"Calonge, a small town on the Costa Brava (Wikipedia), aspires to become an official member of the International Organisation of Book Towns (official website), and thus attract sustainable culture tourism to its medieval center.
The local culture councilor was inspired by Montolieu in France.
With this aim in mind the local government offered empty spaces to potential booksellers, and after a relatively short selection process, on 10 Dec. 2021 seven new bookstores were officially inaugurated in a town of 10,000 inhabitants.
Some of these are specialized ones, such as Calonge Còmics, La Viatgeria (travel), Orient (the East, classics, Africa), Llibooks (children), and Cocollona (spirituality, esoterica).
What’s missing of the original concept of book town are the second-hand shops – with online stores without physical outlets dominating the market and the Spanish and Catalan booksale volumes being relatively low, these might be even more difficult to set up and operate profitably than regular bookstores."
SOURCE: La Vanguardia, 11 Dec. 2021, pp. 38 – 39 [printed edition; online with pictures] Found at Literary Rambles here.
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