Malaga's Libreria Luces. This is a bookshop that describes itself as an experience, a literary and cultural experience. Just last week it turned 20, which, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, you know is a major achievement for an independent bookstore. If Libreria Luces could talk, it would have quite a few stories to tell: not only did it survive a pandemic, but it also made it through a very loud, years-long period of a subway station being constructed just on its doorstep - you can just imagine how good that can be for business. But despite the odds, it perseveres, and it continues on its mission to promote reading as a fundamental activity in people's lives. On its website, Libreria Luces puts sustainability at the very top of its list of values, something I haven't seen any other bookshop do. They also do a million partnerships, turning the city itself into one big bookshop. They're 20 years old and growing..and as any 20 year old will have experienced, they're constantly changing, learning and embracing new social media platforms. If your summer plans take you to Malaga this year, make sure you pay them a visit. 

Today we are going back to Australia, to a small town called Kiama. Here we'll step into Bouquiniste https://shop.bouquiniste.com.au/, founded in 2017 by Clay and Hannah, two Kiama locals with a background in writing, publishing, retail, hospitality.. and one of them a former DJ. That's Clay, my guest today. When you enter the store, you'll see a disco ball, and that gives you an idea of the space you've just stepped into. This is not a quiet bookstore, but rather a welcoming, a little loud, a little funky place, where you can go in for a chat, a coffee, a glass of wine, and of course..books.

The space has a nice history too. Back in 1983, Clay’s parents first leased the space where the bookstore is now for their optical business. So he actually grew up playing on the shop floor.  The space is small, which means you'll find highly curated bookshelves. You're also likely to come in and find yourself in the middle of a book event of some sort, maybe a party, or accidently join the Bouquiniste monthly bookclub. Make sure you stop by if you're in Kiama, I definitely will.. I already promised Clay.

Before we listen to my conversation with today's bookseller, I did want to let you know that I'm working on a book recommendation project. So that every other week, I can bring you a new book, either a personal favourite or one that Got Books guests have recommended here on the podcast. Stay tuned for this, I'll announce it on our social media once it's ready. And now, back to my chat with Clay, enjoy!

Harmony Bookshop opened its doors on Varanasi’s Assi Ghat in December 1996 and ever since it has grown into a cultural hub, bringing together scholars, artists, researchers, and all other book loving travelers, from India and abroad. This is a bookshop like no other. To enter, you must first remove your shoes. After all, books are sacred..and in this small bookshop many of them are resting on the floor and its owner and bookseller, Rakesh, would not like to see them damaged. He's built an incredible collection, spanning  a diverse range of books on India and other subjects: academic texts by Indologists and social scientists, treatises on spirituality and yoga, sumptuous art books, literary fiction and much more.

If you walk down Linienstraße in the heart of Berlin's gentrified neighborhood, Mitte, you will come across beautiful little shops, a Japanese cafe, cozy restaurants, and more recently.. an intriguing space called simply.. About. This is a bookshop with a unique concept: its owner, former art curator, picks a theme and then runs with it, selecting books that fit into this theme..for a while. Every 3 months or so, the theme changes. The concept of the bookshop (focusing on temporary topics) expands and occasionally authors, artists are invited to choose a topic and to curate the selection of books. In the future, Gesine, About's owner, plans to invite a bookseller from another city/country to shape the program of the bookshop, with the idea to open up to further perspectives and controversies.

About's owner picked this neighbourhood, Berlin Mitte, because she feels independent bookshops should also serve as community spaces, representing a counterbalance in areas otherwise absorbed by purely commercial enterprises. A space where people can come together, have a cup of coffee, discuss and dissect one topic at a time, and of course discover a book they may otherwise never have.

Today we will be going back to Cappelens Forslag, a bookshop that I'm sure you remember from our first season. And if you missed that episode, do go back and give it a listen, it's a conversation I loved where we even discuss a famous book heist. My guest today is Pil Cappelen Smith, booksellers, owner of Cappelens Forslag and now also a publisher. Christmas may not be his favourite season, but he did join me for a conversation about Christmas book shopping, the joys of the holidays (despite their way-too-capitalistic flair) and shared his perhaps unusual choice of favourite story set around this time of year. Here's my conversation with Pil.

Today's conversation brings you back two booksellers who I'm sure you remember from a not so distant episode - Julia König and David Bloomfield are two of the charming and very knowledgeable booksellers that will welcome you to Golden Hare. This beautiful independent bookshop in Edinburgh's Stockbridge covers all genres from cookery to travel, kid's picture books to science fiction. And around Christmas time it's the perfect place to go to, as they they also have a fireplace, a Christmas tree and handwritten book recommendations from their staff. Julia and David were my guests on the second episode of Season 2 and are back today for a much more Christmasy conversation.

Today's conversation may take you back in time, as my guest is Shaun Bythell, whose books are the inspiration for this podcast and who was also our very first guest back in January. Shaun's books are diaries of his time as a bookseller, all inspired by his many years of running Scotland's second largest second hand bookshop, fittingly called.. The Bookshop. You can find it in a small town where 1,000 people live and 10,000 visit every year - Wigtown, Scotland’s National Booktown. I've invited Shaun today to tell us how he feels about Christmas, what he does to prepare his bookshop for the holidays and what books he thinks we should get as presents this year.

Today you can eavesdrop on my conversation with Stephen Fowler, an old friend of ours on Got Books who I'm sure you remember from Season 1. Stephen runs perhaps one of the quirkiest bookshops in the world, called the Monkey's Paw in Toronto. He specialises in odd books dated before 1980 and he's come to share some the latest additions to his collection on today's episode. His bookshop is also known for its famous BiblioMat, a vending machine that spits out a randomly selected vintage volume in exchange for a token. So if happen to be in Toronto and you're feeling lucky, pay a visit to the Monkey's Paw and see what the Bibliomat has in store for you. If you're not there though, this conversation is as close as it gets.

Today I will be chatting with Charlotte Delattre, who I am sure you remember from one of our very episodes in season 1. Charlotte is the charming co-owner of Desperate Literature in Madrid, a truly magical independent bookshop in the heart of the city, welcoming Madrilenos, travelers and unidentified walk-ins all year round. In fact, Desperate Literature is even open on Christmas Day, to provide a warm bookish space for those who may not yet have Christmas plans. I'm so glad Charlotte agreed to come back to Got Books to tell us about Christmas at Desperate Literature.

Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast about books, booksellers and bookmakers. Today I'll share with you 5 articles I read this week from the world of books, and then we'll chat to my guest Emily Feetham about one of her favourite books this year. Let's get to it.

The Marginalian gives us a wonderful list of best books https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/01/30/writers-top-ten-favorite-books/

11 New Books to be grateful for this week: https://lithub.com/11-new-books-to-be-grateful-for-this-week/

Samir Mansour is rebuilding his bookstore in Gaza: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/mena/sharjah-palestinian-publisher-to-rebuild-destroyed-library-after-sheikha-bodours-support

Book-Ish, a Welsh indie bookstore, is crowdfunding https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-keep-bookish-on-the-high-street?utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

And finally, what a year for African Writing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/20/from-the-booker-to-the-nobel-why-2021-is-a-great-year-for-african-writing

Today we will enter the world of a small, artisan publishing house in Spain - Sabina Editorial, a publishing house passionate about books well made that talk about the things that matter. And that are written by women.

The publishing industry is shifting and adapting, and the role of small independent publishing houses may be changing with it. Many writers are starting to look at small presses first, perhaps preferring the more advantageous contract terms they can offer. Small publishing houses can also be more focused and selective, dedicating themselves entirely to women writers, LGBTQ+ writers, or writers of colour. They can, perhaps more than large publishers, enjoy the freedom to take a risk on experimental writing or on a new form of poetry, bringing us new voices and different approaches from established writers. They are essential in keeping diversity in publishing alive.

My guest today is Carmen Oliart, one of the women in charge of Sabina Editorial. Carmen has kindly agreed to give us an hour of her time to talk about what she does, what is important for her when deciding to publish a book and why feminine freedom is a concept we should care about.

For centuries, Somalia has been known as the "nation of poets" but this tradition has largely been the preserve of men. It is unusual for Somali women to be the primary storytellers, yet they are now the ones taking on that mantle when living abroad. One of these storytellers is Ali Farah, who says this is because they have "more space" outside Somalia to pursue their literary ambitions - unshackled as they are from the cultural expectations placed upon them in a male-dominated society. You can read more about Ali Farah's work and new book in the BBC article https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58845340

Speaking of women in literature, a woman won a million-euro Spanish literary prize. But then It turned out that ‘she’ was actually three men. Maybe it won't surprise you to hear that the work of one woman was, it turned out, the equivalent of the work of three men.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/17/carmen-mola-spain-gender-reveal-female-writer-three-men/

Next up, we go to Israel, where two of the biggest bookstores say they are no longer selling works by Irish author Sally Rooney, after she refused to allow an Israeli publisher to translate her new book into Hebrew. You may have heard about this already, as it was also a big Twitter event, but essentially: Sally Rooney said it was in support of calls to boycott Israel over its policies towards the Palestinians. The move by the bookstores follows a backlash against Rooney's decision.

And finally, before we go to our book review, I thought I'd share with you a list of lists. A few friends asked me recently what to read - autumn and winter and good times to cozy up with a book, but..which book? Lithub has taken a mathematical approach to this conundrum and they compiled The Ultimate Fall 2021 Books - by looking over a total of 36 lists, which together recommended over 400 books being published this autumn. Seventy-seven of those 400 were recommended at least three times, and that's how they made it on this list of list. I'll just tell you the top 5 and link the article so you can check them all out. So top 5 most mentioned books on lists of books are - Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle; the just mentioned Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You (which by the way we reviewed on a previous episode, if you're curious); Lauren Groff, Matrix; Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land; and Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads.

https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-fall-2021-books-preview/

And now, let's chat to Daniela Barani about a great book: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Diwan is a story, not just a store. And today's we will hear the story of this Egyptian bookshop from its founder, Nadia Wassef.

Opened in 2002 as the only independent bookstore of its kind in Egypt, Diwan enchants its patrons with its mix of east and west, old and new, serious and playful.  They say ... "Our approach is to enrich our clients’ lives by transforming the act of “buying a book” into a cultural, artistic, and culinary experience, and offering them a visually appealing and relaxing ambiance every time they step into our stores." It is all about intentionality: every detail is thought through, from the name - Diwan, to the aesthetic of the bookshops, and of course to their wide book selection, in Arabic, but also English, French and German.

If you cannot visit Cairo and Diwan at the moment, what you can do is read Nadia Wassef's very recently published book, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller. The book will take you back in time, to visit the Cairo of long ago, through the eyes of a charming bookseller. It will make you even more aware of the meaning of a bookshop for a community, even in times as troubling as a revolution. Nadia kindly agreed to chat with me today about Diwan, her all time favourite books, and what success means for a bookshop.

https://www.ft.com/content/42bb3a0f-ba18-4dc7-ae8a-570fd989cbfc

While these and many other bookshops are thriving, sadly booksellers in the Afghan capital Kabul are having a difficult time. As I am sure you know, the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement has seized the city in August and declared Afghanistan an Islamic Emirate. This has consequences at all levels of society, affecting booksellers as well. 

https://www.news18.com/news/world/considered-profane-talibans-takeover-threatens-future-of-kabul-booksellers-4373774.html

In other news, the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony will be broadcast from the BBC’s Radio Theatre on Wednesday 3 November. The prizes celebrate outstanding fiction, whether originally written in English or translated into English, bringing recognition and many new readers to gifted authors from around the globe. So let's have a look at who is on the the 2021 shortlist, I'd love to know if you're rooting for any one of these: https://thebookerprizes.com/

And finally, before we get to today's book review, a quick note on 2 new releases that I'm sure many readers were waiting for.

Amor Towles is going from Russia to... Nebraska. Fun fact, Towles worked in investing for more than 20 years before pivoting to full-time writing, and he became known in 2016 after publishing A Gentleman in Moscow. His new novel, The Lincoln Highway, is quite different. "My new novel, The Lincoln Highway, is about three 18-year-old boys and an 8-year-old boy on a journey from Nebraska to New York City in 1954 — the whole story lasting just 10 days." One more book for my to read pile.

And because I have a bit more time than usual as I've just started my maternity leave, I'll add one more new book to my list - The Island of Missing Trees. By Elif Shafak. This one came out a couple of months ago already, and according to the review in the Guardian - "it charts the moving story of Kostas and Defne Kazantzakis, young lovers in a painfully divided postcolonial Cyprus – one Greek and Christian, the other Turkish and Muslim – and the emotional price they continue to pay after moving to England." If you've read it already, let me know what you thought.

And now, let's go to today's book review, with Victoria Wood @bibliolifestyle

Today my guests are two quite different artists. My first guests is Terry Miura. Terry began his career in the 90s in NYC as a freelance illustrator, creating imagery for such clients as Time, Newsweek, Rollingstone, and Sports Illustrated. In between illustration assignments he painted and exhibited cityscapes, and continued his transition to becoming a full time painter after returning to the West Coast in 1996. He has recently designed the book cover for The Paris Bookseller, by Kerri Maher, the story of Shakespeare and Company's founder and one of the most famous booksellers of all time, Sylvia Beach. This book cover is also a painting, now owned by the book's author. (Here's Terry's website https://www.terrymiura.com/)

My second guest today is Darya Solomenko, a Dublin based graphic designer & illustrator, who also happens to be an old friend and former colleague of mine. She recently designed two books - Dima Golik's "I just am.", a poetry collection, and Olga Polyakova's "What, Was It Possible?", a book about building a career from the perspective of an immigrant. Darya has kindly agreed to come on Got Books to tell us all about her creative process. (Here's Darya's Portfolio https://www.solomenko.com/)

Book Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney with Molly Hills of Left on Read (subscribe to her newsletter here) 

Today we step in to Golden Hare, a design-led bookshop taking its cues from design museums. The difference here is that you can touch the art, pick it up and discover what’s inside. Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh is one of the city’s most charming and thoughtfully curated independent bookshops. It boasts a wall of beautifully displayed face-out books, an inviting fireplace (with real fire) for those chilly Scottish winters and one of the prettiest, bluest shopfronts ever.

The self-confessed reading addicts that form the team of booksellers have been advising readers since 2012, when Golden Hare opened its doors. The independent bookshop is in Edinburgh's Stockbridge, and they cover all genres from cookery to travel, kid's picture books to science fiction. They host all sorts of events, keeping the buzz going in one of Europe's most vibrant cultural spots.

We chat today to Julia and David, two of the booksellers looking forward to welcoming you to Golden Hare.

Books recommended by Julia & David:

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

The Living Mountain: A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland by Nan Shepherd

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL by Ronan Hession 

1. Book Sales are up in the US https://www.wbjournal.com/article/revival-the-independent-bookstore-industry-is-growing-with-a-loyal-customer-base-wanting-to and in the UK https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/covid-19-book-sales-reading/

2. Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller is coming out soon! 

3. Literati: a bookclub you may want to join

4. Speaking of curating books..

5. The New Futures, an initiative by Bookshop.org & The Booksellers Association 

Book Review: Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller with Phoebe @Pause Books

Hope you enjoy this season. Don't forget to subscribe to Got Books wherever you get your podcasts. And follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter. You can find all our episodes at anchor.fm/GotBooks

The children we've interviewed for this episode, Barbu, Timea, Vanessa and Teodora, have been part of a 2 week program called Raising Booksellers taking place in Bucharest, Romania, in a bookshop that you may remember from our episode 5, Asteroidul B612.

We invited the owner of this bookshop, Ana Sipciu, to come along for this chat as well and tell us all about this program she will be organising every year from now on. A short introduction to the book industry for children who love books. Let's hear from them first how the program went and what they loved about it. We also asked them to recommend some books and you may be surprised (and inspired) by their book choices.

Wandering around New York, it’s very likely that you will stumble upon or make it your mission to get into one of the fantastic four McNally Jackson bookstores located in Soho, Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn or Seaport. Each a well-lit, cleanly-designed literary oasis away from the maddening crowds but with their own flair and ambiance. McNally Jackson became a bookshop in 2004 and it offers a beautiful collection of curated books, highlighting small presses and zines and arranged by the region of the author.

Our guest today is Madeline Gressel, a writer and a marketing director at McNally Jackson. Her work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, and Bookforum, and she is at work on her first novel.  Maddie first started working at the original McNally Jackson in Soho as a bookseller and her love of books, readers and the art of bookselling never really waned. We caught up with Maddie while she was in Rome, working away at her first novel.

A Sydney institution, the Gertrude and Alice Bookstore & Coffeehouse has become part of the fabric of the surf-themed Bondi suburb where it is located. Named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas who were notoriously part of the Parisian artistic elite in the roaring 20s, the bookstore was also designed to be a salon itself where literary conversations flourish over good food, coffee and chai. Gertrude and Alice houses tens of thousands of new and used books and was rated as one of the top 10 bookstores in the world by National Geographic.

Our guest today is owner Jane Turner who was born and bred in Bondi. Life took her to Fiji and then back to Bondi, where it was no coincidence she ended up opening Gertrude and Alice given her childhood fascination with books and working behind the counter. Jane is a strong pillar of the Bondi community, a community she credits for the success of Getrude & Alice - that and the good coffee. We chat to Jane today about her bookshop, being a bookseller and books that stay with you.

Located in Goose Creek, Turning Page is the only black-owned brick-and-mortar bookstore in the state of South Carolina. Painted in bright yellow, the Turning Pages bookshop opened in 2019 and in the words of its owner, it's "a space to hold poetry readings, where students may display their art work publicly, where book clubs can meet, where authors may hold readings and signing events. A place where black lives matter. A place to introduce and celebrate newer African-American authors. A place to bone up on history, or any number of academic subjects. A place to read of those great lives that have preceded our time."

Our guest today is VaLinda Miller, the owner of Turning Page. She inherited a love of books from her grandmother and she wants to continue to serve this love but also contribute to the feeding of children, spiritual and otherwise. VaLinda and Arrylee, the store manager, hope they will be expanding their business by opening a second outlet soon. We chat to VaLinda today about black authors, the role a bookshop can play in fighting racism, her ideas for her community and what she wants Turning Page to become.

Books recommended by VaLinda:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Sweet Water by Cara Reinard

While Justice Sleeps: A Novel by Stacey Abrams

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

The Wedding by Dorothy West

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment by Parker Curry and Jessica Curry

But the Mansour family is determined to keep rebuilding the bookstore and keep the literary spirit alive, even though the destruction is ongoing around them. They have the support of hundreds of booklovers inside and outside of Gaza. Now a fundraiser managed by human rights lawyers Mahvish Rukhsana and Clive Stafford Smith has raised more than $200,000 to help rebuild the shop, and thousands of donated books have been sent from all over the world to help Mansour restock. The goal of this fundraising campaign is to replace all of Mansour’s 100,000 books and rebuild his bookshop. And also to help him establish a new project: the Gaza Cultural Centre, which would be a new library next door, from which readers could borrow books without paying.

We talked to Samir about his bookshop and his hopes for the future. We'd like to also thanks Mariam Joumaa Stanke who kindly offered to translate for us. Here's our conversation with Samir. And here you can find the GoFundMe Campaign https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-gazas-samir-mansour-book-store

An independent bookshop like Books Actually was easy to spot in Singapore's artsy neighbourhood Tiong Bahru. Away from the interconnecting malls, the entrance was marked with pots of wabi-sabi and painted with books growing on trees. Now operating exclusively online, Books Actually houses the largest collection of English literature in Singapore , with many local gems and rarities. The bookstore has its own printing press and its own line of handmade writing papers and utensils.

The owner of the 16-year old bookshop and our guest today is Kenny Leck. Kenny dropped out of an accountancy and taxation diploma course in a local polytechnic just two semesters before graduation and soon after, he co-founded BooksActually. He is a businessman who took it upon himself to give all writers a “good debut”. He also sponsors books for community reading programmes for children from low-income families as well as a shelter for transgender people. We're very honoured to have Kenny with us today at Got Books? and be inspired.

Today's episode may seem like a bit of a detour from our usual bookseller interview, but you can rest assured, it's guided by the same love for independent bookshops. In November 2020, a new chapter began for UK indie booksellers with the opening of Bookshop.org. The platform prides itself with ethical and transparent book e-commerce that celebrates independent bookshops and with reading lists curated by writers, booksellers and voracious readers. Shops can customize their virtual window and their owners get 30% of the book sales they make here.

Our guest today is Mark Thornton, the UK Partnership Manager for Bookshop.org. Mark is the co-founder of Mostly Books, an award-winning indie bookshop in Abingdon, which he sold in 2017. He then became a bookshop mentor and soon after, joined Bookshop.org. He has a background in computer engineering and tried his hand at several jobs that may seem world-apart from his current mission, but actually make it all the more exciting for us to connect the dots.

The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Short Stories by Anton Chekhov

Figuring by Maria Popova

First Love by Ivan Turgenev 

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki

Orlando by Virginia Woolf 

Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright 

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Located in the Art District of Santurce, Puerto Rico, Libros AC was an independent bookstore and remains a publishing house with a simple goal: to document the current and the now for future generations' viewing pleasure. It first opened its doors in 2012 as a publishing house, bookstore, café, bistro, bar, piano practice and live music venue. With a selection of Spanish and English books, Libros AC welcomed visitors with a friendly atmosphere and a good coffee.

Owner Samuel Medina studied Natural Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico and began a doctorate in pharmacy before returning to San Juan. Some years before, he managed a literary magazine, Agentes Catalíticos, which led to him opening the Libros AC publishing house and eventually the bookshop with the same name. Samuel is a writer, book romantic and a community uplifter and we are very happy to have him as our guest today.

Cappelens Forslags Conversational Lexicon

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog

The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami 

Woolgathering by Patti Smith 

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

There is only one English-language bookshop in Dakar, Senegal and it's called Chez Alpha Books. Initially located inside the owner's garage, it turned into an independent bookshop with a rich and diverse collection of fiction and non-fiction, with a particular focus on writers from Senegal, other parts of Africa and diaspora but also international classics. The bookshop doubles as a library service, a summer reading camp for children who want to learn English, a college test prep centre and study abroad counseling.

Educator, artist, and activist Angela Franklin is the founder of Chez Alpha Books and our guest today. Originally from the US, Angela has more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration. Chez Alpha Books was born out of calamity: her studio in Baltimore burned down and she was forced to start over. Angela is making history and we're very honoured to have her in our podcast today as a beacon of inspiration.

Books recommended by Angela:

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Keats

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

Sisters and Champions: The True Story of Venus and Serena Williams, by Howard Bryant

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers, by Bridgett M. Davis

A Velocity of Being: Letters to A Young Reader, by Maria Popova & Claudia Bedrick

The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, by Alia Malek

The Hundred Wells of Salaga: A Novel, by Ayesha Harruna Attah

Of Women and Frogs, by Bisi Adjapon

The Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey

Segu, by Maryse Condé

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Everfair: A Novel, by Nisi Shawl 

In Pursuit of Disobedient Women: A Memoir of Love, Rebellion, and Family, Far Away, by Dionne Searcey

Black Tudors: The Untold Story, by Miranda Kaufmann

Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl, by Pierre Thiam

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, by James McBride

Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter, by J. Nozipo Maraire

The Third Life of Grange Copeland, by Alice Walker

Located in Chelsea, London, John Sandoe Books has books on every available surface and nook over three floors and three shops. The 18th-century Georgian premises have been home to this beloved bookshop since 1957. A former newsagent and tobacconist, John Sandoe Books locked the spirit of the 50s inside and remained faithful to its ethos and passionate dedication to great books. A testament to the quality of the spread is its clientele, from Elton John and Mick Jagger to Edna O’Brien and William Boyd.

Our guests today are Arabella Friesen and Johnny de Falbe, partners both in life and in bookselling. Johnny took over the shop from bookselling legend John Sandoe in 1986, together with Stewart Grimshaw. Their love of books transpires not only in the books they select and sell but also in their conversations with authors and readings they do on the John Sandoe Books podcasts. We are happy to have them as guests today and to find out the secret of John Sandoe Books' longevity and charm.

Books recommended by Arabella & Johnny:

Nostalgia, by Mircea Cartarescu

The Enchanted Night: Selected Tales, by Miklos Banffy

The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal

Good Behaviour, by Molly Keane

Berlin diaries, 1940-1945, by Marie Vassiltchikov

Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell 

My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

A Wartime Childhood (When I Was Young), by Rebecca Hunter

'Chips': the diaries of Sir Henry Channon, by Henry Channon

Letters to Camondo, by Edmund de Waal

If you ever find yourself in Cotroceni, one of Bucharest's oldest neighbourhoods, you might walk right past the Asteroid B612, a small children bookshop that opened just before 2020 started -  and against all odds, it's thriving. It's no small victory in a country where few independent bookshops exist. It's a bookshop like a living room where you are allowed to draw on the walls and where a unicorn head is presiding (the unicorn's name is Claire, by the way).

The vibrant atmosphere and great selection of books are all Ana's doing, the owner of Asteroid B612 and our guest today. Ana Sipciu used to work for Google and decided to open a children's bookshop on a whim, driven by the memory of the safe haven books provided for her when she was a child. We're very excited to have her today as our guest, talk about her journey and find out what kids are reading nowadays.

Books recommended by Ana:

Alice in Wonderland

Legendele Olimpului

Ciresarii

One Hundred Years Of Solitude

American Gods

The Discworld Atlas

Antifragile

Teoria apropierii

You will not go inside the Monkey's Paw to find a book, but a book you never knew existed will find you. This Toronto bookshop is home to the beautiful, the arcane, and the absurd. Bread sculpture, outer space humour, wild-animal celebrities, useful drugs and guides on how to hate Toronto are all things you can find inside the pages of Monkey's Paw's books, all dated before 1980. And the cherry on top is a custom-made BiblioMat, a vending machine that spits out a randomly selected vintage volume in exchange for a token.

Owner Stephen Fowler, our guest today, originally thought the BiblioMat could just be a refrigerator box where a skinny assistant would drop books out when people put a coin in - we are happy with how things turned out though. Stephen learned the tricks of the trade from a high-end antiquarian in San Francisco, collected inspiration and acquired a nose for the finer oddities from old bookshops and in 2007, poured it all into the Monkey's Paw. We are delighted to have him today on Got Books? and discuss the Monkey's Paw dreamscape.

There is a pair of lemon trees outside the Desperate Literature multilingual bookshop in Madrid and you could say that if God gave them lemons, owners Terry and Charlotte made a damn good lemonade with this literary haven. In their own words, Desperate Literature sells books. Real books. Desperate ones. Paper and glue. But actually, Desperate Literature is also a community, event space, a publishing house, and a home.

That's right, self-diagnosed book fanatics Terry Craven and Charlotte Delattre live above and in the vicinity of the bookshop. They both worked at the world-famous Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company for a few years before opening Desperate Literature, inviting Madrilenos, travelers and unidentified walk-ins to write a poem on their vintage typewriter or take a shot of whiskey with a book purchase. We chat with Terry and Charlotte today to find out about the joys and despairs of their lives as booksellers.

Find us on social media @gotbookspodcast

Books recommended by Charlotte and Terry:

Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance;

The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano;

Conversations With Friends, by Sally Rooney;

Room to Dream, by David Lynch;

Rainbow Milk, by Paul Mendez;

The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson;

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac;

Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath;

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Got Books? is a podcast for those who love getting lost in (and among) books. For those who appreciate the comfort of a bookshop, the smell of a new book and the story of an old one. It's a podcast with those making this possible: the booksellers.

We chat to bookshop owners all around the world to find out: Is owning a bookshop as romantic as we might imagine? How are the books on the "staff picks" table selected and what influences our reading choices? How does a bookshop survive in the age of the Internet? Is Orwell right: are bookshops "a kind of paradise where charming old gentlemen browse eternally among calf-bound folios"?

Full disclaimer: (at least) one of this podcast's two gentlewomen plans to one day, in the not so distant future, open her own bookshop. So to some extent these conversations are also research. The kind of research others may enjoy too.

Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hession

Debt, Updated And Expanded: The First 5000 Years, by David Graeber

Conversations With Friends & Normal People, by Sally Rooney

The Parker Series, by John Connolly

In the south-west parts of Scotland lies Wigtown, a small town where 1,000 people live and 10,000 visit every year. Wigtown is Scotland’s National Booktown, a title won in 1999 that has not only turned it into a tourist attraction, but gave a complete makeover to the local economy. Down Main Street, in a millennium-old Georgian building, behind a forest green door guarded by two spiralling book columns you will find The Bookshop, Scotland’s largest second-hand book shop. Nine rooms, a mile of shelving, 100,000 books. Straight out of a fairy tale, the Bookshop has hidden nooks and crannies, a staircase door, a creaky old floor showing off scars from when it used to be a grocery store back in the 50’s and of course, a resident cat.

Much of its charm has been crafted or preserved by its current owner and our guest today, Shaun Bythell. Shaun has been the owner of The Bookshop since 2001 and has since published three delectable books of wry observations from his perspective as a bookseller, which have only increased the notoriety of his bookshop: The Diary of a Bookseller, Confessions of a Bookseller and Seven Kinds of People You Find in a Bookshop. We couldn’t have wished for a more fitting first guest to our podcast. Without further ado, Shaun Bythell.

Find us on social media @gotbookspodcast

Books recommended by Shaun

A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger