SHARP 2023-BRN Panel: The Bookshop as Interface
Bookshops operate as more than just spaces where the commercial retail of books occurs. They are places of ideas, which encourage us to venture beyond our own experiences and expand imaginative and intellectual horizons. Indeed, as Martin Latham has claimed, bookshops do this even more successfully than universities: “it seems, indeed, such institutionalized thinking is less likely to be mould-breaking; whereas a bookshop, used open-mindedly enough, uniquely challenges the normative thinking which dulls our reason and clouds our souls (The Bookseller’s Tale, p. 305). This panel looks at some ways the interface of the bookshop has fostered, or is fostering, new ideas, whether in fictionalised accounts of bookshops or histories of actual ones.
RISE Industry Insights research paper Culture Vouchers
RISE Bookselling (Resilience, Innovation and Sustainability for the Enhancement of Bookselling) have now published the second volume of their Industry Insights series, which examines state-funded cultural voucher schemes currently in place in four different countries across Europe—France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The schemes are launched with the aim of introducing teenagers and young adults to their country’s unique and rich cultural scene, while also supporting cultural and creative industries in the process. You can download a free copy here: https://bit.ly/RISE2023-2.
