Got Books? Conversations with Booksellers

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 ago but has already received raving reviews from readers and writers in Lisbon, and if you head over to their Instagram page you’ll see why. The book curation couldn’t be more relevant, the design of the space is bold and beautiful and it just feels fresh and exciting and like you want to be there. Alex is also hosting intimate and very safe writing spaces, where early on a Tuesday mornings writers come together to write in silence, by candlelight. She’s bringing new voices to Lisbon and encouraging those in Lisbon to write and get creative. This conversation felt encouraging and uplifting and it confirmed a suspicion I’ve had for a while now, interviewing bookshop owners all around the world: starting and running a bookshop is a bit of an art form and there’s a lot of artistic freedom in how it can be done. Here’s my conversation with Alex.

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 location became available in my village so I decided to just go for it..I’ve signed a lease and, together with a few other neighbors and friends who are also really into books, just like you and me, we’re slowly putting together what may be the world’s smallest bookshop. It will be a side project for now, as I do have a full time job that I very much love and a two year old daughter that keeps me entertained and busy, but it’s happening, I’ll open a bookshop. I see it as a community project, since so many people are already contributing with ideas, books, pieces of furniture, their time.. and with that in mind, I have a favour I’d like to ask. If Got Books is a podcast that you enjoy and you’ve been on this bookshop dreaming journey with me, I’d love to ask for you to become a small part of this bookshop too. One way to do that would be to send me one or a few books you’d like to donate to my bookshop, and I’ll post the mailing address in the show notes; if you could add a note inside each book about why you chose it, why you liked it..I’ll make sure that your notes go up on the shelves too, for all to see. It would mean so much to me to get books from around the world from Got Books listeners and have these be some of the very first books as we open our doors. Another way to support this brand new bookshop, especially if you live far from Spain and sending books my way doesn’t feel like the most climate friendly thing to do, is to send me suggestions for how to name the bookshop. It may seem strange that I don’t have a name yet, given how long I’ve been thinking about it, but..I do not, so if you feel inspired, send me ideas on how to name a bookshop that is small, cozy, in a Spanish village by the sea, selling books in both English and Spanish. Feel free to email me your ideas a [email protected]

Thank you so much for listening and would love to get books and name ideas from you! In the meantime, I’m working on new Got Books episodes and looking forward to the second meetup of the Future Booksellers Club, happening on Feb 24th. You can come too, by registering at gotbookspodcast.com

Until next time, sit back, relax and enjoy a good book!

Mailing address for books:

Antonia Caraveteanu

Calle Embajadores 29, 04638, Mojacar, Spain

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 first opened its doors in 2008 and since then has changed its location twice. Edgars story of how he came to own Robert’s Books is perhaps one of the most unbelievable stories I’ve come across, one fit for a novel. The father of Robert’s Books is journalist Robert Cottrell, who then gifted the shop to Edgars. Not a bad start to bookselling. Edgars was very young at the time, but he was not alone, he had a small team and together they not only kept the shop open, but they made it thrive and become the community and safe haven it is today. Here’s my conversation with Edgars.

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 about a project I just started very much inspired by my conversations with booksellers on this show. Ever since I started Got Books, almost 3 years ago, I’ve been getting messages from around the world from folks who, like me, dream of one day opening their own bookshop. In my head, these are future bookseller and I hope many of them, myself included, will actually make their dream come true one day. That's how the idea of the Future Booksellers Club came about! The Future Booksellers Club is a space for those eager to one day drop everything (except their books) and become booksellers. Our online meetups cover topics ranging from naming your shop (and the shop's resident cat) to the more practical challenges, such as having a physical bookshop in the internet era. Every once in a while, we invite present-day booksellers to come along, so we can learn what it's really like to manage a bookshop.

My hope is that the Future Booksellers Club helps us keep on dreaming of our own bookshop, until we're ready to open its doors. Our first ever meetup is on January 13, because I don’t believe in bad luck so I’m happy to start something new on the 13th, and it will take place online. If you are a future bookseller, you can register to attend by going to … and this is another announcement, our brand new website, gotbookspodcast.com and look for the Future Booksellers Club page. Come along to our first meetup, the more the merrier.

On that same page and with Christmas fast approaching, you’ll also find some gift ideas either for yourself or for people in your life that are thinking-hoping-dreaming of one day becoming booksellers. These are t-shirts and sweatshirts with messages all about bookselling, like “to be or not to be a bookseller, that is the question” or simply..”I wish I were a bookseller”. Since Got Books? is and always will be free, and ad-free, any purchase you make is a small way to support me in my podcasting efforts. And they could make a fun Christmas gift too.

Alright, that’s all my news for now, head over to gotbookspodcast.com to check our this brand new website, which I made myself, and our Future Booksellers Club. And if you don’t hear from me before that, have the best Christmas with lots of love, warmth, and of course some nice cozy books.

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 especially it’s majority owner Danny have become small business and anti-Amazon activists, through viral tweets turned into books, media appearances, such as this one, and a growing collection of activist zines. And as of 2022, the Raven is one of the very few employee-owned bookstores.

The Raven stands for something. It believes that reading books won't fix the world's problems, but they can be a pretty good place to start. It believes that Amazon is bad and the United States Postal Service is good. And it believes that small businesses and independent bookstores are vital to their communities.

Danny wrote 2 books on the topic too, so I’ve invited him on Got Books to talk about his career as a bookseller, his popular books encouraging us to protect independent bookstores and of course..books. Here’s my conversation with Danny Caine, from The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas.