Today we would like to introduce you to our good bookstore buddy Bernhard Schäfer. Growing up in the south of Germany, the passionate bookseller moved to the picturesque Bad Wildungen in Hesse, where he daily spreads his enthusiasm for literature to his many customers.
Dear Bernhard, did you choose to run a bookshop?
Because I wanted to turn my love of reading and books into a lifelong occupation. Because I have always enjoyed the theatre and acting – writing for the theatre is also a part of a literary enterprise. And because while I ‘trade’ in books I would meet interesting people with whom I could discuss subjects like God and the world and all its literature …
Please describe the final few meters of the route you take in the mornings to your bookshop.
When I walk toward our frontage with its great lit widows, all the doors of the shops in the neighbourhood are still locked. I take pleasure in seeing the restrained but nicely laid-out window displays and the attractive, welcoming literary cafe still without the customers who will soon arrive. The shutters make a scraping noise as I roll them up. Overnight, boxes full of books have been delivered to Buchland and are waiting for me in the lobby. Next, when the automatic double doors to the shop slide open, my heart leaps up every time. The books look at me expectantly, there’s colour and the smells of wood and paper. All radiates comfort and calm. For hours to come, Buchland will be my home, my professional concern, my fulfilment.
Throughout the day ...When the shop-door opens and someone steps inside...
... the guests will be welcomed with a smile. Stories will be exchanged and reading experiences discussed. People and literature are central to most of the talk for most of the time.
What is the wonderful thing that happens when we read?
As if by magic, we are taken to other worlds – some familiar, some not. Your mind is freed, your thoughts are stimulated and awareness is broadened. Reading is like yoga for heart and head.
Many say they don’t have the time to read. What can they do about that?
Within each twenty-four hour cycle there’s surely enough time for everything that we find enlightens us. What are calendars and leisure hours for unless we put them to good use?
Has a Norwegian book given you a reading experience that you remember with pleasure?
Yes. Actually, a quite recent book: Lars Mytting The Sister Bells (norw. Søsterklokkene, a forthcoming publication by MacLehose Press (UK).I had a chance to be present when Lars Mytting presented his new book in ‘his’ very beautiful 800-year-old stave church in Ringebu. It was a deeply moving event and one that proved to me yet again that literature in the end can change the world in a positive direction.
From the German by Anna Paterson.
Visit the the webside of Buchland Bad Wildungen here.
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