Saturday is independent bookstore celebration

The Bookstore Festival by independent booksellers has been defending the mission of bookstores for more than 26 years. Artisans of Culture, they are one of the first ramparts in the defense of the diversity of ideas, creation and freedom of expression. Exceptional fact: more than 650 bookstores throughout France, in Luxembourg, as well as in French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland, will participate in this major event which has both a cultural ambition and a civic dimension – we have seen to what extent this fight was essential during the epidemic.

On this occasion, we asked three questions to Marie-Rose Guarniéri, the founder of La Librairie des Abbesses, in Paris, and president of the Verbes association, organizer of the event.

LE FIGARO.- What is the spirit of this Bookstore Festival? Why is it necessary?

Marie-Rose GUARNIERI.- The spirit of this day consists of bringing together all the bookstores throughout the country (650 this year). This gathering, like fireflies, forms a large garland which testifies to our French exception: that of having been able to preserve, thanks to the Lang law, a great diversity of independent bookstores. This independence and this large network therefore allow a multitude of books – therefore of heterogeneous forms and ideas – to live, which is crucial for our democracies to breathe. Our mission is therefore to be very attentive to emerging ideas and novelistic forms and to offer readers literary escapades outside of the 10 best sellers. This day is aimed at readers to open a festive dialogue with them while transmitting the history and culture of the book. We thus attempt to highlight what the bookseller's work provides, which is inimitable for the distribution of books. Coming together means sharpening our humanist values ​​together. Today, what are the fears of independent bookstores? There are fears, yes, but let's first remember that there are more than 3,500 independent bookstores throughout the country. territory (including 50 which were created this year). We therefore remain the country of books. The purpose of this gathering is precisely to highlight the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of these places, their cultural and social role in their region, and their economic weight on the book chain. The bookseller's profession has always been a combat sport, because their survival is fragile. They must combine a large supply of works with rigorous management and the formation of taste, which requires many years of practice. These parameters are becoming more complex today, because we are witnessing a mutation in our civilizations with the naked eye. We are observing several phenomena that are creating an erosion of curiosity and “book hunger.” We read differently, and we are afflicted with “infobesity” that clutters and occupies our minds. Online sales no longer encourage travel effort. In times of crisis, readers unfortunately take refuge in safe values, and we note that certain very important books that we have chosen do not always capture the public's attention. And the reasons for hope? We know that – confinement confirmed – proximity to a bookstore is and will always remain essential for our country. But it is not enough to have good feelings to ensure their existence, we also need a real commitment by getting closer to them so that these places can fully realize their vocation. Furthermore, like every year, the event highlights a subject or an author. For this 26th edition, La Fête de la Librairie will honor the great poet Jacques Roubaud, of the OuLiPo movement and the renowned visual artist Edi Dubien, by offering visitors to participating bookstores a beautiful new book where the works of the two artists dialogue in a magical poetry around the animal world. A book specially published in more than 25,000 copies, in partnership with Gallimard and all the partners of the Festival.

All the publications of the Verbes association, which organizes the Librairie Festival, always have the editorial line of transmitting to a wide audience an aspect of the history or culture of the book. This year, this beautiful book, for all children from seven to seventy-seven years old, celebrates poetry more than anything, this tête-à-tête between the poet and the French language, by reissuing 20 poems by Jacques Roubaud, taken from from his collections Nobody's Animals and Everybody's Animals. Jacques Roubaud is one of the greatest living French troubadour poets, making a rose appear under each of his words. A member of OuLiPo, he developed an abundant body of work that includes works of prose, poetry, autobiographical stories and essays. In the tradition of artist's books, the painter Edi Dubien, collected by the greatest museums, illuminates each of Jacques Roubaud's poems with 20 unpublished drawings.