The Book Gallery

The first time I met him in person, I immediately thought of Roal Dahl’s GGG (The Big Gentle Giant).
A giant, you know that from the height of my meter and fifty they are all Vikings for me, who with a smile, sharing and the desire to do has created crazy things, one above all The Great Invasion ! I think you all know it, but if you don’t, then take 5 minutes and come with me to the Book Gallery of Ivrea . We will read some good ones.

Here is the identikit:

Library name : La Galleria del Libro

year of opening : 1982

sqm : 120 sqm

No. of employees : three excellent colleagues (members)
Roberta (bookseller since 1986)
Elisa (bookseller since 2007)
Simonetta (bookseller since 2003, with us since 2014)
I (bookseller since 2009)

Gender : varies

Region : Piedmont

City : Ivrea

Address : Via Palestro 70

What did you do in your “previous life”?
I worked for a service company, specializing in television consultancy and the creation of outdoor events

When did you decide to join the crazy world of books?
In my last business trip to South Africa, which lasted three months, I had finished the books I had brought with me, at that moment I decided it was time to pursue my dream and never be without it…. I accepted the offer from my trusted bookstore to retire a partner.

What’s the question customers should never ask you?
Do you make any discounts?

And what is the thing that pleases you most they tell you?
What do you suggest me?

The strangest request that was made of you?
I would like a book by a certain Pavese with a bonfire in the middle

The first book you read?
It would be better to say: the first one I remember reading. The girl from Bube by Carlo Cassola

I know it’s difficult, but if I asked you for a podium, what would be the 3 books you would tell me?
Impossible, I try:
Salinger’s Young Holden
Blankets by Craig Thompson
A private matter of Beppe Fenoglio

If you could submit a request to those in charge of supporting and helping libraries, what would you ask?
Restore dignity to independent bookstores, prohibiting the sale of books in all those places that have nothing to do with books (e.g. large-scale distribution) and no longer base the diffusion campaigns of reading on discounted books or, as in the last recent case, even free. In two words: enhance the contents.

What book are you reading at the moment?
I Finished BigSur’s Carne Viva and Just Started Negligible Mishaps of a Young Writer Seeking Glory by Michael Dahlie Nutrimenti

Which book would you recommend instead?
The years of Annie Ernaux L’orma publisher

Digital book, true enemy of paper?
No, although I indisputably prefer paper, and selling only that, I find digital an additional opportunity for reading.

Is there a bookseller next door that you recommend I contact?
Of course, Davide Ferraris of the Therese bookshop in Turin

How can we keep in touch with your library? Leave us all your contact details. Facebook, twitter, instagram, blog…. www.lagalleriadellibro.it
www.lagrandeinvasione.it
facebook : The Book Gallery; Gianmario Pilo ; The great invasion
Twitter @gallerialibro; @greatinvasion