Got Books? Conversations with Booksellers

This is the final episode of our 1st season, so we thought we'd make it a bit different. On this episode we chat to..future booksellers.

We usually chat to booksellers from quirky bookshops all around the world (and we hope you've enjoyed these conversations so far). But for today's we prepared something special: you'll be listening to our conversation with a group of children who recently completed a Bookseller's Internship.

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

This episode is a bit a different than our usual conversations with booksellers. This is a recording of a phone call we had last week with Samir Mansour, the founder of Samir Mansour Bookshop in Gaza, Palestine. Founded 21 years ago, this two-story bookshop was a much-loved part of the local community and had tens of thousands of books covering everything from philosophy and art history to fiction and children’s books. Samir's bookshop also had the largest collection of English literature in Gaza, and was also part of a publishing house that focused on Palestinian writers. We say had because on 18 May 2021, so about 2 months ago, during the 11-day conflict that killed more than 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel, Samir Mansour Bookshop was bombed and destroyed. Samir lost almost 100,000 books that served schoolchildren and adults alike. Mansour’s bookstore, also a publishing house, was unable to save any books from the large collection.

What goods can enter Gaza is limited. The international aid that has been restricted under the blockade since 2007 is now largely blocked from reaching Gaza. Up until the bombardment, the 21-year-old bookshop was able to provide a fair amount of things Gazans craved due to the siege: getting Palestinian voices out from Gaza and bringing the world’s literature into Gaza.

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.

On our 10th episode of Got Books?, we sit down with Martin Latham, bookseller extraordinaire and author of The Bookseller's Tale. Martin has been the longest standing manager for British book retailer Waterstones, having been at the Canterbury bookshop since 1990. He even ordered the excavation of the Roman Bath-House floor at his bookshop, paying for it with the biggest petty cash slip in Waterstones history.

Martin knows books like no other and this transpires abundantly in The Bookseller's Tale, which was named the 2020 Book of the Year by British newspapers the Spectator and the Evening Standard. The book lays out the history of storytelling and of publishing, full of anecdotes and witticisms, and is a must-read for those who wonder lovingly about the history of books and bookselling. We chat with Martin today to get an insight into his encyclopaedic knowledge and passion for storytelling.

Books recommended by Martin (or written by him):

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.

When you walk inside Cappelens Forslag, you are reminded that strong essences are kept in small bottles. This Oslo bookshop is dressed up in leather and wood and sells, in the words of its owners, interesting books; new, second hand or antiquarian titles, mainly in English and Norwegian. No bestsellers, chick lit, crime nor self-help make the cut, unless extremely well written, out there weird, contrarian or from a different epoch. Cappelens Forslag publishes its own book as well, the Conversational Lexicon, an exquisitely crafted encyclopedia ‘freed from factual accuracy’ that won the Gold Prize in the annual competition The Year’s Most Beautiful Books.

Owners Pil Cappelen Smith and Andreas Cappelen have been friends since they were twelve and together, have created a space much beloved and championed by the local community. They travel the world with empty suitcases to get books for Cappelens Forslag and come back with film-worthy stories. The bookshop has seen both weddings and fistfights and runs a Death Café, where people gather once a month to talk about death. We are very thankful to have Pil with us today to tell us all about this magical place.

Books recommended by Pil:

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