Jorge Carrión

I bought this book at the Barnes & Noble in Champaign IL in summer 2017, outbound on a summer roadtrip. I read it over the next few days; now almost five years later, I am rereading it.

Carrión writes about bookshops all over the world, with a bit more weight to those of Latin America. He also digresses on publishing, reading, literature, travel. It is fun to compare notes on bookshops. Among those he writes about, I have fond memories of Blackwell's (Oxford), the Seminary Co-op (Chicago), show more City Lights and Green Apple Books (San Francisco), Cody's and Moe's (Berkeley; how did he miss Peter Howard's Serendipity Books?), the large Chapters in Toronto. He missed the great original Borders in Ann Arbor before it became part of the corporate Octopus and later vanished into oblivion. So many bookshops sliding into oblivion every year; two of my favorites in Philadelphia just recently joined them: Joseph Fox Books on Sansom Street and Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts.

Carrión also provides a number of acute observations and/or zingers:

"literary bookshops shape their discourse by creating a sophisticated taste that prefers difficulty"

"a book can be hunted down as much for its magical powers as its market value, and both factors often go together"

"A classic work is one that always offers a new reading. A classic author is one who never goes out of fashion." (more succinct and perhaps more useful that T.S. Eliot's definition)

"literature cannot be understood if one retains an anachronistic faith in borders" (Carrión might have added temporal as well as geographic)

"cultures cannot exist without memory, but need forgetfulness too."

Enough of this; time to visit a bookshop! A real one, not a virtual bazaar. show less

The title is very poor for what is, in reality, an excellent set of essays on book culture, collecting, and shops. The introductory polemic against Amazon is fine, if a bit standard, but the book moves sharply along to a varied set of essays, interviews, and travelogues that I found extremely pleasant. I don't side with Carrión on everything (for example, his maybe-maybe-not tongue-in-cheek dislike for used bookshops over new; he says of used shops, "they are death") but he always provides show more food for thought. I loved the interview with Alberto Manguel (I know he's Argentine by birth, but allow me a little Canadian pride here) and I loved the essay on Borges. This is only Carrión's second book in English and I hope more is translated soon! show less

Most booklovers can probably isolate a moment from childhood or adolescence when a bookstore played a transformative role in their life. Jorge Carrión has taken that moment and turned it into a lifelong obsession, visiting bookstores on every continent where they exist and exhaustively researching the history of bookstores in general and some of the most famous and influential in particular. Carrión’s volume combines travel, history, and anecdotal recounting of encounters with bookstores show more and the singularly devoted, similarly obsessed and sometimes eccentric personalities who devote their lives to the retail trade in books. Much of Carrión’s book is structured this way: he takes us to a location (Cuba, England, Lisbon, Sydney, Tangiers), provides a selectively detailed glimpse into the region’s book culture, with specific reference to the people and bookstores that inspired and contributed to it, and then situates himself in the midst of it all. It is an effective narrative strategy, one that allows him to display his sweeping erudition on his subject while at the same time indulging his passion for the bookstore as a cultural institution. Carrión’s discussion includes informative sections on the bookstore as a symbol of political resistance, bookstores of striking longevity, and bookstores as paradigms of architectural beauty and innovation. Bookshops: A Reader’s History is crammed with enlightening and surprising nuggets from the long history of book production, book selling, and book owning. But, facts and figures aside, the impetus for the volume is without a doubt the author’s love of books and the establishments that stock and sell them. And though he does not trouble to disguise his affection for the crowded shelves, worn floorboards and chance encounters with bibliographic treasures that the independent bookstore can offer—and though he is not above mourning the loss of many of these and the uncertain future that awaits those that remain—he is prepared to admit that the book we desire might not always be available from the store down the street. In Carrión’s world of books, the virtual and physical will continue to co-exist, each necessary in its own way, each providing an experience the other cannot. show less

Na introdução, o editor Tadeu Breda (também tradutor da obra, com Reginaldo Pujol), fala sobre sua decisão de publicar no Brasil uma obra que confronta na capa a gigante do comércio eletrônico. “Contra Amazon”, porém, não é apenas um manifesto em que o autor Jorge Carrión enumera sete argumentos para não comprar livros na empresa de Jeff Bezos. O volume traz vários relatos de viagens com visitas a livrarias em cidades das Américas, Europa e Ásia, conversas e entrevistas com show more livreiros e ensaios.

Os textos de Jorge Carrión, escritor, ensaísta e professor espanhol, são um presente para quem - mais do que gostar de ler - se deixa encantar pelo universo dos livros. O autor vai fundo no tema: visitou mais de mil livrarias e bibliotecas em diversos países antes de escrever “Livrarias: a história de um leitor”.

A edição de “Contra Amazon” da Editora Elefante traz o subtítulo “E outros ensaios sobre a humanidade dos livros”. São vários apêndices com textos de livreiros e donos de pequenas livrarias de rua de diversos estados brasileiros. Todos falam das dificuldades diante da concorrência de grandes redes físicas e digitais, especialmente da Amazon – situação agravada pela pandemia.

Mas há espaço também para a valorização do livreiro clássico, preparado e disposto a conversar, orientar e indicar livros para clientes. E muitas dessas pequenas livrarias ainda se tornaram polos de encontro entre leitores, espaços culturais para clubes de leitura e eventos artísticos.

Pode-se perguntar como a Amazon reage à existência no mercado de um livro com esse título. Aparentemente, encara como só mais um item em sua colossal prateleira de produtos. “Contra Amazon” está à venda na plataforma digital, e pode ser entregue na sua casa. Naturalmente, com um desconto que o livreiro não consegue dar. show less