Feature: World Book Day at a small bookshop in Bosnia
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E-mail Xinhua, April 22, 2021
SARAJEVO, April 22 (Xinhua) -- "This shop will definitely survive," said Eldar Kerken, a 54-year-old book enthusiast who runs one of the two remaining antique bookshops in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"A book in general will survive, just as the music on vinyl records has survived the arrival of cassette tapes, CDs, and music streaming," he told Xinhua recently at his small shop, as World Book and Copyright Day, which falls on April 23, approaches.
A printed book has a hard-to-describe additional quality, and it will never be fully replaced by any kind of screen or electronic device, Kerken said in the shop packed with thousands of books of all sorts.
"It's not just about how it smells, sounds, or feels under your fingers. It's like that notable warmth in a crackling sound of a vinyl record that could never be fully explained nor replaced, regardless of the crystal-clear sound and the convenience of carrying your entire music collection on a finger-size device," he said.
Kerken said his love for books traces back to his father, who founded the antique bookshop in the early 1990s, when the Bosnian war was raging and Sarajevo was under siege for almost four years.
After losing his job, Kerken's father started selling newspapers on a recommendation of a friend who worked for the well known local newspaper Oslobodjenje. Almost immediately, he added books to his offerings.
Kerken said that people had more time to read during the war. They also brought books to his store to sell. That inspired his father to create an antique bookshop dubbed "Tarih," which means history in the Turkish language, he said.
"The entire human history and knowledge is hidden within the books. Everything we experience today has already happened many times. Authors wrote about it and described it in so many details. Maybe we wouldn't be condemned to relive the same tragedies if we would just read more books," he said.
Kerken has been running the store with his wife Tanja after his father retired. "My wife is a much better speaker, as I am more of an introvert type," he said.
Initially, the bookshop was located near the National Theatre in a much bigger property, Kerken recalled. The family expanded its business in 1996, by building an additional shop on vacant public land behind the city's famous market Markale.
"Over the years, our business shrunk significantly. First we closed the big shop near the theatre, some twelve years ago. We stayed in a small shop near Markale market," he said.
About two years ago, the city authorities demolished the premises where his bookshop was located to make space for a new commercial building, but provided his family with a replacement premises for their bookshop at a nearby location.
"So we moved here just behind the Cathedral. It's a good location," he said, referring to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the city's main promenade.
Kerken said that he is paying an affordable rent to the city authorities, which has been reduced during the pandemic.
"We experienced the pandemic-like situations in our business long ago, and still managed to survive. There were a lot of antique bookshops in Sarajevo earlier but only two are still in business today," he said.
Kerken's bookshop offers all sorts of literature without any obvious focus on a particular genre.
"We focus on quality, old books," he said.
Before the pandemic, most of their customers were scholars, students and book enthusiasts from abroad. That has changed drastically as the pandemic hit and students rapidly moved to online study.
"I always thought that mathematics-related literature would be the most resilient to the market disturbances but not even math is an easy sell nowadays," he said.
A year into the pandemic, locals are also buying fewer books, Kerken said. He said that he has no plans to close the shop, believing that his family business will last.
As the business of trading old books has also moved online, Kerken still enjoys his interaction with customers offline.
"It's always a pleasant experience. I have never heard a harsh word in this shop. It probably has to do with the fact that book enthusiasts are generally gentle and open-minded people," he said.
"My son is 31, and he has no interest in taking over the shop. This is also not a lucrative career that will make one rich, at least not financially speaking. You have to love books to be able to do this," he said.
He said that it's almost impossible for his bookshop to fail when you do something you love and invest your maximum into it.
"People just call or come by to offer me bundles of books. Usually after someone dies and they want to clear the apartment. Or someone moves out of the country," he said.
"Sometimes they bring them here, and sometimes they invite me to come over and select," he said.
Those books were usually in a rough shape, all dusty, yellowed or stained, he said, adding "I spend days cleaning them and restoring them as good as I can. I give those books a new home and new life."
In 1995, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared April 23 as the World Book and Copyright Day to promote reading, publishing and copyright.
Kerken said he has no special plans for the day, given that he has spent half his life celebrating books. Enditem
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