With wines, workshops or music, three bookstores that are encouraged to do more

There are bookstores that they run the limit of what is expected. Instead, they are encouraged to Pair reading with wine or music or with various activities. This is the case of the new Naesquilocated in the neighborhood of Villa Ortúzar, which last week joined the literary scene with a solid schedule of cultural events ahead, coffee and – of course – books. It is not alone in that purpose of expanding the spectrum.

On the corner of 14 de Julio and Charlone in Villa Ortúzar, a house with white walls announced the opening of Naesqui. The name is a play on words with “esquina” but also combines the name of its founders: the nickname of Ignacio IraolaNacho, former editorial director at Planeta, and his partner, the lawyer Pablo Slonimski.

“I’m from the neighborhood. It’s been a long time since I stopped by to see if they had opened yet. They combine two things I like: books and coffee”says Rocío, a young woman from Villa Ortúzar. This statement aligns with the mission of the cultural manager of this new space.

With a modern cafe with vivid colors on the ground floor and with a large and bright atmosphere, the bookstore will develop Workshops led by convening authors such as Támara Tenenbaum, Javier Sinay, Jorge Consiglio and Leticia Rivas.

However, the activities are not limited to the writing arts, there will also be workshops on jeweler’s by María Martínez and free talks on different topics until capacity is exhausted.

Iraola moved to Ortuzar in 2008 but it was only with the pandemic that she had the opportunity to carefully explore its streets. “Every time I returned on July 14, I saw the house and It was a corner that I loved“remembers Clarín Culture the former editorial director of Planeta for 16 years and then advisor. In total, he has been dedicated to the book industry for three decades.

For Iraola, the neighborhood is a publishing hub. “There is a great bookstore four blocks away called ‘Half a Bread and a Book’. There is also the distributor Carbono, Godot, Little Editor, the offices of the FED, there are the offices of Eterna Cadencia and the offices of Estación Libro and those of Filba.”

Naesqui is located in front of a square. Its opening symbolizes A battle won against the real estate business that for several years has been pushing to build buildings wherever possible.

“This corner It was a natural candidate to be a tower and today it is a space that has books, that has coffee, that has writers who will be coming and going, has culture and will have debate“Iraola explains to Clarín Culture.

Iraola says that she always sought to go to meet the person with the book. “You have culture and, above all, what is linked to the book, people have to wear it because There are no very good policies at the government level, and this is historic, about how to generate greater reading,” he says.

With the adrenaline that the beginnings bring, he says: “I hope we do wellWe are not going to become millionaires. What we want is to do a decent job. Live with dignity and bring culture to the streets.”

Paola Lucantis and Paulina Cossi They have a shared code, they respect each other when speaking and they pass the mate as in a perfect ping pongBoth are around fifty years old and are synchronized at a stage in which they asked themselves what they were missing to enjoy within the universe of books, a duo that for many years has been carrying out cycles, fairs, presentations, festivals and tributes.

The answer was I’ll call you on Fridaya bookstore located at La Pampa 1560, in an area in Belgrano with a great gastronomic offer and many offices. “The process was crazy. We took the plunge,” Cossi recalls in conversation with Clarin Cultureone year after its founding.

People who visit the bookstore generally go out for lunch break or stop by when they finish their work hours. In I’ll Call You Friday you find a varied catalog of independent publishers and some from multinational groups. Parallel, a wine list.

Lucantis already had experience in wine tasting. His partner is a winemaker and they had a project called Tasting at homewhich they displayed in their house with a large library. The same thing happened in Paulina’s house, when they got together one brought the wine and the other had the house full of books, so this combination had been resonating for a long time in the heads of Cossi and Lucantis. They decided try the pairing at the bookstorealso in honor of a ritual that they already shared.

“The connection between wine and books, which may seem like a whim, is not really like that,” Cossi explains. Just as there are different types of Malbec, there are different types of fiction books.“In the case of wines: more fruity, with or without wood, fresh, some region,” specifies Lucantis. “And the same for books: detective, romantic, historical. And the choice will depend, in both cases, on a sensitive memory,” answers Cossi.

Each tasting has a name. This Thursday they made “Clarice’s stelae”which is from the Las Estelas wineries and the reading of fragments of Clarice Lispector. The tasting of Támara Tenenbaum, author of The end of love. Loving and fucking in the 21st centuryhad as its title “Loving and drinking in the 21st century”. The next one, on June 28 at 7 p.m., is called “The women of Almudena” with the Spanish actress Carmen de la Osa who will read texts by the Spanish writer.

Since its opening, they maintain that “nothing is fixed except the desire to do activities” and that “the neighborhood feels a community space, something different happenswhich is not just an economic transaction,” concludes Cossi.

Each bookstore has its own peculiarity. In the case of Free Their cover letter is clear: a table with novelties, another with poetry and another with politics and transfeminism greet the public upon entering.

In addition, since its foundation in 2010, La Libre has always had a large space. “They are large spaces because we understand that within the bookstore Authors, editors, readers, friends of the book world, filmmakers, musicians come together“It is an open space to come and discuss literature and art,” says the bookseller.

In 2014, the original team changed and They founded a work cooperative“The recent history begins there but always with the same spirit of offering, above all, independent and self-managed publishing houses,” says Damián Cabeza, who has been working there ever since.

Their best-seller are Fallen trees are also the forest and The sun moves the shadows of still things by Alejandra Kamiya and the collections of poems and novels by the Argentine writer Jose Sbarra. They recently added a little gem that dates back to 1800: a facsimilar of the Don Quijote of La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, hardcover.

The large spaces (filled with books, some plants and also posters) coincide with its great values. The free proclaims –according to Cabeza– “Universal access to culturetrying to offer used books, or books that are out of circulation, or that were bestsellers at another time.”

The cheap books They even allow homeless people to read. “They take a book that we have for free or use the second-hand space as a library,” says Cabeza.

The workshops They also collaborate in promoting reading. Starting with the feminist writer Val Flores, the Ecuadorian writer María Fernanda Ampuero, Ana Claudia Diaz, to a book club with Katya Adaui.

“The preparation of the workshops is a double search: We are looking, we offer the space, and they come to us through affinity“, reflects the bookseller and invites everyone to check the bookstore’s social networks, because registrations have already begun to enjoy the July offerings.

Despite the economic crisis, La Libre is holding on. “The attitude is proactive and new things keep appearing and different in order to offer better books,” says Cabeza, who is part of a very stubborn and hard-working industry.