The best bookstore of 2022 in Spain recommends in-depth reading for a hot summer

Almudena Amador and Francisco Benedito, at the entrance of their Ramón Llull bookstore, in the Carmen neighborhood of Valencia. Ana Escobar

The best booksellers in Spain this year have earned this recognition.

His relational capital has been the counter, the day-to-day work with readers.

They have shown their perseverance to make the independent bookstore Ramón Llull in Valencia known among the writers they most appreciated, such as Rafael Chirbes or Almudena Grandes, both deceased.

Almudena Amador recalls the kindness and closeness of the author of

or the availability and naturalness of the author of

.

She has run the bookstore for 20 years and for six she has shared the business with Paco Benedito.

More information

The neighborhood bookstore arms itself against Amazon and defends its “essential” work

Both do not hide their satisfaction with the Boixareu Ginesta Prize for Bookseller of the Year, which was announced last month by the Federation of Publishers' Guilds of Spain.

An award given "for its prestige in its territorial area of ​​action and for its important cultural work, hosting literary publishers at its headquarters for various events".

They have managed to consolidate a company that is also a complicated cultural commitment.

Ramon Llul is not a bookstore that focuses its offer on

.

It is a back-end bookstore, for long-distance reading, which sometimes focuses on an author, a collection or a publishing house, while also hosting numerous presentations, seminars, exhibitions, meetings with writers and reading clubs, on everything since they moved their headquarters from the university area to the central neighborhood of El Carmen.

On the Tarongers university campus, when the bookstore was Punto y Coma, Almudena began to work to earn money after studying Law.

Then the university textbooks were sold by the bucketload.

“It was a very mechanical sale, but safe.

Then, with the arrival of the Bologna syllabus, those manuals began to disappear and thin out, while virtual education spread," says the bookseller in her spacious establishment, with high ceilings, very well nourished with narrative books, essay and poetry.

When the owners of Punto y Coma announced that they were retiring and closing, she put aside her initial idea of ​​dedicating herself professionally to immigration and foreign affairs issues and immersed herself fully as a partner in the world of books.

That's going to be 20 years.

“It was clear to me that I wanted to organize cultural activities, with events and presentations, in addition to being a bookstore,” says Almudena.

In fact, the diversity of activities and the loyalty of readers explain the recognition and maintenance of a business that has been threatened since the advent of audiovisual culture and new technologies.

To carry out his plans, the original location of the bookstore on the street that gives it its name was not the most suitable due to the limitations of hours and people.

They looked for a more accessible place and in 2016 they opened their doors in the old bohemian neighborhood of the city, where

and the usual neighborhood coexist, where they were "very well received".

Paco Benedito had already joined the book adventure from which another initial partner had separated.

“I worked in the furniture and tourism sectors, but I always liked poetry and reading, especially essays.

I used to go to Tarongers, sometimes with a group of friends, very talented poets.

There I met Almudena and started helping her.

And now here I am, delighted to work between books and to meet writers, like Paco Brines.

I always remember what he told us: what you have to do is read, read a lot, ”says the bookseller, dressed in a Ramones t-shirt in a Ramon Llull book version, not alluding to the 13th-century Majorcan philosopher.

Almudena has experienced the evolution in Spain of bookstores and publishing in the last two decades, the multiplication of female clientele and writers or the growing interest in LGTBI-themed books.

“Now people are much more informed, they know what has come out and when thanks to social networks and other channels.

Before, the information started from the bookcase”, she points out.

She maintains that book publishing in Spain, and more so now with the proliferation of "wonderful small publishers", is one of the best in the world.

"Every time I go to bookstores abroad I realize it," she adds.

He misses, however, a greater distribution of books in other languages ​​in Spain, having easy access, for example, to Michel Houellebecq's latest novel in French,

n.

"Not all of us can compete there under the same conditions as Amazon, but in other services we can be just as effective," he adds.

summer reading

As is mandatory in their profession and for these dates, Almudena and Paco are ready to propose some recommendations for reading in depth and in depth, with soul, fun, to cope with the burning temperatures of this summer.

Almudena chooses, among others,

, by Rafael Reig, and

, by Luis Landero (both novels published by Tusquets), "because both are written fantastically and with a great sense of humor."

Also "it's very funny but with a very bad social background"

(Seix Barral), by Isaac Rosa.

"Sweeter and more poetic" is

(Tusquets), by Lola Mascarell, she points out, and she cannot fail to quote her favorite author, Agota Kristof, "very hard, very dry, but fundamental", and her latest published work in Spanish,

(Asteroid Books).

Also,

by Thomas Wolfe, is "a precious, brief story, as brief as

(both in Peripheral), a text in which Walter Benjamin "remembers his childhood based on sensations and his intuition that he is going to leave your country forever.

"And I can't forget Vivian Gornick and her

" (Sixth Floor), "a literary essay in which he talks about how rereadings suggest different things in each age", or

(Cliff), by Natalia Ginzburg .

Paco focuses more on the essay:

(Cliff), by Ramón Andrés, because his intention “is to read all the work of this wonderful author” and he recommends “starting with this book, for example”;

(Cliff), by Lisa Randall, "a brief but lucid essay to know everything related to the God particle";

(Critic

by Peter Heather, "a joy for lovers of the genre about one of the great mysteries of history with recent investigations", or

(Círculo de tiza), by Elsa Morante, which brings together essay texts by the Italian writer, and which Paco has not stopped recommending since it came out four years ago.