The nine bookshops that are not owned by big players on the bookshop market have decided to unite and compete for the reader together. "We want to provide information about events, meetings, advance sales or book premieres in one place and give readers the alternative to big pseudobookshops, where books are less important than gadgets like plates, flowers, candles or other knickknacks," explains one of the organisers of the Wroclaw Bookshops informal group. For this purpose, they have set up a fan page called Wrocławskie Księgarnie on Facebook, where they also organise contests in which, obviously, you can win books.
The Wroclaw Bookshops include: Beta Astra (ul. Horbaczewskiego 4-6), Beta Marino (ul. Paprotna 7), Beta Sky Tower (Powstańców Śl. 95), Kulturka (ul. Zakładowa 2/4 – Leclerc), Pod Arkadami (ul. Świdnicka 49), Polanglo (ul. Piłsudskiego 108), ES Sadowska (ul. Komandorska 66 – Arena Hall), Tajne Komplety (ul. Przejście Garncarskie 2), Wratislavia (Pl. Legionów 14).
"We invite also publishing houses to co-operate, and they have already expressed intense interest in our offer. We hope that our initiative will encourage more authors to arrive for meetings with readers in Wroclaw. For the time being, they turn up only on the occasion of literary festivals," adds Andrzej Mazur.
