The Barcelona bookstore Alibri, which at the end of October regretted its closure, has announced a change of plans this Saturday. The emblematic establishment, located at number 26 Balmes street and previously known as the Herder bookstore, was planning to close its doors on December 3rd. However, and against all odds, Bookish, a young project well known in the publishing world and with a strong digital component, has decided to save it.
Born in Barcelona in 2017, Bookish is currently the leading literary subscription company in Spain. His modus operandi is to choose a book from among all the novelties that are published each month and send it to readers along with other accessories, such as a reading guide, a playlist or an invitation to chat with the author, "to broaden the experience." ”, as they themselves detail on their website.
Tomàs Casals, general director of Bookish, has assured through a statement that “the first reaction after learning of the closure was purely emotional. Although we operate a different model, we are readers, and the closure of a bookstore affects us deeply and even more so if it is a reference like Alibri, so it was inevitable that the instinct to want to save it and think of alternatives would arise”.
Casals also details that among the company's plans it was already planned to open a large-format bookstore but "evaluating the possibility, we saw that it made even more sense to work to preserve an existing one." In this way, he celebrates being able to add to his project "one of the largest bookstores in Barcelona, with an editorial fund like few others and a team of highly experienced booksellers and booksellers, with a young team and a strong digital component". And it is that, he points out, "we all share something: the passion to recommend good books."
