"We are the second neighborhood with the most bookstores in Europe"

BarcelonaSomething is moving in the fabric of Gràcia's bookstores. In recent months, two new establishments have opened: Nocturama, in Plaça Revolució, and Pàgina 128, at Carrer Torrent de l’Olla, 177. For both, this is their first Sant Jordi in the neighborhood: Pàgina 128, specializing in children's books, has a stall in Gran de Gràcia, but Nocturama has not prepared anything special. “Today is about meeting readers and readers meeting me,” says bookseller Marina Rodríguez, who opened the shop just two weeks ago. Furthermore, on May 15, a new bookstore, Finestres Palestina, will open on Carrer Verdi. They will therefore be three additions to Barcelona's most extensive and varied bookstore network. “We are the second neighborhood with the most bookstores in Europe, only surpassed by Charing Cross in London –boasts Jordi Duarte, owner of Taifa Llibres, on Carrer Verdi–. The number fluctuates each year, but in the entire district there are usually between 36 and 38 bookstores. Each has a different model, and a network has been created where if you don't find a book in one, you'll find it in another.”

Nocturama, in fact, has moved to Gràcia after a few years in El Raval. “Gràcia is becoming a hub for small niche bookstores –points out Rodríguez–. Barcelona's center is no longer in Ciutat Vella; it's shifting upwards. Furthermore, Gràcia is a neighborhood where people consume a lot of culture and people from other neighborhoods also come to consume culture.” The bookseller confirms that there is a strong sense of community among the neighborhood's bookstores. “A week ago, I had lunch with Alba from La Repunantinha and Alime from Pàgina 128, and I also went to say hello to the colleagues at Taifa. And the girls from Amora and Júlia from Atzavara came to greet me,” explains Rodríguez.

Alba González, from La Repunantinha, sees it as “always positive” that new bookstores are opening in the neighborhood, but warns that “we must not fall into the turbo-capitalist dynamics of the book world and produce, produce, and produce, because that serves no purpose.” La Repunantinha opened two and a half years ago and defines itself as “a very political, queer, feminist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist bookstore,” an attitude implicit in the bookstore's name. “That's how you say in Galician to people who complain a lot –explains González–. It's a way of asserting that protest must be an important axis in everything we do, because it makes us move forward.”

In Gràcia, there are also signings

For Sant Jordi, in Gracia there are also book signings to hunt. In Taifa, for example, those of Pol Guasch or Juan Tallón. And in Sonora, a bookstore specialized in music books that opened two Sant Jordi ago, the musicians Josele Santiago and Hans Laguna, who coincidentally also sign at EGE Llibres i Cosetes, the general bookstore next to the record store El Genio Equivocado. Joan and Rafa, owners of both businesses, are also owners of the label that has published three albums by Hans Laguna, so it was natural that the author of the essay Yo siendo yo (Anagrama) would go to sign. At La Repunantinha, actress Carolina Yuste, winner of the Goya and Gaudí awards, has been signing all morning. “We did the book club for her book Toda mi violencia es tuya, which I like a lot, and the publisher proposed that you come to sign,” says González.

The only shadow on the good vibe among the bookstores in Gracia is the one that Duarte, from Taifa, casts on the arrival of Finestres Palestina. “As a bookseller and reader, I like Finestres bookstores, but as an anticapitalist, I don't like them at all, because behind them is the foundation of a large pharmaceutical company. In any case, if they create a beautiful and politicized bookstore model, they are welcome.” It seems that this will be the case: the director of Finestres Palestina will be Olivia Watson, who lived in Palestine for a few years and, before directing the bookstore, worked at Doctors Without Borders. “It is a project that only wants to add to the Gracia bookstore ecosystem and has no intention of competing, especially because we are a bookstore dedicated to Palestinian culture and, therefore, very specialized –explains Watson–. And we felt it should be in Gracia because it is a neighborhood with a very important social and neighborhood movement.”