Translator: Michele Gianella Reviewer: Elena Montrasio
“All I ask for
is a house full of books and a garden full of flowers."
Where would you think you were, looking at these pictures
with a beautiful garden, two statues, and a historical palace?
I'm Lavinia Manfrotto,
and along with my sisters, Lorenza and Veronica,
I run a bookstore - and I'm a little overwhelmed.
Thank you!
(Applause)
A particular bookstore, as you can see.
The main door opens with a high ceiling onto an entrance hall;
a staircase takes us to the mezzanine,
then to the main floor,
frescoed with the stories of Antonio and Cleopatra.
A bookstore that was supposed to be our home.
There is also another important feature:
it has been furnished just like our home,
with walnut furniture, tables and armchairs.
The building is important.
We wanted the bookstore
to feel comfortable like home for those who entered.
"What business would you start if you were certain not to fail?"
Well, maybe, we would open a bookstore, even if it wasn't our choice.
After the deed was signed, unbeknownst to us,
a restriction was placed on Palazzo Roberti -
imposing only one use:
a bookstore.
What would you do if you ended up with a huge building,
with your dream project to restore it,
and instead you couldn't use it but as a bookstore?
How would you feel if your father came home and said,
"We're going to make a bookstore and it's going to be a gorgeous one.
And you girls will give me a hand."?
You're 18, 21, 24 - clearly, not in this picture -
and you're not even readers.
How would you feel if you were thrown into a rather closed world,
like that of the booksellers of the time, most of the time elderly people,
convinced to be the holders of knowledge,
and unwilling to share it with three little rookies?
What would you do?
You'd roll up your sleeves and try to learn,
because there's no other way.
"A random encounter with a book can change the fate of a soul."
The encounter with this building,
whose destiny was to become a bookshop,
gave birth to a passion within us that we didn't think we had.
The book is a fascinating object: every book is different.
And each book can give different answers depending on who reads it.
Readers are the most valuable asset any bookstore can have.
In particular, a bookstore can't be just a virtual place where you sell books;
it has to be a physical place,
where people come to also to meet,
to browse the news that have just arrived,
to sit in the garden and enjoy the sun waiting to pick the right book.
And you'll be there to give them all this.
"No man is more grateful
than him who exactly gets the book his soul longed for."
So, we have a beautiful building, furnished like a living room.
Now you have to learn how to give the right book
to the people who come in.
And in order to do that, you first have to be a reader.
It's important not to stop at literary criticism,
but to read the books personally,
because there may be a page or a sentence in a wonderful book
that can ruin it.
Or there could be a wonderful phrase
that can make a mediocre book beautiful.
Customers need to feel advised, as we would with our family members:
they know we will never give them an unpleasant book.
At least, we try.
You have to create opportunities to take people to the bookstore:
meetings with the author, our event "Resistere” (Resist, to)
are the greatest example
of what the book world can give to a person.
Sharing emotions can help us deal
with the problems, big and small, that life throws at us.
And who better than a writer can help us with this?
"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
This is the real magic of the book: to elicit emotions
that can be positive, constructive, motivating;
but also negative, irritating.
A book is nothing if it’s not seen through the eyes of the person reading it.
We give books a voice;
and you need a special place to contain all these emotions.
And you will make sure that your thirst can contain them.
"Use your talent, whatever it is.
The woods would be terribly silent,
if only the best singing birds sang."
Somehow,
this building has brought out a talent we didn't think we had.
We were born between aluminum tubes and clamps:
our father built photographic equipment.
His greatest legacy
has been to convey us the sense of work.
Whatever you do, do your best.
Put your soul into it, don't get down, build, transform, react.
Other difficulties were lurking: the crisis of 2012, for example.
One cries, one regrets and then one reacts. What should I do?
I have little money.
What can you do in a bookstore on a tight budget?
You have to rethink the spaces in the library,
and your role as a bookseller.
It is necessary, if possible,
to increase the number of meetings with theauthors,
organize afternoons dedicated to children.
There's a small wing
where they can play and eat a few snacks.
Let's make them do what we do at home:
cooking egg pasta and biscuits;
reading stories while acting them.
They need to feel at home.
"When I was little, I wanted to be a book when I grew up."
Children's fiction
is almost catching up with adult fiction in sales.
We must create a special place for children.
Under each window we place a bench,
where you can sit and browse the books like the grown-ups would.
The tables need to be small for their height,
so that they can serve themselves.
Need to to pee?
Let’s make a bathroom just for them.
Let’s decorate rooms with cartoon images.
Let’s paint some chairs
and stick books to the wall or place them around.
Let’s also put a meter on the door where they can measure their height -
they need to feel at home.
Let’s set up a changing table for mothers so that they can change their babies.
It has to be their place of the heart.
They shouldn't feel intimidated by walking into a bookstore.
"One day I read a book and my whole life changed."
This is the real magic of books:
the ability to make connections.
Once the bookstore is furnished,
it cannot remain the way we have thought of it,
but we need to surprise customers.
Let's change the arrangement of the furniture.
Let's add plants.
Let's hang paintings.
Do we have a fireplace? Let's place some wooden logs.
We can't turn it on because we’re in a bookstore.
It doesn't matter, it will create a feeling of warmth anyway.
Those who enter this bookstore, those who enter your store,
must feel embraced.
People have to come in even just to feel safe.
In this environment he will meet you -
smiling, extremely knowledgeable and helpful booksellers
ready to recommend the book that could change their lives.
"I know, my daughter,
I'm not leaving you a wealth to inherit;
but I'm teaching you to read books.
When a man feels around him a false and dark world,
he reads a book and sees another world."
In Italy we read much less than in other European countries
and this is a real shame,
because a book can become an adviser or a trusted friend.
Through an apparently simple gesture,
such as reading,
you can see unreachable worlds,
get to know historical figures,
become a secret agent or a seductive courtesan;
you can sneak into a relationship between a mother and a daughter
feeling like the mother or the daughter,
or you can make connections that you never imagined.
The book is an asset
that gives everyone a different view of the world.
Bringing a book home makes us travel between continents
while sitting on the sofa at home.
"I looked everywhere for happiness, but found it nowhere
but in a small corner with a small book."
You'll want your library
to be that little corner, with a little book,
where you can find happiness.
(Applause)