It is not easy to practice bibliophilia today. Everything is an obstacle. From the start, the basics fail: the support to accumulate books at home. Has anyone had to renew their bookshelves recently? Those pieces of furniture are still called bookcases in regular stores, but it is obvious that they are no longer designed for that function. In standard models, the distance between shelves is excessive, which reduces storage capacity and forces the reader to stack books horizontally on top of the vertical ones, so as not to waste space.
Read more Sunset at the Kremlin
If you look in the online catalogs of stores, you will see that there are more shelves occupied by vases, family photos, jars of fruit in syrup, or ridiculous souvenirs than by books. The few that appear in the photos are usually art catalogs that no one opens. In some images, the books even appear stacked upside down, with the spine facing the wall, lest someone become curious about a title or author and decide to read it. These pieces of furniture are called bookcases just as we continue to call hardware stores those shops where more plastic, aluminum, brass, copper, or cable is served than iron.
Buying old books before AI destroys them is political resistance
There is an alternative: ordering a custom bookcase, with floor-level space for art books and a low shelf for essay notebooks, which are so fashionable today. But this option is usually expensive and conditioned by the scarcity of carpenters.
There is an explanation for the apparent contradiction between this book desertification of apartments and the fact that the publishing sector enjoys reasonable health and that the (real) bookstores opening outnumber those closing: probably, there are fewer and fewer homes with books, but also a minority of homes that accumulate more and more volumes, even if they have to be stored sideways or piled on the floor, a solution as romantic as it is unhygienic.
Because the prestige and economic relevance of the book sector is beyond doubt. In defense of the habit of reading on paper, as every year, the Forum Edita Barcelona begins tomorrow. Preceded by a well-deserved tribute to editor Beatriz de Moura, the forum will confirm that the book market faces uncertainties but continues to grow. There is a loyal reading community (or rather a buying community that tends to pile up books: raise your hand if in recent years you have not lost your ability to concentrate to read) and bookstores that are managing somehow.
Also read
The Forum Edita will be followed by the Setmana del Llibre en Català, but this month there is another event that deserves the attention not only of book lovers but also of those who assume that reading from reliable sources is an act of political resistance. It is the Fira del Llibre d’Ocasió, Antic i Modern on Passeig de Gràcia.
Read more Saxony-Anhalt votes with the far-right AfD triumphant and Germany on edge
Because it is no longer just about looking for cheap reading or succumbing to the habit of collecting old editions, but also about participating in the altruistic act of preserving the wisdom generated over centuries by humanity against the vandalistic appetite of AI. As this newspaper reported, companies in this sector buy huge quantities of old books worldwide to train their AI models, once they have devoured almost all the data circulating on the web. With the aggravating factor that the copies are destroyed during scanning.
The alternative? Buy, buy, and buy to protect. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 resistance rescued books from the fire by memorizing them, but we are talking about a time (the novel is from 1953) when humans still did not have their brains fried by the abuse of digital devices and could retain information. Today only exam candidates and theater actors memorize. That is why one way to preserve that legacy is to buy all the books possible – new, second-hand, or third-hand – and turn homes and libraries into spaces of resistance. That is, until Anthropic knocks on the door, which will happen, and makes an irresistible offer for our relics.
The decorative solution
On the 19th, the famous Strand bookstore in New York celebrates its 99 years of life. Some time ago, during a crisis that seemed to threaten its survival, one of its managers thanked the appearance of a new type of buyer: the new rich who want to decorate the walls of their apartment with meters and meters of old books, without caring a bit about their titles or authors. Compared to the voracious AI companies, these customers would deserve a guild award. At least, they preserve the books they buy.
Putin joins the burning
What worries most about a war is, obviously, the loss of human lives. Next could be – not necessarily in this order – basic infrastructure or artistic heritage. In this case, we must also talk about books fallen in combat: according to sources from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture cited by Pen Ukraine, just in the summer of 2026 Russian attacks have destroyed more than 10 million copies, which represents a third of the national production. Many are textbooks.
