May we introduce: Germany's perhaps most famous bookseller and bookstammer, Florian Valerius! The ambitious bookseller delights numerous customers and followers for the literature every day.
Dear Florian, why did you choose to run a bookshop?
I grew up among people who generally didn’t read much. When I was at home or at school or with my friends I was even regarded as a ‘black sheep’ because I always wanted to read, did it whenever I could and was forever on the lookout for ways to get hold of books.
The story is that even in pre-school I liked to pretend that I could already read: I had learnt Otfried Preußler’s The Little Witch (Die kleine Hexe) by heart and would say the text out loud with the book in front of me and my finger pointedly following the lines.
In secondary school I naturally chose to take advanced German and spent my two-week apprentice placement working in a small bookshop.
After completing the school final exams, I did my months of national service as a civilian and worked in a residential care home for the learning disabled. Afterwards, I thought it would be a good idea to study social education. Sadly, I found the subject a little too technical – I felt a need for more activity and communication. And then, while I was still a student, I happened to pass by the university bookshop when it had a sign up saying ‘Trainee vacancy’. My passion for books flared up, I applied and, a week later, I started my training proper. Now, sixteen years later on, I am in charge of this branch of the shop.
Over the years, I have come into contact with a faithful group of customers, people that I meet on a practically daily basis. I take an interest in their journeys through life, follow the children as they grow up, learn of the weddings and divorces – and the deaths, too. Lives as they are lived. I take an interest in the preferences and tastes of the people who come to see me and actually know who has read what, and who had been given what book for their birthday or for Christmas. Often, I know a whole lot more about individuals. People make a point of coming to this shop, sometimes from quite far afield, because mummy or a best friend has been raving about one of my recommendations – and now they are looking for a gift for that person.
I am an adviser, a psychologist, a friend. And I mustn’t miss a single day.
Please describe the final few meters of the route you take in the mornings to your bookshop.
When I get off the bus after a twenty minute trip, I enjoy breathing the fresh air and run across the university campus, which is a total joy in every season of the year: in the spring it is alight with cherry blossom, in summer the rich greenery of the trees offers shade and in autumn (my favourite season), their canopies turn golden; in winter, the parkland can lie covered in deep, white snowdrifts.
Once in the shop, I have a daily ritual that begins with turning the coffeemaker on, booting up the computer and trying to take a brief first view of what’s in the diary for the day. Then I make coffee, and go out behind the shop to enjoy some of it together with a cigarette.
Throughout the day ...When the shop-door opens and someone steps inside...
All through the day … I spend most of the time talking. Customers, colleagues, all sorts of people – neither my mouth nor my mind ever rest for long.
Chatting, recommending, consulting, researching – to me, the bookshop is my home from home and that’s how I want every one of my customers to feel, too. It follows that when the door opens and someone steps inside, he or she is met by a very warm welcome.
What is the wonderful thing that happens when we read?
Once, a publisher launched a slogan that went “Reading is like dreaming with your eyes open” – that just about nails it, it seems to me. Every book opens up a new world to the reader, nearby or far away. Every book allows the reader to slip into unexpected roles, experience new things and new feelings that perhaps he or she didn’t ever know or even guessed could exist.
I cannot imagine anything more exciting than immersing myself in strange worlds of thoughts and feelings, to become aware of new perspectives and lines of thought. As well as discovering thoughts and ideas that had been buzzing about in my mind emerging in a new incarnation as truly remarkable literature.
Many say they don’t have the time to read. What can they do about that?
It’s bullshit!
Smartphone – shut it up! Netflix – switch it off!
And allow yourself to listen to the bookseller, trust him to advise you because he or she is sure to have the right book for you.
Read.
Has a Norwegian book given you a reading experience that you remember with pleasure?
From childhood onwards, I have been really impressed by Norwegian literature. When I was 12 years old I read – as did most people in my generation I guess – Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (A novel about the history of philosophy, transl. by Paulette Møller. From Farrar, Straus and Giroux(US), 1994; Orion Children's Books (UK), new edition, 2000). It was a reading experience that influenced, fascinated and changed me. For the first time, I began to think about my life and everything related to it. One result was that I devoured other books by Gaarder like The Solitaire Mystery (transl. by Sarah Hails, 1997) and Through a Glass, Darkly (transl. Elisabeth Rokkan, 1998). Both from Orion Children's Books (UK)). I took both books deeply to heart and they spook my mind to this day.
(It was a lifetime highlight for me to meet the author personally during my visit to Oslo.)
More recently, I have been very impressed by the fantastic Norwegian women who write such madly thrilling non-fiction: like Nina Brochmann and Ellen Støkken Dahl with their The Wonder Down Under: A User’s Guide to the Vagina(transl. Lucy Moffat, 2018, Quercus Books)and the sisters Hilde and Ylva Østby with their Diving for Seahorses (transl. Marianne Lindvall, 2018, Greystone Books.
As for just now, I am engrossed in the Norwegian world of the 1880s as portrayed in Lars Mytting’s wonderful new book The Sister Bells (a forthcoming publication by MacLehose Press) with its enchanting and unforgettable woman protagonist!!!
Translated from the German by Anna Paterson.
If you too have become curious about Florian and his book tips, make sure you visit him on Instagram.
Visit the the webside of Buchhandlung Stephanus here.
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