The Culture Train: readings that are refuge, peace and beauty

There are sensations that are difficult to decipher with words, “like when you finish a great book and you think: And now, what do I do?”, commented the writer Jerónimo Tristant on Friday during the trip back to Murcia on the Culture Train of THE TRUTH. and Renfe. After visiting the Madrid Book Fair, the writers, readers, booksellers and editors summoned by this newspaper to venture into this day dedicated to the present of literature returned aboard the AVE to continue talking about books, attending the tables of experts with booksellers and passionate readers. Two conversations that encouraged Vega Cerezo, Manuel Moyano, Jerónimo Tristant, Carmen Pujante, Ángeles Carnacea, Patricia Reus, Francisco Marín, Bárbara Guirao, Francisco Serrano, Fuensanta Marín, Ana Sánchez and José Miguel Palazón ‘Roger’ to share their best memories about reading, the book they started reading with, the time they dedicate to this enriching hobby, their favorite places to do it, the opportunities they give a title and an author before deciding that their work is not for them. .. and how they develop a reading in which “the five senses are always involved. And I need to touch the book,” said Ángeles Carnacea after José Manuel López Nicolás confessed his passion for smelling the pages. Participants did not miss the opportunity to recommend books.

With the desire to be able to repeat cultural initiatives like this, the train trip flew by among moving testimonies and, on the other hand, also taking the opportunity to point out the shortcomings of the sector and everything that could be improved. «As soon as they asked me to be part of this initiative, I said yes without thinking about it. I loved the idea. I have always liked to share and have relationships with colleagues from all fields and this is a different experience,” commented Ana Sánchez, Educania bookseller, when getting on the train. A reflection with which her companions agreed.

bookshelves table

In charge of defending the book against its ‘rivals’

LA VERDAD journalist Fuensanta Carreres moderated the third panel of experts of the day, a conversation with the bookseller Fuensanta Marín, from the Murcian bookstore Diego Marín; Ana Sánchez, from Educania; and José Miguel Palazón ‘Roger’ from Futuro Imperfecto, in Lorca.

Carreres highlighted that booksellers, in addition to having a vocational job, are entrepreneurs “and have suffered a perfect storm” by having to face online sales platforms such as Amazon, bookstore chains and succulent discounts on the sale of textbooks. . Regarding this last aspect, Ana Sánchez assured that “in the Region of Murcia, bookstores are not helped in terms of the sale of textbooks. There is a deception there because a lot of money is moved, but in reality we take practically nothing,” an opinion in which Fuensanta Marín agreed. The daughter of Diego Marín and heir to a legacy built by her father, a leading bookseller and publisher in Murcia for decades, considered that “institutional support for bookstores is non-existent and, on the other hand, textbooks could be cheaper and better. Sometimes they could even be dispensed with. Furthermore, “books have been left to brothers and friends all their lives, but now books arrive that have been used 4 or 5 times and are very damaged. In this way, what is being transmitted to the child is that what is contained in that book has no value. The booksellers shared with the Culture Train attendees the bad practices of textbook publishers, who make illegal discounts and other exchanges to educational centers in exchange for them betting on their product.

For Roger, “we have many textbooks, almost too many” and, in terms of public support, “France is the model. There the book chain is protected with laws, from top to bottom. For the engineer, who left his profession to open, together with Verónica Martínez, his bookstore in Lorca in 2019, “the pandemic made many people read” and he has verified in his business that young people do dedicate the Cultural Bonus to the purchase of books: «They come a lot and, furthermore, when the voucher doesn’t work for them, they put money out of their pocket to buy what they want. And children also read a lot. Something important for the manager of the Educania bookstore, dedicated to children’s and youth literature because “those who have had the habit of reading as a child, even if they lose it in adolescence, will recover it later.” The Murcian bookseller commented on the themes of some titles such as ‘The cool rule’ and other books that talk about sex and consent as well as those that focus on explaining emotions and conscious education: «I feel committed to having these books. “Girls and boys have to have information.”

When it comes to recommending new readings, Fuensanta Marín does so publicly with his usual literary recommendations in which he gives details about some of the titles that he finds most interesting. «As a bookseller I take a risk doing this. Furthermore, I open up and discover myself completely as a reader,” she assumes.

All the booksellers agreed that people continue to read on paper and that the electronic book, which seemed a threat since its birth years ago, has never become a real danger to dethrone the physical format because, for booksellers, the electronic book It is often used as a timely substitute for reading on paper. Faced with the cliché of those who say that “we used to read more”, Roger believes that reading is experiencing a good moment and that the real rival is not the electronic book, but the streaming platforms.

Readers table

When words start to make sense

The readers’ table, moderated by the professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Murcia, vice-rector of the UMU, disseminator and collaborator of LA VERDAD José Manuel López Nicolás, was the one that provoked the greatest participation of the attendees since, all of them readers , wanted to share their anecdotes and experiences around the book.

Accompanying López Nicolás in this meeting on the AVE return to Murcia was the architect Patricia Reus, columnist in the Sunday section ‘Table for five’ of this newspaper; Ángeles Carnacea, poet and delegate in Murcia of Solidarios para el Desarrollo, and Carmen Pujante, professor of Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature at the UMU.

“I don’t consider myself a great reader,” confessed Patricia Reus, who does not choose public transportation to read because “since I was a child, I really like to observe and when I move I am imagining the lives of those next to me.” The architect and UPCT professor shared on the train that her parents “are great readers.” Her preferences when choosing books have changed over the years because “now I look for other things in reading.”

“I started loving books before I learned to read,” said Ángeles Carnacea, author of ‘A River Passed Through Here’ and promoter of culture in the Campos del Río prison. «My maternal grandmother died when I was 4 years old and since I was born I sat at a small table next to her and I have that image of her engraved. Books like ‘Treasure Island’, I have them full of drawings. I remember my grandmother going to the bookshelf to pick up a book. “She was the only person I had seen with a book in her hand,” continued the poet and social anthropologist, who assured that for her “reading and living are synonyms.”

For Carmen Pujante, it was a literature teacher who captivated her as a student: «She arrived at a time when I wanted to be a Mathematics teacher, but she was my Language and French teacher and I ended up studying Hispanic and French Philology. Until that moment she had never considered becoming a Literature teacher.

«Before, I thought about the three things I like to do most in life: dance, read and teach. What they have in common is that for me time stops when I practice them,” the teacher and literary critic reflected aloud. «In my house there were no books and no one read but I remember that we moved house and the only thing the previous owners left behind was a shelf full of books. I was 6 years old and I remember reading them all,” recalled Pujante, who turned the encyclopedia that her parents later bought into “something sacred.”

«I, mainly, look for peace in a book. I love books that make me think calmly,” explained Patricia Reus about what she wants to find when she starts reading, while Carnacea does not ask anything of a book, but likes to find “refuge and silence but also agitation. Books are a promise. And, directly, there are books that are beauty treatments, a wonder,” he said minutes before arriving at the Murcia del Carmen railway station and ending this literary trip that had the support of Renfe, which has a firm commitment with the promotion of culture and brings it closer to people through its trains. Its main objective is to combine the different services it offers with the most important plans to enjoy the cultural offerings of our country.

Renfe is the official train for a large number of shows and cultural events that take place in national territory. Its managers remember that it is the railway company that offers the most destinations in our country to travel through the Renfe Culture Train in a more comfortable, fast and reliable way, along with the best routes to get to the different shows that take place in National territory.