“La font de Mimir”: a neighbourhood-building bookshop that invites you to get passionate about reading

Carles and Isabel are booksellers and readers. They take part in and organise activities with local residents and customers of their bookshop, "La font de Mimir" (Nou Barris), as well as collaborating on the “School Paths” project, where retailers support and watch over school children going to or from school. In addition, they are one of the shops taking part in the “Commerce and Schools” programme: their bookshop periodically receives visits from local schoolchildren and they offer them talks and workshops to encourage them to read.

“Twenty children touching books! We like it because they touch and move around, question us and themselves and some come back here”, says Carles. This is one of the activities that gives them the most satisfaction as booksellers and book lovers, working to create new readers when they invite them to learn about the stories told in the books. Carles and Isabel also star in the videos that can currently be seen on the media, social networks and websites under the “Barcelona commerce sounds good” campaign.

They first opened the shop seven years ago. Carles says that he was really keen to embark on creating a bookshop. He did it using his experience as a reader and with an interest in creating a space for his clients to be able to spend a pleasant time with a book as an incentive. Attracting children as readers was a major goal from the start, which is why they have a specialist section.

“More than a club” for reading

They see their bookshop as a “cultural centre, a focus where people from the neighbourhood can go along and enjoy themselves, sharing in culture and books”, Carles points out. This is the path they are following together with the aim of “making and contributing something in the neighbourhood”, and that is why they are collaborating with the Centre Cívic de Torre Llobeta in the Nou Barris literary competition, along with the library and the Catalan-Language Normalisation Centre. They have created reading clubs, they give talks and they organise book presentations. Both Carles and Isabel say they feel cared for and appreciated by the neighbourhood’s local residents. Carles says he's an optimistic person and stresses how the bookshop is doing better and better every day.

Isabel Isabel is also a novelist and essay writer for young people and adults, as well as an editor and translator. She takes responsibility for creating and organising activities that encourage people to set aside time for reading. One example is the Reading Club, which authors are invited to so they can present their works or get to meet their readers. With a coffee, too.

“It's more than a club”, she laughs, “because we hold round tables with experts and talk about formats, such as illustrating, and genres, such as detective novels. There are no books without readers”, highlights the writer and bookseller. They are now preparing workshops that will be clubs with educational toys, though they are also thinking about many more activities. Sant Jordi (St George's Day) is an important date just around the corner, which explains why they decided to create a “Little Sant Jordi”, two days before and exclusively dedicated to children. Creativity has a long history behind it at the La Font de Mimir.