365 days in 1227 words

365 days in 1227 words.

So many things have happened that to relive even a tenth of them I asked for help from my posts and photo albums uploaded to Facebook.

I click the forward button on the photograph and I find myself catapulted back into a year that I will hardly forget.

The posts remind me of having opened an Instagram profile to photograph what is happening in the bookstore and attention: even through photographs you can recommend and sell books!

It was the year of signature breakfasts , because Sunday – apart from the bookseller’s tiredness – is the perfect day, away from the office, free from commitments, with more time available.
And if Sunday has become a working day, I decided to dedicate it to myself on Monday afternoon. But how? Are you closed on Mondays? Yes… 7 days a week I can’t do it.

2015 was the year of the away box: art galleries, restaurants, arches, theaters …

So many new independent publishers with which we have started to collaborate and which have made our selection of titles really for all tastes, come and see it to believe!

One of my favorite books: Giulia 1300 and other miracles by Fabio Bartolomei E / O became a film – Noi e la Giulia – and the bookseller with face mode of tolla on, asked the actors of the cast to play with the readers. I went to the premiere of the film, I had all the actors sign some copies of Bartolomei’s book and we gave away some cinema tickets. If in the purchased copy of the book there were the dedications of the actors then you have won the ticket to the cinema!

And then photos of sweets, I have customers who spoil me by preparing vegan ones.

I decided to record videos to invite to presentations and to tell books in a different way, 2 minutes to convince readers, good first with or without errors, recorded from the mobile.

I believe that the encounters are never random and also one of the most important of this year took place precisely because fate decided for me. At a dinner for the presentation of a book, on the other side of the city, “two shady individuals” approached me and talking to them came up with a project that I did not think possible and that is putting me to the test. I really hope to be able to create something beautiful, but soon you will be able to tell me (anxiety !!!).

Every time something important happens I choose a part of my body on which to write it, or rather tattoo it and so here is one about dreams as Shakespeare teaches.

I found that I like to wear hats and that my bare shoulder needed some color and therefore more tattoo, thanks Mario!

I attended the Bookswide Shut meetings – exchange of copies – and so I filled an unforgivable gap: I read Saramago’s Blindness .

I made my first “understandable” drawing. Even my niece when she was 4 told me that my drawings weren’t beautiful, so I sat down and attended a children’s workshop with a good illustrator and drum roll: I drew a leopard !

We have told the stories several times while sitting on the street, on the sidewalk …

I met a rooster during an aperitif in the cellars, a hand of Sarah Jane.

The reading group has become more and more a group. Among the books read during the meetings of this year’s group Schegge di Prcic is one of those that struck me the most. “We are all heroes of our bullshit …”

I attended a meeting organized by @stoleggendo at the Turin Book Fair. I chose to read the poems of a friend, sure that my shyness and my feeling inadequate for the role could take a back seat, making you listen to the words of Vincenzo Costantino.

New adventures as a reader. I received a couple of manuscripts to be evaluated by a major publisher and I made an evaluation sheet, I was not very bad I swear!

I ended up on a Thai guide. There was a service dedicated to the world of publishing and women and so I ended up on Gioia, and still other articles in the newspapers because this small box of 30 square meters intrigues and makes people talk about itself. Still talking about media, I was a guest of Radio novella 2000. It all seems so strange to me …

Also this year readers have chosen the box to celebrate their birthday.

A new bookstore has opened, and we shared their excitement! The Volante bookcase is really doing great things, congratulations to Serena and Andrea.

Another edition of Beds at Night. We spent the night of June 21st together! Hundreds of you have occupied the sidewalk in front of the library, many writers have told who they would spend the night with – literally speaking – an indescribable emotion! Last receipt at 3.15 am!

I told of a book – my niece’s favorite – banned by the mayor of Venice. Insults aside, most people took the taunt.

Some friends have started a new adventure and I wish them all the best, indeed while we’re at it: take a tour at Madama Hostel & Bistrot and then tell me what you think.

And then came the summer, which I spent in the city again this year. I took a breath and appreciated the silence, the sleeping city, the heat. With the summer came this blog too, Elena ‘s gift which I now hope to fill with interesting contents.
I almost immediately forgot the summer break, many new events in September and courses in both writing and creative reading. In short, the bookshop becomes more and more a place to meet and feel good; a place where friendships and special encounters are born.

On my return from holidays I tried to put in a box and return many books that I could not afford to pay and also to box anxieties and worries, which nevertheless come back to the surface very often. Having a library means being willing to live forever on a swing. So many ups and downs, but what I feel when there are high moments is so fulfilling, special and important that when the lows come I am ready to face them.

2015 is the year my little bookseller granddaughter started elementary school. Wonderful to listen to her while she says to me: Aunt I’m learning to read LANOTTE The night!

I started attending the Cafè Bandini stage as Libraia on stage, 5 minutes of reading advice in the company of the poet friend Vincenzo Costantino.

I talked to many people who told me they had a dream: to open a bookstore and some of them came true (in the mouth of the book to all of you who are reading).

I celebrated the fifth anniversary of the opening of the lilac box and with it the fifth edition of the My Book award , won this year by Sebastiano Mauri and his The happiest day of my life.

At Christmas I had many writers pass by to sign the dedications reserved by readers for the initiative: Writer under the tree.

Giving books is beautiful, giving them with a dedication is even more so.

I leafed through this year’s photo album and there are so many smiles that it snatched from me, I can’t ask for much from 2016 that is approaching the gates, if not to bring me many other stories to read, live and tell.