內容簡介
書店漫遊，探索世界書店歷史，思考實體書店的未來與命運
文學評論家Jorge Carrion的興趣是收集書店：從哥譚圖書市場和紐約的斯特蘭德書店，再到城市之光書店和舊金山青蘋果書店，還有獨立書店(草原之光、丹佛的Tattered Cover等)。透過作者發人省思、生動有趣和隨意的文章，尋訪世界各個書店的軌跡，發現那些消逝於時光與歷史書店與人們，將再次一一浮現。內容充滿許多有年代的知名書店軼事，對於傳統書店所面臨的挑戰省思，以及書店在政治和社會上的深遠影響。書店儲存著人類的文明，曾經是文學的發生地、作家的棲息地與歷史的見證者，更是徹底改變許多讀者的生活。
文學評論家Jorge Carrion的興趣是收集書店：從哥譚圖書市場和紐約的斯特蘭德書店，再到城市之光書店和舊金山青蘋果書店，還有獨立書店(草原之光、丹佛的Tattered Cover等)。透過作者發人省思、生動有趣和隨意的文章，尋訪世界各個書店的軌跡，發現那些消逝於時光與歷史書店與人們，將再次一一浮現。內容充滿許多有年代的知名書店軼事，對於傳統書店所面臨的挑戰省思，以及書店在政治和社會上的深遠影響。書店儲存著人類的文明，曾經是文學的發生地、作家的棲息地與歷史的見證者，更是徹底改變許多讀者的生活。
Why do bookshops matter? How do they filter our ideas and literature? In this inventive and highly entertaining extended essay, Jorge Carrion takes his reader on a journey around the world, via its bookshops. His travels take him to Shakespeare & Co in Paris, Wells in Winchester, Green Apple Books in San Francisco, Librairie des Colonnes in Tangier, the Strand Book Store in New York and provoke encounters with thinkers, poets, dreamers, revolutionaries and readers.
Bookshops is the travelogue of a lucid and curious observer, filled with anecdotes and stories from the universe of writing, publishing and selling books. A bookshop in Carrion's eyes never just a place for material transaction; it is a meeting place for people and their ideas, a setting for world changing encounters, a space that can transform lives.
Written in the midst of a worldwide recession, Bookshops examines the role of these spaces in today's evershifting climate of globalisation, vanishing high streets, e-readers and Amazon. But far from taking a pessimistic view of the future of the physical bookshop, Carrion makes a compelling case for hope, underlining the importance of these places and the magic that can happen there. A vital manifesto for the future of the traditional bookshop, and a delight for all who love them.
Translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush
