The founder of the Poetria bookstore, in Porto, Dina Ferreira will present, on Sunday, the book “The most beautiful profession in the world”, about the days of a bookseller who lived almost always in economic suffocation.
In an interview with Lusa about the launch of her first book, which takes place at 5:00 p.m. at the Casa Comum of the Rectory of the University of Porto, Dina Ferreira, or “Dina da Poetria”, as she is also known , She said that she never thought of writing a book and that it was friends who challenged her to collect the texts that she had published over the years on social networks.
“The most beautiful profession in the world” only exists because “the Poetria bookstore is there,” confessed the former bookseller, now reformed, but always with the habit of writing daily.
The book, edited by Poetria itself and with some 200 pages, appears a few years after having left his legacy to the “two guardians”, the “two angels” —Nuno and Francisco—, as he likes to classify them, who he has attended since the Poetria bookstore, with the spirit of “curators”. Thus the problem of “closing the bookstore” and “dying on the beach” disappeared.
The name of the book was inspired by the movie “You Have a Message” (1998), with the American actress Meg Ryan playing a character whose profession is a bookstore.
“Meg Ryan, who is a bookseller and who goes through a bit of the same ordeal that I went through. I remember her talking about that, about being the most beautiful profession in the world, and I think so too. A bookseller is almost like a journalist. It should encompass a set of knowledge, skills, feelings and sensitivities, and areas […]to be able to talk with their customers who come to pick up books”.
In the book, the author describes moments like the one she felt on January 14, 2017, when she felt overwhelmed by the mess at Poetria.
“When the days are empty of events and sales, I don’t feel like doing anything, just letting time pass. Right now an absurd and even stupid question comes to mind: But what does Lello have that Poetria doesn’t have, to sell between 750 and 1,000 books a day as one of its directors said on TV and in Poetria is this misery? (I said it was an absurd and even stupid question, remember?) ”, The bookseller then wrote.
At other times, Dina Ferreira highlights the joy of selling a book at 10:45.
“My people, today Monday at 10:45 I sold a book: ‘Frutos y Notas’, by the sublime Rainer Maria Rilke, to a young man once again. Fantastic, for the sale and recipient of the wonderful book, while he was listening to ‘Matilde’, by Jacques Brel”, he wrote.
In the first part of the book, the writer talks about her day-to-day life as a bookseller, from storms to finding the book the customer wants, paying bills, talking to customers and readers. At the same time, Dina Ferreira addresses the titles of poetry and theater books that were sold.
“I was recording in a completely real way. There is no fiction in this book. They are even stories stuck to reality. I never put the full name […], recounted the meeting, the conversation, the book. An important thing in this first part is the number of book titles and authors there are. It might even be a guide for someone.”
In a conversation with Lusa, Dina Ferreira highlighted the duty of a bookseller: “In a bookstore like this, a bookseller cannot try to sell a pig in one fell swoop. You have to be ethical and know that you are talking to the person and looking at the person’s profile.”
Sometimes, people wanted to start reading poetry, but from what he knew of the client, it did not cross his mind to recommend a Herberto Hélder or a more “complex” and “dense” author, “because he saw that the person did not was but prepared for it”. There was, however, the need to advise a “good poet” to start “reading poetry well.”
The former Poetria bookseller confessed that having worked in that bookstore was a “very important stage in her life.”
“It was really worth it, even for the number of people I brought as friends. Some even friends. It was a very important period in my life and one that will mark me for the rest of my life.”
In the second part of the book, entitled “The days of a former bookseller on the loose”, Dina Ferreira presents another life: Life after retirement, which began on January 1, 2018.
“I started to have more time. I began to walk, and I began to have some experiences, encounters, observations of certain events in the city. I always took notes. There was always a lock. There I would put some themes not to forget and then I would come home and write a text, ”she said.
In one of those adventures, he climbed the stairs that gave access to an old cinema, integrated in the then Central Shopping, in Campo 24 de Agosto, “very close to the place where the transsexual Gisberta was barbarously murdered by a group of young criminals ” . ”, reads the Construction letter.
The book also shows the walks through streets such as Fernandes Tomás or Bonjardim, where the author appreciates “the glorious dens of good cod, sausages and cheeses”.
There is also an incursion through Rua do Heroísmo, where “the PIDE was” and through many other streets of Porto, where Dina Ferreira weaves historical reflections and realistic descriptions.
Music was part of the bookseller’s daily life and it is not uncommon to read references to artists such as Edith Piaf, Pink Floyd or Jacques Brel.
“Because music has a lot to do with poetry. I think it was Óscar Lopes who said that poetry is a type of music”.
Source: Observadora
