Trying to gather people for a brainstorming II

(which does not mean that this is the description of the second attempt, unfortunately it is more likely the tenth.)

Bookstore n1: closed
Bookstore n2: I can't. I am busy.
Public Library: the director tells me that next Monday there's the monthly meeting of the whole staff of the library.
Bookstore n3: I can't. We're moving so we're busy.
Bookstore n4: I'd like but many members of the staff are ill so I can't.
Bookstore n5: Oh, interesting! No, I'm not interested.
University professor: I'd like but I am quite busy writing something so... no.
Music teacher: it seems very interesting but no, I can't.
Bookstore n6: I am not persuaded. Monday is my Sunday.

Yes, probably I am using the blog as a therapeutic tool.

The good point is that at the end of the day a good number of booksellers seemed interested but had objective difficulties in coming to the meeting, I am thinking about a tool to make them work when and where they want. A cultural probe or something.

Trying to gather people for a brainstorming

Next Monday is the day of the workshop/focus group/meeting that might sign the destiny of this project.
No matter what.
I will gather ten people: booksellers, librarians, readers, students, members of reading groups, ...
Up to this point I have 3/4 members, nevertheless I am optimistic.

On Friday, I went out to invite some more booksellers:

Bookstore n1: too crowded to enter
Bookstore n2: no, I am busy next Monday. I am sorry. ...but I'd love to.
Bookstore n3: I cannot next Monday.
Bookstore n4: There wasn't the bookseller I was looking for..

Today I went out to invite some more booksellers.

Bookstore n1: closed
Bookstore n2: closed (the good part is that closed still means uncertainty: 50% yes)
Bookstore n3: I can't.
Library: to invite a librarian I have to ask the library's director the permission
Bookstore n4: .... here it goes:

There she was: the bookstore's owner. Female, 40 years old, casual style, tall, not skinny. She did not look friendly. I recently had troubles describing the kind of activity that I am planning, so I decided that "focus group" could be a good term.

Bookseller: "A meeting?"

_"...a meeting where I will lead activities to get ideas for the project" (not the most engaging answer, I reckon. What to say? There will be markers, post-its and possibly some plaster? mph.)

_"It will be a kind of focus group" MISTAKE
_"I am not interested" She was more than cold, she was gaunt.
_"Can I ask you why?"
_" I did one once: I did not like it and it leads to nothing" COOL
It felt like a resume of a disastrous blind date.
_ "I am sorry" she closed the conversation with this, along with a gush of liquid nitrogen.
I left.

Nevermind.

I learned a couple of things:

Focus group isn't necessarily a good term.
When you try to gather people for a brainstorming without paying them, even if you're possibly working for them, one every ten might say "yes".

Meanwhile in Milan

15th pf January: Stefano Boeri, architect and council member of the Milan administration meets the delegates of Milanese editors, libraries and bookstores to evaluate developing projects to be carried on through the year.  
The first step is the definitve connection of all the actors belonging to the book sector: from writing to reading.

report

Italian Reading Groups

In Italy the word is "Gruppi di Lettura" (GdL).
An Italian public library recently organized a meeting about reading groups and libraries.
This is the nice poster they used:

It titles: "Here a strange reader comes". Even if the topic focuses on reading groups related to libraries there is much to consider about reading groups themselves. 

An interview to Luca Ferreri (who wrote a book on the topic:  Il lettore a(r)mato), tells a lot about the topic.

Here is a short summary.

The history of 'istitutional' reading groups is quite recent and it is impossible to define reading groups since each one is unique. Nevertheless they all aim to defend reading as a social activity: indipendent and livey. 

There are two kinds of reading groups(RGs): the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin-American. The Anglo Saxon RG are light and funny, closer to editors and mass media. The LatinAmerican model deals with the need of cultural  emancipation, is closer to the school system and stands on familiar and community basis. 

The Italian RGs seem to be a mix of the two models: it relies a lot on libraries, and it aims to be light even if the target are mostly seasoned readers. 

The RGs have a social value: they gather and value people who share the love for culture, people that usually are isolated from each other and tend to hide from the rest of the community. 

Luca Ferrari thinks that the RGs in Italy are a growing trend, but that they need unity and network to grow properly.

Indeed there is a blog about Italian RGs, a work in progress aiming to gather all the existing Italian RGs, to help new ones and to be a platform for experience exchange.

In Verona there is at least one reading group: Il Circolo dei Lettori di Verona, founded by LiberAmente.

It was hosted by Società Letteraria and now is hosted by Joy Bookstore, it aims to connect and to cooperate with libraries, bookstores, editors, theatres and more. 

Design thinking: everywhere and nowhere reflections on the big re-think

In this enlightening article Kevin McCullagh makes interesting points on design thinking.

A quote:

Verganti (Roberto Verganti, cit.) pressed his point home with a tough truth. 'Designers have become less visionary. They have spent the last 10 years getting close to consumers and trying to become businessmen, and have lost their visions.'

Book renting

A new phenomenon is book renting.

In Turin Libreria Takuma rents books.

Apparently the elderly living in the surroundings love the service, and parents use it for textbooks.

reference

Prestalibro is a service supporting the network managing the rental of new and secind hand book provided by New Hemingway Srl. I fear to write more about it because they seem very jelous of the contents of their website.

Source of inspiration

This beautiful piece of writing by Maria Paola Colombo sketches some pictures of contemporary Italy.  
There is a picture for contemporary indie booksellers but it is bitter and sad so I am not going to traslate it. What I would really like to share is the end of the piece:

In this time rich of uncertainties, a world is dissolving. It happened before, from the Roman Empire to the cold war between US and Russia. The point is: what will be the shape of the new world?
Its shape will be the one that we will be able to imagine, the one in which we will be able to believe in, before it comes true."

Bad readers

The book market was eagerly waiting for Christmas to come, to be sure of the actual situation.
Now we know it: the situation is really bad.
Il Corriere della Sera is often publishing articles on the topic. This one is about Milanese historical bookstores. They chose to write about Milan because Milan represents 30% of the national book sales  turnover.
The vast Hoepli bookstore, owned by Hoepli editor, is reducing the show room, while La Libreria di Brera and Rovello bookstore (founded in 1893) closed. Utopia bookstores and La libreria del Mondo Offeso are moving to cheaper areas.
The article concludes as it follows:

"This is not just a crisis, but an epochal change. Light fiction, more or less erotic, superficial essays can be sold wherever, along with fuel and underwear. Books representing and spreading culture need much more. Killing their spaces, we seriously damage their soul and their spirit, or what is left of them. "

This last lines suggest that the journalist thinks that the problem is partly cultural: he refers to the difference between "high" and "low" books, to "high and low" culture readers. I will consider this possibility, thought it is a tricky and complex one.

Self Confidence

Here, I am.

I took a couple of weeks off for side projects.
The reason is that I needed to collect strength for the next phase: co-design with booksellers.
I am a bit scared.
First of all booksellers are well known for their 'personality': if you combine that 'personality' with the level of frustration they reached, you will get my point.
Secondly we have the apocalyptic atmosphere: the 21th December didn't lead to the end of the world, but since then almost every day I open news papers and I read that "IT'S THE END OF ALL THE BOOKSTORES!!!". Ok, I knew it before, and that is why I decided to work on the topic, but this daily news is quite distressing. Press is pressing me.
Last but not least we are getting closer to the point where I should pull a white rabbit out of the shiny top hat.

Good luck, I can't procrastinate any more.