Libraries Day is celebrated today as something more than a good cause, an act of melancholy or a guilty conscience.

During the last year and a half, the time that has elapsed since the confinement of March 2020, 50 bookstores have opened their doors to the public in Spain: Mitja Mosca in Barcelona, ??Lex Flavia in Malaga, Unusual in Granada, El Delirio del Hidalgo in Toledo, La Mistral in Madrid, and Bambú in Terrassa are outstanding openings that defy economic uncertainty.

This figure, compiled by Cegal (Spanish Federation of Booksellers Guilds and Associations), is of more interest considering that 41 businesses have disappeared from their roster during this period, although most of the cancellations are not truly bookstores but stationery stores and other businesses that sold books, parents of students’ cooperatives that functioned as purchasing centers, etc. "In reality, the last significant closure was that of Los Editores in Madrid, and it was not due to a lack of business, but because the owner of the premises did not want to renew the lease," explained the association of bookstores.

Read more here: Publishnews