An exciting first for us at Books & Company was an interview this past Sunday May 9 with editor-in-chief of Monocle Magazine, Tyler Brûlé.

We had a nice chat on life in a bookshop as well as book and magazine recommendations.

Check it out here: Monocle on Sunday The conversation begins at 27:46 .

Dear friends,

In just a few hours Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States of America, bringing to an end what has arguably felt like the longest four-year term in history.

With a to-do list unprecedented in size and scope, it will be a challenge for the incoming administration to not stumble as they hit the ground sprinting.

The past four years with a divisive, deceitful, and uniquely self-serving president, have emphasized the greatest challenges facing President-elect Biden; the glaring inequality and disenfranchisement that has resulted in social and racial unrest, a Covid-19 death toll of over 400.000 and the millions of Americans who believe the election was fraudulent.

Four years ago we watched in disbelief as Donald J Trump took an oath he had no intention of upholding. We watched as the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ entered the stage and slowly but surely started dismantling all that had been built. And for a while there it looked like the houses were made of sticks and of straw.

So he huffed and he puffed, and he (almost) blew the house down. 

Now the wolf is gone and the house, while still standing, is in dire need of repair. Except this time it will have to be with bricks, and the mortar must come from a more inclusive, more equal society; a less polarized nation where the shrill voices of power-hungry politicians and fringe movements are drowned out by a majority voice for the common good. 

America, and indeed the world, will be watching as the man who has himself come back time and time again from the brink of personal tragedy and political failure, seizes this immense opportunity, matched only in magnitude by the challenge, to bring back the country not to its former glory but forward to a more glorious future. 

As we carefully open up the shops, I can’t help but think about the interesting experiences and important lessons we as small businesses have accumulated over the past year.

At the top of our list - right after the support of customers - comes the support (emotional and tangible) of other small business owners. Sharing ideas, likes and social media posts as well as driving business to each other has made us all feel less lonely and more important as real contributors to an increasingly unreal world.

Check out our instagram for some of the cool and amazing businesses that have kept us smiling throughout.

Looks like takeaway is here to stay, so we are back to delivery / pick up with a twist.

Get in touch to order/ ask for suggestions, and we will get your books ready for you. But we need more fun than that!

So instead of extra soy sauce, we suggest adding a surprise book for just 25,- Consider it your fortune cookie.

Thank you to Jonas Smith for the awesome illustration :-)

The Financial Times recently wrote of the pandemic and the year 2020 that it had been “an individualized experience”, that “we do not seem to have come together, at least in the West”.

While it is true that each of us sees the world through our own particular shade of pink through gray, and that loneliness, anxiety and loss have defined the lives of many this past year, I would argue that we have also seen an unprecedented outpouring of support and community; that we have in fact come together.

The lockdowns and regulations - characterized mainly by their unpredictability - catapulted independent bookshops like ours into uncharted territory. The old adage, ‘calm on the surface, and underneath paddle like hell’, is the one that perhaps most aptly describes our state of mind for the past 10 months. 

This was not where we planned to be this year and certainly not what we planned to be doing. 

In a classic sink or swim moment, we decided to change things up. We turned the business on its head and started delivering books by bike, car and on foot. You couldn’t come to us, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t come to you. 

It was hard work, but also by far the most rewarding experience of our almost twelve year existence. We have always been keenly aware of the community we are privileged to be a part of, but 2020 was, as they say, a ‘next level' experience. 

We received requests from near and (very) far on all imaginable platforms, and for each and every order, every gesture of support we are eternally grateful. It isn’t over yet, but now, at least, we can say with confidence that we are not alone. 

So, yes, the pandemic has certainly been a lonely, isolating and individualized experience, but it has also shone a light on the many communities that have come together in support of what they hold near and dear because as we know, it is often only when we stand to lose something that we realize its true value. 

I would also like to express my enormous gratitude to Hannah, Amy, Emma and Gustav (our Corona bike messenger). These are the amazing, wonderful people I get to spend my days with and without whom none of what is described above would be possible.

What we at Books & Company experienced in 2020 was more than support, it was kindness. Every word, every note of thanks, every smile and every thumbs up was an act of kindness that sustained us through it all. Crisis reveals not only strengths and weaknesses, it also reveals to ourselves what truly matters, and what truly matters is kindness.

So let us embark on what will surely be a better, brighter 2021 with these words written by Ian Frazier in The New Yorker Magazine: 

‘Kindness is a folding chair we carry with us everywhere’.

With gratitude and the best of wishes for a Happy New Year!

Isabella and the staff of Books & Company

Here we are thousands of miles and ONE day away from an election that will determine the course of the world’s most powerful nation for decades to come. 

In a world seemingly moving at warp speed, it is tempting to focus only on the recent past and immediate future, but that would be a mistake, because where we stand today is not solely the result of four years of narcissistic, isolationist politics, but also the consequence of decades of complacency and hubris among Europeans as well as Americans. 

We have seen autocrats rise to power and allowed autocratic ideas to take hold in exchange for maintaining a (false) sense of security and wealth. We have felt overwhelmed and paralyzed by the seismic shifts brought on by poverty, migration, climate change and now a pandemic, and we have given in to the classic tradeoff of more security for fewer rights. We have mastered the art of looking the other way, because we know that the equality required to maintain stability comes at a cost we might not be willing to pay. As a result we have become detached from one another, scurrying in all directions instead of coming together in search of sustainable solutions.

We are seeing politicians drunk with power and populations starved for a shared political project, longing for leadership that reaches beyond personal ambition to a willingness to take risks for the common good and lift all, not just those who already find themselves at or near the top. 

The past few months have seen the publication of a number of books by keen observers of (political) life, some written before the current crisis, some during. What they all have in common is a reckoning with what has brought us to this point, politically and ethically.

Anne Applebaum’s ‘Twilight of Democracy’, Masha Gessen’s ‘Surviving Autocracy’ and the more recent ‘Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World’ by Fareed Zakaria and ‘The Tyranny of Merit, What’s Become of the Common Good’ by Michael Sandel, all make up a core reading list for a deeper understanding of our times, with a look not only at world politics but perhaps more importantly at ourselves and our values. 

In an age of information overload, these books - and their authors - offer some much needed reflection and knowledge. 

As Michael Sandel, a political philosopher and Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School recently wrote in the New York Times:

‘Appreciating the role of luck in life can prompt a certain humility: There, but for an accident of birth, or the grace of God, or the mystery of fate, go I. This spirit of humility is the civic virtue we need now. It is the beginning of the way back from the harsh ethic of success that drives us apart. It points beyond the tyranny of merit toward a less rancorous, more generous public life.’ 

Let us hope that we, and in turn the leaders we elect, have the courage to find the ‘spirit of humility’ to create a world more generous to all. 

The world does not stand still not even for a malevolent virus. It continues to spin and allows history to repeat itself.  While these are not unprecedented times, they are in the perfect storm of 2020 their own brand of extraordinary, and we will, as we have been in the past, be defined by the paths we choose and the lessons we learn. We have yet again been afforded the opportunity to place ourselves on the right side of history.

It is truly maddening to realize that in spite of how far we have come as a species, we still have so far to go when it comes to the basics. Basic human rights, basic acts of decency, basic respect for other human beings, The Basics. The fire raging across America should be a  reflection of the fire blazing not only in the hearts of black and brown Americans but in the soul of every man and woman who believes in equal rights for all. Until we recognize and accept that this is a struggle for all, we won’t achieve victory for any. 

At Books & Company we throw around the word community with good reason. Time and again we are reminded that we are surrounded and supported by customers, friends, readers of all stripes who have one thing in common; a love not just of books, but of the worlds they open up; the pathways to understanding, empathy and (hopefully) enlightenment.  

It is therefore not entirely surprising that in the wake of the horrific killing of George Floyd many of us have turned to books to help explain who we are, where we are and where we can go from here. Like many other bookstores, publishers and writers across the globe, we have promoted books and (virtual) events that can help us understand. 

But we wanted to do more and just as we were trying to figure out what that would be, an email ticked in from longtime friends of Books & Company, leva and Carsten Dan. They had an idea and were wondering if we could help. 

They wanted to donate 2.500,- kroner for books on the subject of racism, because as they said:

“While we are not sure what is the best way to help, we know that knowledge is critical.”

We are therefore thrilled and grateful to be able to announce that we now have a library of books (fiction and non-fiction) on the subject of racism and social injustice. All we ask is that once you have read the book you pass it on to someone you know, so they too can share in the knowledge you have gained. If you have any questions, please come by the shop or email us.

We know that this needs to be a marathon not a sprint, and that real change requires dedication, thoughtfulness and commitment. Thanks to the generosity (and genius) of Ieva and Carsten Dan we hope to understand - and do - better. 

It’s been four weeks since our last newsletter and I still can’t decide if it’s been the longest four weeks or the shortest. 

One thing is for sure, nothing is the same and perhaps most remarkably,  it isn’t the same for ANYONE. The vast majority of the world’s population is at some level of lockdown and we have all had our lives upended by a biological phenomenon we cannot see. It feels like we are living in a science fiction novel turned scary 7 Season Netflix series.

But here we are, trying each in our own way to cope with the unexpected - carefully navigating our way across the vast unknown.

We listen to experts like never before, study charts like never before and trust our leaders like never before. We take responsibility and act responsibly and while we feel invaded by something outside of our control, we know that the outcome is very much within our control, and we know that the experiences we take away from this will in large part be defined by our choices and our communities.

Indeed, while the words Covid-19 and Corona virus frighten us, they aren’t nearly as powerful as that single word that comforts us, Community. We clap together, we sing together, we Zoom together. We support our friends, our neighbors, our health care workers and our small businesses. We want them all to still be there on the other side of this.

As those who know us, know so well, we take the word Company in Books & Company very seriously. We love your company, we need your company and these days, we miss your company. That said, never before have we felt your company as strongly as we have in these past four weeks. As the writer Ann Patchett recently said about running her bookshop in Nashville during lockdown: ‘We’re a part of our community as never before’. We couldn’t agree more. 

We want to be there for you and you want to be there for us. Changing up the business, taking your orders and delivering books to your homes is how, together, we make sure that happens. 

We cannot thank you enough for your continued support - and for making sure we remain part of your community.

These past weeks have also reminded us how fortunate we are to live in a time where technology allows us to stay in touch with so many, in so many countries and in so many ways. So we decided to try something new.

For the next few months we will be sharing - on Instagram and Facebook - short (one minute) book recommendation videos recorded by members of the Books & Company community from near and far - and we would love for you to be a part of it. 

So go ahead, grab your favorite book, one you’re reading, one you just read, one you read years ago but can’t forget - and tell us why - for one minute! The whole world is upside down, so why not try something new!