ABOUT BOOKS, BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKTOWNS. ESP. IN FRANCE


MAY 31:

Today I want to write about culture. About BOOKS and their importance. My point of view is that we all have a lot to learn from France.

In France you consider books as equally important for the survival of the nation and for everybody’s well-being as food and drink.  Or as president Mitterrand once said:  People lose contact to reality, if they are not surrounded by books!   This is in a way a continuation of what the old Roman author and politician Cicero once wrote:  If man has a lovely garden and a big library he does not need more!

This fundamental attitude to books was also very important at the start of the present corona crisis in France.  The French government decided at once that bookshops and newspaper kiosks were of fundamental importance and had to continue to be open.  That was what happened – except in cases where they closed temporarily due to the safety of the staff.

At the same time the on-line sale of books via Amazon exploded during the crisis.

What do the French authorities do to support bookselling and bookshops?   They have put the VAT rate at only 5 % for books.  And they also expropriate or buy many small shops at street level in Paris and other cities and towns and let bookshops rent them at a very low cost.  In addition, reading books is strongly stimulated by a French tradition that everybody reads books – also people who are not well-off, even homeless people.   The French know their classics!

It is evident that with a population of 67 million it is possible for the French publishers to sell many more books than in countries with a smaller population.  At the same time it is a policy in France that books normally should cost 20 € at the most, making it possible for everybody to buy them.

The number of bookshops in France is for these reasons higher than in many other countries. In Paris alone there are about 400 of them – a number which is very stable.

About 90 % of all books in the world have been printed since 1960.  And we all have books. We might even have read some of them 😊  Other books are out of date – or you have lost interest in them.  Then you either throw them away or give/sell them to second-hand bookshops.

These second-hand bookshops are very often the basis of the many BOOK TOWNS or BOOK VILLAGES around the world.  They exist in most countries. And they are often supported in one way or another by the local bookshop, if it exists.

In Belgium we have very interesting bookshops in REDU in the Ardennes and in DAMME in West Flanders. 

They have an international association called the International Organisation of Booktowns.     See more here:   http://www.booktown.net

We have for many years been active to promote the ideas behind booktowns.   Have a good look at them. 

Under all circumstances books are very important and stimulating 😊   Join in – to support the book, the bookshops and the book villages.  Then you have done something really good – not least for yourself 😊

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