On this rainy and gray Saturday, Independent bookstores invite readers, neighbors, and curious people of all ages to indulge in reading and share books and recommendations with booksellers in their neighborhoods. Organized by the Argentine Chamber of Independent Libraries (CALI), today is a new edition of Independent Bookstore Day Which seeks to appreciate the role of the bookseller as a cultural agent and the role of the library as the community’s last refuge.
Unlike the massive “Night of Books” — which filled Corrientes Avenue last Saturday with thousands of people — the independent booksellers’ proposal calls for slowing down. It is a decentralized and federal day in which everyone participates from the small designer shops in Villa Crespo, Puedo, Parque Patricios and Chacarita, among other Buenos Aires neighborhoods, to traditional establishments in the country’s main cities.
In times when artificial intelligence and social media algorithms try to predict (and guide) our tastes, independent bookstores stand as a moat of literary diversity. “The algorithm gives you what it knows you already like; the bookseller gives you what you didn’t know you needed,” CALI often repeats like a mantra. And perhaps this is the essence of today’s celebration: discovery.
The organization of these spaces responds not to the rankings of global bestsellers, but to the clinical eye of those behind the counter. Bookstores such as Salvaje Federal, with its focus on provincial literature, or Mandolina in Belgrano, are examples of how specialization and own identity are antidotes to the homogeneity of the publishing market.
Federal map of readings
This Saturday is characterized by its regional extension. It’s not just about Buenos Aires. The map lights up simultaneously in Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Tucumán, where booksellers set up tables on the sidewalk and organize poetry readings, wine tastings and workshops for children.
Among the highlights of the day, Buenos Aires Circuit offers an eclectic route:
In Palermo and Villa Crespo, bookstores like La Coop and Magia propose exchanges between authors and readers, with copy signings escaping the logic of marketing to become intimate conversations.
In Parque Chas, Mala Testa and La Puerta Condinada they open their doors with proposals that recover the identity of the neighborhood, showing that culture does not only happen in the center.
In Parque Patricios, Vuelvo al Sur (La Rioja 2127), which in 2023 won the Writers’ Work Award from the Editors’ Gallery, functions as a cultural center that combines an art gallery with shelves filled with tomes of all kinds. Today in the morning until two in the afternoon. They have contacted several neighborhood residents with proposals such as a fan creation workshop and book raffles.
For families with children, Casa Gerbera (US 4167) is an open space that has been consolidated as a reference in children’s and comprehensive literature. Its hallmark is accessibility: in the store decorated with classic characters (from Alice to the Mad Hatter and more), books are not only read, but touched and felt, because it offers textured and Braille books, as well as print in friendly fonts for readers with dyslexia.
Day programs, extending into the night, include everything from live music and matadas to artistic interventions in stained glass windows. There are no big stages or giant screens. The protagonist is reading. The CALI Instagram account lists participating libraries and their respective suggestions.