Are books “staples”?

• Interviewed Thursday morning about France Inter, Bruno Le Maire had raised the possibility of a reopening of bookstores to meet competition from Amazon.
• The conditions for the reopening of bookstores, which have been closed since Sunday, have not yet been met, said the Syndicat de la librairie française.
• Are books necessary products in times of coronavirus crisis? The question is valid.

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The first week of confinement ends and it is not always easy to pass the time. Travel is prohibited except in very specific cases (to go to work if telework is impossible, to go shopping, to go to the doctor and to stretch your legs). This, provided that you have a certificate. Only “first necessity” purchases are authorized.

Food is good, but when we have nothing to do and Netflix announces Thursday that it will
reduce the flow rates on all its flows in Europe to ease the pressure on the Internet, we wonder if counting our fingers will be enough to keep us busy for the weeks to come. In this context of containment to avoid the spread of
coronavirus, books (novels, comics, essays …) may well be necessary for our survival.

A question of survival?

“As a lover of books and a bookseller for twenty years, I consider reading to be an essential activity”, underlines the president of the Syndicate of the French bookstore Xavier Moni who co-manages the Parisian bookstore Like a novel. However, he believes that the conditions for reopening the bookstores, which have been closed since Sunday, are not in place to ensure the safety of the teams and the public. “The first necessity is to face a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude,” he said.

The book is an intellectual journey, a window open to the world. “In this respect, it constitutes a connection with the outside and arouses our imagination,” admits Robert Zuili, clinical psychologist specializing in emotions. From there to imagine a confined suffocating in front of the empty shelves of his library, we must not exaggerate … The first necessity must meet needs related to survival.

“It would mean that the book would become as important as our basic needs. From this point of view, I do not believe so, because it is not true for everyone, “insists Robert Zuili. We all need to eat, to sleep, but (unfortunately) we don’t all need to read. Especially since in times of crisis, reading is not always relevant. “Some readers are so anxious that they can’t read,” he said. The thought is galloping and reading is not enough ”.

A symbol of freedom

According to the specialist in emotions, each of us favors a relationship with different reality: an approach through the real (the anxious), through the imaginary and through the symbolic. “Those who are in the imagination will find in the book an escape that can be soothing,” he continues. For those who are in the symbolic dimension, the book becomes a symbol of freedom, of relationship ”. And it will allow him to forget the constraints of confinement. The book does not meet everyone’s needs in the same way. But those who find comfort in it will have to do with what they find in their drawers until the bookstores reopen.

“I want to say:” Reread the books you have at hand, “advises bookseller Xavier Moni. It is not uninteresting from an emotional point of view to create a feeling of nostalgia. “Rereading a book can revive good moments, revive things that are associated with pleasant memories”, points Robert Zuili. And if that’s not enough, you can always find lots of things online here or
the. Still, we have to accept losing the sensory relation to this object…

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