As London Bookstores Reopen, Eager Readers Return

By Tori 5 years ago

LONDON — Just after 10 a.m. on Monday, Cathy Slater, the owner of Dulwich Books, stood waiting to welcome her first customers into the store in months.

Bookstores in England were allowed to open their premises on Monday for the first time since the country went into lockdown in March. Slater said she was overjoyed to be back and had prepared especially: There was a vase of flowers on a table by the entrance, and a huge bottle of hand sanitizer on the counter.

The first customer wasn’t what she had hoped for. About 20 minutes after opening, a man stuck his head around the front door, and shouted, “Do you sell Post-it Notes?”

But at 10:30 a.m., another customer, Helen Boome, arrived and headed straight to the children’s section. “Is it OK to touch?” she asked. After getting the all-clear, she grabbed a book about Greek myths for her son.

Within minutes, Olivia Holmes, wearing a face mask, walked in. She was looking for “The Redeemed,” by Tim Pears, the final part of a trilogy set during World War I. Then another customer arrived, and a fourth loitered at the door: A sign in the window said, “Maximum of three people in the shop.”

The atmosphere was vibrant, if a little constrained. And it was a vibe that echoed at five other booksellers in the capital.

On Monday morning, Patrick Kelly, the owner of the used-book store Bookmongers of Brixton, sat behind a see-through plastic screen, looking at his store’s heaving shelves. He was worried about the future, he said, because the neighborhood around the store had gentrified so much over the past decade and he’d become reliant on “tourists and day trippers” to get by. “We can reopen today, but when we see a tourist again is anybody’s guess,” he said.

But soon, a trickle of customers started buying. Paulo Sousa, 40, bought a medical textbook, though he said he didn’t actually want to read it. Instead, he said, he was going to cut a shape in its pages and hide a present for his brother inside.

At the back of the store, Matthew Nsubuga, 28, was staring intently at a shelf of science fiction books called S.F. Masterworks, with vivid yellow spines. “I’ve been waiting for the shop to reopen, as I knew they had a lot,” he said.

Nsubuga said that he’d been reading science fiction during the lockdown — including “Dune” by Frank Herbert — and that books had “helped me survive.”

“Reading kept my mind off all of the other issues in the world,” he added. He left the store with six books costing 27 pounds, about $34, in total.

Kelly smiled. “This has been fantastic,” he said, sounding surprised at the quick sales. “The doom and gloom is going a little.”

In May, Waterstones, Britain’s largest book chain, with over 280 stores, announced a new safety measure for reopening. Any book that a customer touched but didn’t buy would be put away for 72 hours to cut the infection risk.

At midday Monday, staff at the bright and spacious High Street Kensington branch were putting the policy into practice, having placed about 30 books — including several by Jean-Paul Sartre, the author of “Nausea” — onto a cart that would be wheeled into isolation.

Many staff members wore plastic face shields but none of the half-dozen or so customers seemed to mind. “I’ve been missing bookshops more than anything else,” said Jeremy Smith, 54, a charity administrator who was clutching a notebook containing the titles of dozens of books he wanted to buy. He’d already found one: Angie Cruz’s “Dominicana,” about an 11-year-old child forced into marriage.

What book would he recommend people read to celebrate coming out of lockdown? “I’d just recommend people keep reading,” he said.

Daunt Books, in the Marylebone district of Central London, was conceived as a bookstore for travelers, with many of its shelves arranged by country so customers can find books about places they’ll be visiting. James Thornington, a bookseller there, said on Monday that he hoped people would still want to buy them even if they couldn’t go abroad — maybe just to dream a little.

That has been his approach to reading during lockdown, he said. He’d reread Gerald Durell’s “My Family and Other Animals,” about a British writer’s ramshackle childhood on a Greek island. “It made me feel like I wanted to go right away,” he added.

Few of Daunt’s customers seemed to be buying travel books on Monday, though some of their choices showed a desire for escape. Sally-Anne Stein, 57, had bought “The Glossy Years,” an autobiography by Nicholas Coleridge, the British magazine executive. “It’s the complete opposite of what’s going on at the moment,” Stein said. “It’s the ’80s, ’90s, everything’s fake and nothing’s miserable or bad.” Then she walked off, smiling broadly.

  • Updated June 16, 2020

    • I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?

      The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

    • What is pandemic paid leave?

      The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

    • Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?

      So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.

    • What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?

      Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

    • How does blood type influence coronavirus?

      A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

    • How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

      The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

    • Will protests set off a second viral wave of coronavirus?

      Mass protests against police brutality that have brought thousands of people onto the streets in cities across America are raising the specter of new coronavirus outbreaks, prompting political leaders, physicians and public health experts to warn that the crowds could cause a surge in cases. While many political leaders affirmed the right of protesters to express themselves, they urged the demonstrators to wear face masks and maintain social distancing, both to protect themselves and to prevent further community spread of the virus. Some infectious disease experts were reassured by the fact that the protests were held outdoors, saying the open air settings could mitigate the risk of transmission.

    • My state is reopening. Is it safe to go out?

      States are reopening bit by bit. This means that more public spaces are available for use and more and more businesses are being allowed to open again. The federal government is largely leaving the decision up to states, and some state leaders are leaving the decision up to local authorities. Even if you aren’t being told to stay at home, it’s still a good idea to limit trips outside and your interaction with other people.

    • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

      Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

    • How can I protect myself while flying?

      If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

    • Should I wear a mask?

      The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

    • What should I do if I feel sick?

      If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

On Monday afternoon, several people stopped to buy books, largely grabbing novels, including one by the Portuguese writer José Saramago, a Nobel laureate.

Lauren Gibbs, 34, said she had been cycling past and had stopped to make a video with her cellphone to capture the Edith Piaf song playing from the barge. Then she decided she should really buy something, she said. She picked out “Jazz Poems,” an anthology featuring works by Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Jonathan Privett, one of the store’s owners, said his big sellers since reopening had been titles that were relevant to the Black Lives Matter protests that have recently swept Britain after spreading from the United States, and books about art. “Maybe because the galleries are shut,” he said.

Privett said that whatever happened to the business over the next few months, he’d “keep making the most of dry days.” He sounded a little sad, so Bentley tried to lift the mood. “Those trees give fruit in autumn, don’t they?” he said, pointing at some nearby greenery. “We can eat that,” he added, with a laugh.

Jo Heygate, the manager of Pages of Hackney, stood behind the counter, looking out at an empty shop floor, and said that she had decided to stay closed to browsers, for now. That was partly because her store is tiny, she said: To comply with Britain’s social-distancing rules, which require people to stay about six feet apart, she could only have admitted one customer at a time.

But it was also because her store had, somehow, made a success of the lockdown, she added. At first, the staff had panicked, thinking they wouldn’t sell anything at all. But around a month in, Pages of Hackney began an online store — something Heygate said the business probably should have done several years earlier. “I sold two books about transgender resistance in half an hour of the store going up,” she said. “Those would normally have taken a month to sell.”

She put the success down to the shop’s loyal local customer base, as well as how interested people were to read books on issues about race at the moment, a subject the store had always pushed. Layla F. Saad’s “Me and White Supremacy” was a big seller, Heygate said; so was Jeffrey Boakye’s “Black, Listed.”

On Monday afternoon, there were almost 80 bags of books piled on the floor awaiting customer collection, and two boxes of mail orders ready to be sent out. A cycle courier was also careering around East London making deliveries.

The fact that people wanted books on vital topics was great, Heygate said. But she really wanted to get customers in the store again, to talk about the issues and to attend events. “It’s like a boring, lonely, mail order business, which isn’t what a bookshop’s about,” she said. “A bookshop’s a living thing.”

Source Article

Tags: , , , , ,