A couple of weeks ago I talked to the bookstorer of No Leo Tobalaba Mil (Av. Tobalaba N ° 5151, L. 108). It was by chance, it had been to look for my youngest daughter, so I took advantage of passing. ATIBORADA OF BOOKS, Nothing more fascinating than scrutinizing in every corner of it, on each shelf, without any title in mind, with the single disposition of being open to the finding. For example, at the end of last year I found a booklet of the cliff publisher, whose first pages were very surprised. The face and its masksby Mario Satz. A prose that explores the dynamics of the self and the other with very beautiful images. I gladly gave it to Christmas to a great friend.
I do not remember how many books I have bought or known thanks to what Leo tobalaba since she opened its doors, in 2016. I know that I am from that kind of readers complicated for a bookseller; Of those of entering to look, to spend a lot of time, perhaps, absorbed in the books and leave without buying any.
In Buenos Aires, for example, readers like us are common in bookstores; Libraries do not bother in the least; Wisely, the reader lets him be then sooner or later he will buy the book he is looking for or the one he found without knowing that he was looking for him. To booksellers and readers are combined by passion and love for books; And of course, they are sources of experiences and experiences, adventure, knowledge.
In Santiago, on the other hand, we are often a kind of ulcer for those who attend the bookstore. For the rest, when you cannot suppress the discomfort, it is responsible for transmitting it or making it feel. The enthusiastic greeting is “which book is looking” and the answer – almost obscene – “just look” draws disappointment or arouses an uncomfortable silence. I had to ask next, more than once, “can you?”
It is not unusual for some libraries to be administered as a store of reading products, that is, as a books of books. The vision of the shopping prevails. Neither the reading nor the reader imports a lot, the preponderant is the consumption, which they buy, that they sell.
Obviously, without sales a bookstore is not supported economically, whether in Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Rancagua or Santiago, but not with the logic of being selling cars spare parts. A book, unlike a spark plug, has soul. One of the meaning of the word is that which says that it is a “thing that gets into the hole of some pieces to give them solidity.” The soul of the book is each one’s own, which is present through it.
Fortunately, there are different bookstores.
What Leo Tobalaba is of the different. In addition, it is from the neighborhood. It is not forbidden to search and it is allowed to find. It is a house for writers and home of readers. To his eaves, agapes have been held in which he is provided by literature, poetry books have been launched or conferences on Chilean rock have been given. QLT is more than a bookstore.
It is a place where people meet and share; It is a space open to joy and hospitality, the latter so appreciated by the Greeks. I do not remember how many activities I have gone during these years. Always surprise, because I never knew in advance that something had organized the day that passed by. For pure luck, I have also lost myself enough.
For pure chance, too, a couple of weeks ago I met the bookseller. His name is Anita Barra. (When I talked to Anita Barra I did not know that, in addition to a bookseller, she is a journalist with an outstanding career. Nor did she know that she comments and recommends books in the La Taco time program, Radio Universo).
At the end of the afternoon, while I was going to look for my daughter to a friend’s house, I entered what Leo Tobalaba. It was like meeting the owner of a house, owner in this case, after having gone for years to visit her, have fun, surprise you without having had the slightest idea of its existence, name and appearance. So, more than knowing, over the years, who is the owner -I found out at that time, in addition, that it was a her and not an him -I met who makes possible so many milestones in the daily life of common and currents people: adults, children, adolescents, elders, young people and also handsome who congregate in their bookstore by different meetings and circumstances. Of course, I did not buy any books but the conversation was memorable.
A few days ago I spent again. I was looking for a novel that my eldest son wanted to read. Was. I bought it delighted.
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