The new era of Literary Cafes.

New Literary Cafes

The bookstore cafes, heirs of the literary cafes where the intellectuals of the past centuries met.

Only two decades ago the nostalgic remembered with melancholy the literary cafes, those where the intellectuals met of each generation. This tradition started in the XNUMXth century in Europe and, with more or less ups and downs, continued until the middle of the XNUMXth century: Café Gijón in Madrid, La Closerie de las Lilas in Paris, Condotti in Rome, Reggio in New York, Novelty in Salamanca or Eagle and Child in Boston are just some examples of those places.

Society changed, the needs of a place to meet as well and muchos of those cafes stopped hosting writers' gatherings to become tourist claims or, the less fortunate disappear. He S. XXI, instead, it has brought us a new format of café-bookstore, open to all audiences, where the only requirement is a taste for books.

What are today's readers like?

Today, in the middle of the digital age, we attend a revival of passion for literature, in front of those passionate about video games or social networks, the usual readers are positioned, who sigh for a good book on paper, a cozy place, a steaming coffee and getting romantic, the rain behind the glass. At a time when everyone knows Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Marc Zuckerberg, in which their lives are the subject of Hollywood films, many others decide to dedicate their time away from the screen, to the work of more writers. or less known, as a form of rebellion against new social trends and it is possible that the literature be one of the few things capable of combining elitism with accessibility, only luxury good that is not expensive.  Reading has become a way of resisting, of going against the tide And, as always when that happens, the market satisfies emerging trends that reach a desirable business volume.

The bookstore cafes, the answer to the search for literary pleasure.

If we add to this the need for traditional bookstores to compete with the sale of books through the Internet and with large bookstore franchises, bookstore cafes are beginning to proliferate with success. Are they bookstores to which coffee, tea, wine and sweets or coffees are added to which the library bonus is added? There is everything, but the origin does not matter as much as the destination: more and more, these places are the new meeting places between authors and readers or between readers and books.

A new generation of readers seeks in the Cafés Librerías the reunion with the peace of coffee in the warmth of home, fleeing from the dizzying.

Where to find them?

They arise in central neighborhoods of big cities, full of life, people, and represent an oasis of peace, home smells and comforting stomach and spirit.

We find most of these places in Madrid in Lavapiés, Malasaña, Centro, in Las Letras, Sol or in Madrid de los Austrias: Swinton & Grant, La Infinito, Tipo Infames, La Fábrica, La Central or La Ciudad Invisible are just some of them. On Barcelona, Babelia in Sant Antoni, La Central in the Eixample, Le Standard in Grácia or Antinous in Ciutat Bella are just some examples. This type of premises make their way timidly in other cities with less population like Muez in Valencia or La Revoltosa in Gijón and everything points to the fact that in the next few years we will be able to make a tourist route through the country visiting our Librerías-Café or Café-Librerías because in this case «So much ride, ride so much ...


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  1.   Sergi said

    Muez, in Valencia, closed a year ago ;-(