Shows
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersGlobal Book Crawl: Visit your Bookshops!https://www.globalbookcrawl.org/
2024-11-1148 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep10 Alex Holder, Salted Books (Lisbon, Portugal)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Alex, co-founder of the first and only bookshop selling new english books in Lisbon, Portugal, Salted Books. This conversation was yet another proof, in case you needed one, that women can indeed do it all, if they set their mind to it. Alex has started Salted Books with her partner Mark, and she has done so without giving up her work and while raising two children. She’s created a magical space that only opened its doors about 5 months ag...
2024-03-1358 minGot Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Mini Episode: Opening a Bookshop!Many of you may know that the main reason Got Books started, years ago, was that I wanted to have my own bookshop and so I figured it would be good to chat to lots of booksellers before I start what seemed like ..a bit of a wild adventure. Then..years passed, many conversations with booksellers were had, but I kept putting this dream of opening a bookshop on hold, for all sorts of reasons. I’m sure you can relate..there’s never a perfect time. A couple of weeks ago though, a small, cozy, kind of perfect loca...
2024-02-0403 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep9 Edgars Lielausis, Robert's Books (Riga, Latvia)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Edgars, owner of Robert’s Books, in Riga, Latvia. Robert’s Books was Riga’s first English bookshop and it has become, over the years, much more than that - a community space, a place to meet, work, relax, think, discuss, have fun, read and just be. It has also been a space for social experiments, one of its more recent ones involving a bit of a.. grey area: a sex shop inside the bookshop.
Robert’s Books fi...
2024-01-311h 00Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Mini Episode: Future Booksellers Club and Fun Christmas GiftsLinks:
Our website - gotbookspodcast.com
Future Booksellers Club 1st Meetup
Gifts for Future Booksellers
Show notes:
Hi everyone! How are you doing? If you celebrate Christmas, are you getting into the holiday mood already? Here is Spain where I am it’s still quite warm, but I’m about to go to Romania, where I’m from, and really hoping for some snow, also so that my daughter can see snow for the first time in her life. I wanted to quickly record this short episode to tell you ab...
2023-12-0403 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep8 Danny Caine, The Raven Book Store (Lawrence, Kansas, United States)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. My guest today is Danny Caine, bookseller and co-owner of The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas.
The Raven was founded in 1987 as a mystery-specialty store, and today you can walk in to find books of fiction, current events, environmental writing, children's books, science fiction, romance, and poetry. The poetry section in particular might have something to do with today’s guest, who is himself a published poet. But we’ll come back to that.
In recent years, the Raven and espe...
2023-10-2446 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep7 Hailey Brock, The Nature of Reading (Madison, New Jersey, United States)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world.
Today we are going to the United States, in Madison, New Jersey, to a bookshop with the most fitting of names - The Nature of Reading. The concept of this bookshop feels quite unique to me: pulling together the joy and wonder of the natural world with the knowledge and passion to fight for its survival. It is an environmental bookstore sand it specializes in seasonal reading, nature writing, and climate change books, helping spread the messages of local environmental groups and...
2023-10-061h 15Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Mini Episode: All About Bookshops - Niche Bookshops EverywhereOn this mini episode, I talk about niche and quirky bookshops from different parts of the world.
Pillow-Cat Books is all about animals in books.
Wonderland Bookshop! are all in on the Alice-in-Wonderland theme.
Robert Humm & Co. is "Britain's largest railway bookshop".
Libreria il Mare in Italy is a store that's all about H2O.
Libreria Griot is an Italian bookstore that's all about African literature.
Heading to Berlin, we've got the Bibliotheca-Culinaria Kochbuchantiquariat, a food lover's paradise, with over 15,000 vintage cookbooks.
In London, Bookmarks...
2023-09-1514 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep6 Neil Paul & Brid Conroy, Tertulia (Westport, Ireland)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers all around the world. And on today’s episode I am so very glad to be going to Ireland, probably my favourite place in the world. It was my home for a bit over 5 years and more importantly it’s the home of some pretty amazing bookshops. I had a few favourites during my time in Dublin, but today we’ll be going to Ireland’s west coast, to a little town called Westport and a bookshop like no other, Tertulia.
Tertulia describes itself as a magica...
2023-07-141h 01
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep5 Federico Lang, Libreria Luces (Malaga, Spain)Today we are traveling to the south of Spain, to get some sun and more importantly talk to Federico, a bookseller in Malaga's Libreria Luces. This is a bookshop that describes itself as an experience, a literary and cultural experience. Just last week it turned 20, which, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, you know is a major achievement for an independent bookstore. If Libreria Luces could talk, it would have quite a few stories to tell: not only did it survive a pandemic, but it also made it through a very loud, years-long period o...
2023-05-2953 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep4 Clayton Comber, Bouquiniste (Kiama, Australia)Today we are going back to Australia, to a small town called Kiama. Here we'll step into Bouquiniste https://shop.bouquiniste.com.au/, founded in 2017 by Clay and Hannah, two Kiama locals with a background in writing, publishing, retail, hospitality.. and one of them a former DJ. That's Clay, my guest today. When you enter the store, you'll see a disco ball, and that gives you an idea of the space you've just stepped into. This is not a quiet bookstore, but rather a welcoming, a little loud, a little funky place, where you can go in for a...
2023-05-0139 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep3 Rakesh Singh, Harmony (Varanasi, India)Harmony Bookshop opened its doors on Varanasi’s Assi Ghat in December 1996 and ever since it has grown into a cultural hub, bringing together scholars, artists, researchers, and all other book loving travelers, from India and abroad. This is a bookshop like no other. To enter, you must first remove your shoes. After all, books are sacred..and in this small bookshop many of them are resting on the floor and its owner and bookseller, Rakesh, would not like to see them damaged. He's built an incredible collection, spanning a diverse range of books on India and other subjects: aca...
2023-03-1859 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep2 Gesine Tosin, About (Berlin, Germany)If you walk down Linienstraße in the heart of Berlin's gentrified neighborhood, Mitte, you will come across beautiful little shops, a Japanese cafe, cozy restaurants, and more recently.. an intriguing space called simply.. About. This is a bookshop with a unique concept: its owner, former art curator, picks a theme and then runs with it, selecting books that fit into this theme..for a while. Every 3 months or so, the theme changes. The concept of the bookshop (focusing on temporary topics) expands and occasionally authors, artists are invited to choose a topic and to curate the selection of b...
2022-12-2344 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS3 Ep1: Jorge F. Hernandez & Pablo Cerezo, Pergamo (Madrid, Spain)Welcome back to Got Books?, Season 3! On this episode, I spoke to the new booksellers of Pergamo, the oldest bookshop still in existence in Madrid, Spain. Jorge F. Hernandez and Pablo Cerezo come from two different generations and share a love of books, writing and of course, bookshops. They have just recently taken over Pergamo and are in the process of re-inventing it and opening its doors once again.
2022-09-1851 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 9: Christmas Special w. Pil Cappelen Smith, Cappelens Forslag (Oslo, Norway)Today we will be going back to Cappelens Forslag, a bookshop that I'm sure you remember from our first season. And if you missed that episode, do go back and give it a listen, it's a conversation I loved where we even discuss a famous book heist. My guest today is Pil Cappelen Smith, booksellers, owner of Cappelens Forslag and now also a publisher. Christmas may not be his favourite season, but he did join me for a conversation about Christmas book shopping, the joys of the holidays (despite their way-too-capitalistic flair) and shared his perhaps unusual choice of...
2021-12-1720 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 8: Christmas Special w. Julia König & David Bloomfield, Golden Hare (Edinburgh, Scotland)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers from all around the world. And welcome to this short Christmas series, meant as a mini-Advent Calendar to get you in the holiday spirit. From Dec 3rd to Dec 17th, we'll be publishing an episode every Monday and Friday - that's 5 Christmas episodes for you, in which we're bringing back some of the booksellers that we know and love from past episodes, so they can tell us how they're preparing their bookshops for Christmas, what books to get for the special people in our lives, and what...
2021-12-1331 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 7: Christmas Special w. Shaun Bythell, The Bookshop (Wigtown, Scotland)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers from all around the world. And welcome to this short Christmas series, meant as a mini-Advent Calendar to get you in the holiday spirit. From Dec 3rd to Dec 17th, we'll be publishing an episode every Monday and Friday - that's 5 Christmas episodes for you, in which we're bringing back some of the booksellers that we know and love from past episodes, so they can tell us how they're preparing their bookshops for Christmas, what books to get for the special people in our lives, and what...
2021-12-1021 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 6: Christmas Special w. Stephen Fowler, Monkey's Paw (Toronto, Canada)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers from all around the world. And welcome to this short Christmas series, meant as a mini-Advent Calendar to get you in the holiday spirit. From Dec 3rd to Dec 17th, we'll be publishing an episode every Monday and Friday - that's 5 Christmas episodes for you, in which we're bringing back some of the booksellers that we know and love from past episodes, so they can tell us how they're preparing their bookshops for Christmas, what books to get for the special people in our lives, and what...
2021-12-0632 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 5: Christmas Special w. Charlotte Delattre, Desperate Literature (Madrid, Spain)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast where we talk to booksellers from all around the world. And welcome to this short Christmas series, meant as a mini-Advent Calendar to get you in the holiday spirit. From Dec 3rd to Dec 17th, we'll be publishing an episode every Monday and Friday - that's 5 Christmas episodes for you, in which we're bringing back some of the booksellers that we know and love from past episodes, so they can tell us how they're preparing their bookshops for Christmas, what books to get for the special people in our lives, and what...
2021-12-0314 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersMini-Episode 5: News in Books & Book Review w. Emily Feetham (Girl in the Walls by A. J. Gnuse)Welcome back to Got Books, the podcast about books, booksellers and bookmakers. Today I'll share with you 5 articles I read this week from the world of books, and then we'll chat to my guest Emily Feetham about one of her favourite books this year. Let's get to it.
The Marginalian gives us a wonderful list of best books https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/01/30/writers-top-ten-favorite-books/
11 New Books to be grateful for this week: https://lithub.com/11-new-books-to-be-grateful-for-this-week/
Samir Mansour is rebuilding his bookstore in Gaza: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/mena/sharjah-palestinian-publisher-to-rebuild-destroyed-library-after-sheikha-bodours-support
Book-Ish, a...
2021-11-2624 min
Off the Shelf49. Antonia Caraveteanu, Podcast HostWelcome to Off the Shelf!
You can follow me on Instagram here: Phoebe @ Pause Books HQ (@pausebooks)
You can follow me on Twitter: Phoebe @ Pause Books HQ (@PauseBooks)
My guest this week is Antonia Caraveteanu:
You can follow her on Instagram here: Got Books? (@gotbookspodcast)
You can find her podcast here: Got Books? Conversations with Booksellers & Bookmakers
Antonia's book choices are:
1. Adam and Eve, by Liviu Rebreanu
2. Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren
3. It Runs in the...
2021-11-2236 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 4: Carmen Oliart, Sabina Editorial (Madrid, Spain)Publishing houses. Big and small, they are the book makers, the ones who work with the authors we love to make their books and dreams come to life. They support writers throughout the exciting and perhaps sometimes terrifying journey of turning their work from a manuscript into a book, to be found on the shelves of our bookshops.
Today we will enter the world of a small, artisan publishing house in Spain - Sabina Editorial, a publishing house passionate about books well made that talk about the things that matter. And that are written by women.
2021-11-1953 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersMini-Episode 4: News in Books & Book Review w. Daniela Barani (A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles)Welcome back to Got Books. Today, I want to share books related news that caught my eye this week that I hope you'll find interesting, and we'll then move on to review one of my favourite books of the past years. Let's get started.
First, an article I read in the BBC talks about Somali women breaking tradition to write novels.
For centuries, Somalia has been known as the "nation of poets" but this tradition has largely been the preserve of men. It is unusual for Somali women to be the primary storytellers, yet they...
2021-11-1227 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 3: Nadia Wassef, Diwan (Cairo, Egypt)Diwan is a story, not just a store. And today's we will hear the story of this Egyptian bookshop from its founder, Nadia Wassef.
Opened in 2002 as the only independent bookstore of its kind in Egypt, Diwan enchants its patrons with its mix of east and west, old and new, serious and playful. They say ... "Our approach is to enrich our clients’ lives by transforming the act of “buying a book” into a cultural, artistic, and culinary experience, and offering them a visually appealing and relaxing ambiance every time they step into our stores." It is all about i...
2021-11-0541 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersMini-Episode 3: News in Books & Book Review w. Victoria Wood (Assembly by Natasha Brown)To get in touch (and maybe do a book review on a future episode), drop me a voice message at Anchor.fm/GotBooks or on Instagram / Twitter / Facebook - search for GotBooksPodcast
Welcome back to Got Books! On today's episode we'll first look at news from the book world and then go to our book review, with a new guest. We'll talk about famous bookshops from around the world, the impact the Taliban's takeover has on the Future of Kabul Booksellers, the Booker Prize and a couple of much awaited book releases. So let's get to it!
2021-10-2923 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 2: Book Cover Design w. Terry Miura & Darya SolomenkoDo you judge a book by its cover? Well.. let's face it, most of us do. And that's probably alright. Today we will go behind the scenes of Book Cover Design. How does one capture the essence of a book in just one beautiful image? Where do you even start? And how does the entire process unfold? These are some of the questions I'll be asking my two guests.
As with most jobs in the book industry, there's a certain romance associated with book cover design. For many, this sounds like a designer's dream job.. although very...
2021-10-2252 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersMini-Episode 2: News in Books & Book Review w. Molly Hills (Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney)News in Books
1. The French parliament is protecting booksellers: https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/french-mps-vote-against-free-book-deliveries-targeting-amazon/
2. Rare Birds Books, Scotland’s first female-centric bookshop, opens in the heart of Edinburgh: https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/books/scotlands-first-female-centric-bookshop-is-a-hit/
3. 9 Very Niche Bookstores: https://lithub.com/9-very-niche-bookstores-for-your-very-specific-interests/
Book Review: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney with Molly Hills of Left on Read (subscribe to her newsletter here)
2021-10-1518 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS2 Ep 1: Golden Hare (Edinburgh, Scotland)Today we step in to Golden Hare, a design-led bookshop taking its cues from design museums. The difference here is that you can touch the art, pick it up and discover what’s inside. Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh is one of the city’s most charming and thoughtfully curated independent bookshops. It boasts a wall of beautifully displayed face-out books, an inviting fireplace (with real fire) for those chilly Scottish winters and one of the prettiest, bluest shopfronts ever.
The self-confessed reading addicts that form the team of booksellers have been advising readers since 2012, when Golden Hare...
2021-10-081h 01
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersMini-Episode 1: News in Books & Book Review w. Phoebe (Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller)News in Books
1. Book Sales are up in the US https://www.wbjournal.com/article/revival-the-independent-bookstore-industry-is-growing-with-a-loyal-customer-base-wanting-to and in the UK https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/covid-19-book-sales-reading/
2. Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller is coming out soon!
3. Literati: a bookclub you may want to join
4. Speaking of curating books..
5. The New Futures, an initiative by Bookshop.org & The Booksellers Association
Book Review: Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller with Phoebe @Pause Books
2021-10-0116 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersSeason 2: TrailerThis is the 2nd season of Got Books, the (now weekly) podcast where we celebrate our love for books and those who make and sell them.
On our first season, we spoke to booksellers from the UK, Canada, Australia, all the way to Senegal, Singapore, Palestine.. On this next season, coming Oct 1 2021, I decided to dive a bit further into the world of books. We'll continue having conversations with booksellers, while inviting other people from the book industry to join us, like book cover designers, book editors, writers... And once every 2 weeks, we'll have short episodes, bringing...
2021-09-2701 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 17: Future Booksellers & Ana Sipciu, Asteroidul B612 (Bucharest, Romania)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...
2021-09-1036 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 16: Madeline Gressel, McNally Jackson (New York, US)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 Ja...
2021-08-2652 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 15: Jane Turner, Gertrude & Alice (Sydney, Australia)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...
2021-08-1249 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 14: VaLinda Miller, Turning Page (Goose Creek, South Carolina, US)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...
2021-07-2951 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 13: Samir Mansour, Samir Mansour Bookshop (Gaza, Palestine)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 be...
2021-07-1419 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 12: Kenny Leck, Books Actually (Singapore)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...
2021-07-011h 01
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 11: Mark Thornton, Bookshop.Org & Founder of Mostly Books (Oxford, UK)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...
2021-06-171h 22
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 10: Martin Latham, Waterstones (Canterbury, UK) & Author of The Bookseller's TaleOn 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...
2021-06-031h 00
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 9: Samuel Medina, Libros AC (San Juan, Puerto Rico)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 S...
2021-05-2059 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 8: Pil Cappelen Smith, Cappelens Forslag (Oslo, Norway)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...
2021-05-061h 09
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 7: Angela Franklin, Chez Alpha Books (Dakar, Senegal)There is only one English-language bookshop in Dakar, Senegal and it's called Chez Alpha Books. Initially located inside the owner's garage, it turned into an independent bookshop with a rich and diverse collection of fiction and non-fiction, with a particular focus on writers from Senegal, other parts of Africa and diaspora but also international classics. The bookshop doubles as a library service, a summer reading camp for children who want to learn English, a college test prep centre and study abroad counseling.
Educator, artist, and activist Angela Franklin is the founder of Chez Alpha Books and our...
2021-04-2143 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 6: Arabella Friesen & Johnny de Falbe, John Sandoe Books (London, UK)Located in Chelsea, London, John Sandoe Books has books on every available surface and nook over three floors and three shops. The 18th-century Georgian premises have been home to this beloved bookshop since 1957. A former newsagent and tobacconist, John Sandoe Books locked the spirit of the 50s inside and remained faithful to its ethos and passionate dedication to great books. A testament to the quality of the spread is its clientele, from Elton John and Mick Jagger to Edna O’Brien and William Boyd.
Our guests today are Arabella Friesen and Johnny de Falbe, partners both in li...
2021-04-0841 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 5: Ana Sipciu, Asteroidul B612 (Bucharest, Romania)If you ever find yourself in Cotroceni, one of Bucharest's oldest neighbourhoods, you might walk right past the Asteroid B612, a small children bookshop that opened just before 2020 started - and against all odds, it's thriving. It's no small victory in a country where few independent bookshops exist. It's a bookshop like a living room where you are allowed to draw on the walls and where a unicorn head is presiding (the unicorn's name is Claire, by the way).
The vibrant atmosphere and great selection of books are all Ana's doing, the owner of Asteroid B612 and o...
2021-03-2542 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 4: Stephen Fowler, The Monkey's Paw (Toronto, Canada)You will not go inside the Monkey's Paw to find a book, but a book you never knew existed will find you. This Toronto bookshop is home to the beautiful, the arcane, and the absurd. Bread sculpture, outer space humour, wild-animal celebrities, useful drugs and guides on how to hate Toronto are all things you can find inside the pages of Monkey's Paw's books, all dated before 1980. And the cherry on top is a custom-made BiblioMat, a vending machine that spits out a randomly selected vintage volume in exchange for a token.
Owner Stephen Fowler, our guest...
2021-03-1053 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 3: Charlotte Delattre & Terry Craven, Desperate Literature (Madrid, Spain)There is a pair of lemon trees outside the Desperate Literature multilingual bookshop in Madrid and you could say that if God gave them lemons, owners Terry and Charlotte made a damn good lemonade with this literary haven. In their own words, Desperate Literature sells books. Real books. Desperate ones. Paper and glue. But actually, Desperate Literature is also a community, event space, a publishing house, and a home.
That's right, self-diagnosed book fanatics Terry Craven and Charlotte Delattre live above and in the vicinity of the bookshop. They both worked at the world-famous Paris bookshop Shakespeare...
2021-02-2540 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersTrailerGot Books? is a podcast for those who love getting lost in (and among) books. For those who appreciate the comfort of a bookshop, the smell of a new book and the story of an old one. It's a podcast with those making this possible: the booksellers.
We chat to bookshop owners all around the world to find out: Is owning a bookshop as romantic as we might imagine? How are the books on the "staff picks" table selected and what influences our reading choices? How does a bookshop survive in the age of the Internet? Is...
2021-02-1101 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 2: David Gordon, Curious Fox (Berlin, Germany)In the heart of Neukölln, Berlin’s famed bohemian Babylon of a neighbourhood lies Curious Fox, a small bookshop with a big atmosphere. Curious Fox is a cultural refuge for those native English speakers or English language lovers when things get lost in translation. This seven-year old bookshop sells a new & used selection of English-language fiction, bookish accessories, tea and coffee. Curious Fox tells its own story with poetry and music nights, welcoming to rowdy and delicate souls alike.
Owners Orla Baumgarten and David Gordon met in a bookshop in Berlin. Originally from Ireland and with a b...
2021-02-1144 min
Got Books? Conversations with BooksellersS1 Ep. 1: Shaun Bythell, The Bookshop (Wigtown, Scotland)This is the first episode of Got Books?, a podcast for those who love getting lost in (and among) books. For those who appreciate the comfort of a bookshop, the smell of a new book and the story of an old one. It's a podcast with those making this possible: the booksellers. We will be interviewing bookshop owners all around the world and for our very episode we travelled to Scotland.
In the south-west parts of Scotland lies Wigtown, a small town where 1,000 people live and 10,000 visit every year. Wigtown is Scotland’s National Booktown, a title won...
2021-01-3144 min