Today I will tell you the story of Filomena Grimaldi, owner of the Controvento bookshop in Telese Terme.
Filomena was the first bookseller to cross the threshold of the box to have a chat with me, to get to know me. I had recently opened. When she came to see me she told me that she had a project, to go back to her country to open her own bookshop and the project took shape, I would say a beautiful shape; here is the story of the Controvento bookshop, a bookshop that I hope to be able to visit soon in person because I really want to embrace Filomena, now everyone has renamed the Libraja!

Library name: Controvento
Opening year: December 2013
sqm: 100
employees: just me 🙂
genre: library of varies, from 0 to 99 years
region: Campania
city: Telese Terme BN
address: via C. Colombo 25/27 Telese Terme BN 82037

What did you do in your “previous life”?
The libraja, I started in 2002 and I never stopped. That j gave me a customer who attended the bookshop where I worked, he said that for us young booksellers the future will be more uncertain, and then it is good to fortify ourselves …

When did you decide to join the crazy world of books?
I was in university, but I was not happy. Only a few courses had really opened up worlds to me, the rest was just study and no stimulus. I regularly attended all the bookstores in the city where I studied, Perugia, all different and beautiful, in each one I discovered each time an author, a story, a publisher, a world … So I decided to present the resume in the one where I spent the most time, and it went well.

What’s the question customers should never ask you?
It is allowed? Some ask permission before entering, as if the bookstore were a private house, I stay very badly there. I know it’s just habit, but it always gives me the idea that they don’t feel that this is a free place, with the door always open for everyone.

And what is the thing that pleases you most they tell you?
There are 2, tied.
How nice that book you recommended to me! I am always anxious when I recommend books, reading is such a personal and intimate thing that I am always afraid of not understanding the reader in front of me, of making the wrong advice. And instead, when we slowly get to know each other, my advice goes more and more in the right direction and the readers are happy.
Filo make as if I weren’t there, I look at some books. Here, this is perhaps the most beautiful thing, when a reader “uses” my library, goes around the shelves, makes his rounds, his paths. He fills the round table with books, sits in the red armchair (“in the” yes, because it envelops you and you don’t want to get up …) and leafs through, reads, chooses, enjoys his time among the books.

The strangest request that was made of you?
” But can I send a book by telegram “? I’m still here wondering if the lady did it …

The first book you read?
The word tree towards 2000 ed. Feltrinelli edited by Donatella Bisutti is now only entitled “the tree of words” 🙂 a collection of poems and nursery rhymes for children by the greatest poets in the world. I wanted to learn to read to read all those beautiful poems by myself, I still remember some of them.

I know it’s difficult, but if I asked you for a podium, what would be the 3 books you would tell me?
My favorite book: The True Story of the Pirate Long John Silver ed. Iperborea my second favorite book: the count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas
my third favorite book: Voices from the moon , A. Dubus ed. Mattioli

If you could submit a request to those in charge of supporting and helping libraries, what would you ask?
A law on the price of the book, a law as good as the French one.

What book are you reading at the moment?
Never a single book at a time, I always have books from reading groups on my nightstand and some news: I reread “Allegra apocalisse “by Arto Paasilinna Iperborea for the adult reading group and”Readers grow up “by Giusi Marchetta Einaudi for the reading group 15/18 and I have just started”Nobody really disappears ”by Catherine Lacey ed. Sur.

Which book would you recommend instead?
The Gambler by Mahmud Darwish Mesogea editions

Digital book, true enemy of paper?
No, the ideal is that the reader can have all the possible reading opportunities: digital book, library, paper book, independent bookstore, chain, absolutely everything.

Is there a bookseller next door that you recommend I contact?
Roberto of the Librido bookshop in Naples is a myth!

How can we keep in touch with your library? Leave us all your contact details. Facebook, twitter, instagram, blog …
http://www.facebook.com/LibreriaControvento/ www.libreriacontrovento.it http://www.instagram.com/laphylo/

And now, dear friends of the box, you just have to cross the threshold of the Controvento bookshop, but remember, don’t ask for permission to enter! The door is always open and Filomena is ready to welcome you!