Editorial miracle: book sales drop only 4% in 2020
In Catalonia, on Saturdays you can have a vermouth or eat in a restaurant (only from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.) but you cannot buy a book in any bookstore.
Since January 9,
all bookstores are closed on Saturdays
as they are not considered "essential activities."
In the restrictions approved by the Generalitat against Covid-19, they are treated as shops and not as cultural enclaves.
The Generalitat "drowns us little by little and in silence"
with its "erratic measures, lies and ag
comparative ravios ", denounces the sector in a manifesto that will be read next Saturday, February 6, in full electoral campaign. Beyond Saturdays, bookstores of more than 400 square meters have had to lower the blind and only attend online orders .
Iconic bookstores are closed daily
such as Central del Raval, La Casa del Libro or the brand new Ona Llibres.
To rebel against this forced closure, the sector will unite in a symbolic act at the Lehman Factory in which the writer
Màrius Serra
will read his story
Bibliofàgia
and then he will eat it (it is made with edible paper and ink).
The initiative starts from
Joan Sala
, president of Editors.cat and director of the publishing house Comanegra, and has the support of the Guild of Booksellers and the Chamber of Books.
The president of Cedro,
Daniel fernandez
, will also attend the event. «
We do not understand that the book is excluded from the list of essential shops
.
During confinement, books have been more than ever a refuge.
Buying a book is as essential as going to buy a loaf of bread or a lettuce », launches
Patrici Tixis,
President of the Chamber of Books. Although on September 22 the Generalitat approved a declaration to qualify the culture as an "essential good", only four months later it remained on paper.
There is no coherent and logical explanation.
Undeniably,
the book is culture.
At the beginning, in January, we thought it had been a mistake, that the restrictions had been approved quickly and quickly ... We thought they were going to rectify.
But we have been demanding the opening of bookstores for almost a month now and they have not backed down.
We are very hurt ", laments Tixis.
The manifesto is even more forceful: «
They have lied to us by declaring us essential and shutting us down the next day
, and the measures seem to pursue the isolation of the different groups of cultural workers.
In this way, Catalan bookstores feel "out in the open." While theaters, cinemas and museums may open on Saturdays, bookstores cannot.
But due to the strict municipal confinement, citizens of towns or small cities cannot travel to the theaters and museums of Barcelona or Gerona, not even the neighboring towns, as requested by the mayor.
Ada Colau
, which was betting on a metropolitan closure.
Attending a cultural event is not one of the mobility exceptions contemplated by the Catalan Civil Protection Plan (Procicat).
Today, the new restrictions for the Covid-19 will be announced that will be "of continuity but with small openings", announced yesterday the Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat,
Josep Maria Argimon
.
That "small opening", in the case of bookstores, is late.
If it comes.
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