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.