There are over 40 bookshops in Barcelona selling foreign books that range from the best known literary masterpieces to the latest novelties on the market, going through specialized texts of all kinds and subjects. Their main clients are Catalan, or rather Barcelona residents, but there is also a wide-ranging supply of books catering to the taste of foreign visitors.
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In healthy competition with each other to import books at the best possible price, and by the quickest possible means, these bookshops are scattered all over the city and yet there is a golden area that gathers some of Barcelona's most emblematic establishments of the kind. Jaimes, Laie or La Central are three landmark bookshops with interesting stories on their backs.
Jaimes (64 Paseo de Gràcia) is one of the pioneers. Founded in 1941 by Jaume Arnau, a lively man with a family background in the printing business, the new establishment set up shop close to Barcelona's French Institute. An enterprising Arnau soon realized the market potential behind importing French books. He considered calling it Chez Jaime's, wisely avoiding the more Catalan version of Chez Jaume's. In Franco's postwar years, however, there was no room for joking on the matter and Arnau's name choices did not go down too well. It stayed as Jaimes, perhaps Barcelona's most important francophone bookshop today. Descending just a few steps from the illustrious Paseo de Gràcia the reader will immediately come across a section devoted to foreign visitors. Gaudí, all possible imaginable guides on Barcelona and on the city's and Catalonia's history are to be found there. Among other works it is possible to find: Gaudí, habitat, natura i cosmos in its Catalan, Spanish and English versions; Gaudí, an introduction to architecture, with texts by Juan Eduardo Cirlot and photographs by Roger Vivas and Ricard Pla, which is also available in French, Italian and German; or Gaudí for children, a book for parents eager to explain to their children Gaudi's architecture of dreams. Because 2002 is Gaudí's year. Celebrating the master's 150th anniversary, Barcelona has given it all to bring the memory of the great modernist architect back to life. There are some 40 or 50 different volumes in a variety of languages, ranging from English and French to Japanese, on the life and works of the mind behind the Sagrada Familia. Of course not everything in Jaimes is about Gaudí, the bookshop's window showcases Barcelona by night, a small format guide on the city's nightlife, including updated information on bars, restaurants and clubs. Ideal for night lovers.
Laie (85 Pau Claris) brought a new model of book selling to Barcelona, giving accent to the humanities and to content. Laie, as well as La Central (237 Mallorca) classify their books according to subject mixing all languages in the process. A system that often confuses tourists used to finding foreign books in an entirely separate section. In the History section of La Central, for instance, it is possible to find 70 or 80 titles on Barcelona, in the Architecture section there's just about everything on Gaudí and modernism. On La Central's bookshelves even a book on Barcelona's soccer club by British journalist Jim Barns can be had.
Adding to its appeal is Laie's restaurant and cafeteria, making this centrally located bookshop a favorite meeting point for the city's intellectuals. And it has already branched out to Barcelona's Centre de Cultura Contemporània (5 Montalegre) and has taken over the books-cum-gift shop of the cultural center Caixaforum (8 Marqués de Comillas).
All these bookshops stock copies in various languages of the most traditionally popular books on Spain, such as George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, Robert Hughes's Barcelona or Paul Preston's Franco, The three Spain's of 1936 or The Spanish Civil War. Classics on the Civil War, one of the topics forever on highest demand here, are also stocked on the shelves, including Pierre Vilar's La guerra civil. Another interesting book, aiming to briefly explain the essence of Catalonia, is Que est que c'est la Catalogne from the French collection Que sais Je? And of course there is a large supply of the latest international bestsellers in their original language in all of these bookstores. Among others: True tales of American life. I thought my father was God by Paul Auster; A multitude of sins by Richard Ford; The corrections by Jonathan Franzen; Alessandro Baricco's Next. Piccolo libro sulla globalizzazione e sul mondo che verrà; Antonio Tabbuchi's Si sta facendo sempre più tardi; Im krebsgang. Eine novelle by Günter Grass or Der bildverlust over durch die Sierra Gredos, by Peter Handke.
Altair (616 Gran Via) is another of these centrally located bookshops and the one with the largest stock and variety of travel literature and city guides to Barcelona. Including a guide to Catalan capital's parks and green areas and a book on Barcelona's prime shopping spots. Altair has up to 700 volumes devoted to the city itself. Also notable are Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Barcelones presenting photographs and comments on the city prior to the 1992 Olympics, or Alexandre Ciricis' historical itinerary through the city, Barcelona pam a pam.
The tour of Barcelona's bookshops makes for a fascinating stroll, opening up a window to a world of different cultures. What better illustration of this than Spains only large Arab bookshop, La Casa del Libro Árabe is in Barcelona (2 Montserrat), stocking up to 18,000 volumes. And if you have some time left, the Bookstore (13 La Granja) with its 20.000 volumes of second-hand English books.
Little guide
Barcelona Handbook. A very useful guide to Barcelona including addresses and prices. (Fotoprint publishers)
Catalogne avec Barcelone guide Routard 2001-2002 (Hachette). Complete and updated guide to the city with extensive references to Catalan culture.
Barcelona Time Out. (Penguin). One of the best guides to the citys 'cultural side, including art, music, cultural and gastronomic listings.
Barcelona. Robert Hughes (Harwill Panther). In English. A fantastic introduction to the history, culture, character and art of Barcelona, written by one of the worlds 'most renowned art critics.
Barcelona. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. Photographs by Francisco Ontañón and Pere Vivas (Triangle Postals). Illustrated volume with a large number of photographs. English, French, German, Spanish and Catalan versions.
Barcelona: a guide to its modern architecture (1860-2002). Manuel Gausa, Marta Cerello and Maurici Pla (Actar). Offering a very complete vision of the city's architecture.
Le gout de Barcelone. Jean-Noel Mouret, editor (Mercure de France). Texts on Barcelona by Teophile Gautier, Eduardo Mendoza, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Andreu Martín, Paul Morand and Pedro Zarraluqui, among others. In French.
* Este artículo apareció en la edición impresa del Viernes, 15 de marzo de 2002