Iris runs the bookstore Buchhandlung Hoffmann in the tranquil town of Achim, south-east of Bremen.
Dear Iris, why did you choose to run a bookshop?
After some time spent doing Scandinavian Studies (unsuccessfully), I felt that training to work as a bookseller was the perfect option, a combination of two of my favourite things: I love literature and enjoy the sales process. That’s how my student vacation job became my dream profession!
Please describe the final few meters of the route you take in the mornings to your bookshop.
Once I’ve turned the final corner, our sign is visible from far away. I often think we have really done very well, since I’m never fed up with seeing it and it still seems just as fresh and up-to-date as ever.
Throughout the day ...
When the shop-door opens and someone steps inside...
… then it is most often a well-known face but many times it can be a new guest, who is always very welcome. And if it is an especially good day, the very first customer will say something like: “I just wanted to come and tell you as soon as possible how grateful I am because you recently recommended such-and-such fabulous book to me.”
What is the wonderful thing that happens when we read?
In your head, you can travel through strange worlds, meet incredible characters, learn new things and receive answers to your questions, even to those you never got round to asking. Books set both your head and heart free to roam.
Many say they don’t have the time to read. What can they do about that?
Press the off-button on the TV set or on the router for the local area network. 😉
But, no – seriously: it should always be possible to find the time to read, in the metro train, at the hairdresser’s or at night, curled up on the sofa when the children have finally been put to bed.
Has a Norwegian book given you a reading experience that you remember with pleasure?
Oh, yes! ‘Tales of Protection’ (original: Beretninger om beskyttelse, Gyldendal 1999) by Erik Fosnes Hansen made a deep impression on me. It was the first time I had read a book by an author who managed to keep so many characters and stories completely under his spell and without ever losing his grip. The book is also such a brilliant example of how to write so that the reader learns a lot about a particular subject – even facts that one previously hadn’t been interested in at all.
Translated from the German by Anna Paterson
Visit Buchhandlung Hoffmann's website here.
Are you a bookseller and would like to join our interview series "Our bookstore-buddies"? Read more.