The Libercolo
Gaia's online library
Hi Gaia, welcome to Easy Travel Hosting! Il Libercolo, much more than a simple online bookstore. When did you decide to bring this project to life and what was the process of doing so?
Hi, thanks for asking me for this interview!
The project "Il Libercolo" as a name already existed: when I closed my independent bookshop (it was located in the historic center of Rovigo) in 2019 I transformed the social pages of the La Magnolia bookshop into "Il Libercolo", continuing to write about the books I read, recommending them to readers. It was a bit like continuing to be a bookseller but without the commercial aspect of the job.
In June 2020 I was preparing to end a work experience in the press office of a large company, it had been a very formative period for me and stimulating from many points of view. I thought about what I would do next – the area I live in doesn't have much to offer on a professional level – and that's when the bookseller inside me started to emerge again.
Digesting the closure of the bookshop was not at all easy for me and compared to the first time I found myself dreaming with my feet much more anchored to the ground. But the desire to build something I could be proud of and to go back to working with books was stronger than anything.
I "saw" what is now Il Libercolo one Saturday morning while I was mowing the lawn. Within a few months the site was online.
To finance the project I decided to start a crowdfunding campaign on the Produzioni dal Basso platform; I was lucky enough, also thanks to them, to receive co-financing from NaturaSí, which collaborates with the platform to support projects of ecological and cultural interest.
The result amazed and thrilled me: without large media forces at my disposal I managed to successfully close the campaign, receiving much more than just money from supporters, so many wrote to me, enthusiastic and eager to see Il Libercolo land online.
Everything else was designing and building my digital store.
Four months seems really short to set up an entire project, but I want to say that I came from a similar experience, albeit "physical", which had taught me a good part of the job.
As for the new one, however, I learned to build and manage the site together with my father, who has skills in the web and social fields, and I started to experiment with the artisanal part (illustrations on boxes, creation and binding of notebooks and notebooks, watercolor, and all the things that you can buy on the site as "handmade by the bookseller").
– Gaia also just tipped us off that she's making a jewelry collection “literary” handmade by her with Das, metal and pages of books destined for waste, to recover books that would have been passed off and restore their beauty and value.
La parola "Libercolo" significa testo o libro di scarso valore o interesse. Come mai questa scelta per il nome della tua libreria?
In the world of books and culture in general, I have very often observed certain attitudes that are a little too "serious" - pass me the term - which have created this elitist aura around reading, as if it were an activity for the few, as if "true readers" were raised a step or two higher than the others.
Very often I myself have been criticized by colleagues because I had not read a certain book or, on the contrary, I spoke with love about a book considered too commercial or of inferior value.
As much as I share the opinion that there are books and books, that there are commercial books designed to sell and books written by incredible authors, designed to tell stories, I am also convinced that that is not the right way to promote reading and make people appreciate any book.
Conveying an overly intellectual and exclusive image of reading (and of the publishing world) distances people from them rather than bringing them closer.
And why would a random bookseller like me want fewer people around books? It would be a contradiction!
Libercolo is a name I identify with for these reasons. It is ironic and self-deprecating, I chose it when I only wrote about books precisely to clearly say "these are just my emotion and my reading of these books, without the pretense of educating anyone, but only of sharing and disseminating them".
It's a bit like certain books: you don't always need to say a lot and use sophisticated words, sometimes it's the simplest things that get to the centre.
You also offer many services, such as workshops and readings for children, reading groups, literary favors and much more. Could you tell us about the most popular services and how your audience reacts to them?
Yes, sometimes I fear that my offer is too broad!
Certainly in these first months of activity the heart of Libercolo have been the customized boxes: boxes containing books and craft products tailor-made for the person for whom the box is intended.
They were requested above all as gifts and it works like this: customers contact me and tell me, using the method they prefer (video call, messages, email), what they want about the person they will give the box to. Based on that information - favorite books and authors, favorite music, season, flower, animal, etc. - I choose the most suitable books and products for them and package everything.
In reality, before Christmas many readers ordered personalized boxes for themselves too, they find it an original and personal way to discover new titles and writers.
Among the "intangible" services, so far we have really liked the Reading group & Psyche which I organize together with Francesca Castro, a psychologist and psychotherapist from Rome, as well as a dear friend of mine.
Reading & Psyche is a reading group where the book we read together every month becomes a tool for finding useful ideas for our daily and emotional life. Thanks to Francesca's presence, we read the book on multiple levels, exploring its deepest meanings and listening to what about the characters resonates most with us.
Obviously this is not a therapeutic and curative path, but with Francesca we are also planning a real path of healing for the second half of 2022. book therapy group, where readers will also be able to bring their own emotional difficulties and find support for them through the books offered and group work.
The first online courses will soon begin with Il Libercolo, one on Conscious Reading, to learn to read in a more present and active way, and one on Creative Writing, also suitable for those who have never written anything.
If any readers are interested, registrations are still open and the information can be found at this link: https://illibercolo.it/i-servizi/corso-di-scrittura-creativa/
The literary favors are in the planning stage and in a few weeks I will publish photos and materials with information and examples of how I can make them.
A collaboration that I care about very much is also the one with Michela Maltoni, a yoga teacher who opened the Let it Yoga online school just before the pandemic. We have created a project that must remain secret until mid-February but I can't wait to talk about it! My advice is to follow us on social media and train your fingers to be fast!
Ups and downs are a constant for those who work on their own. Is there a book that helped you get out of a difficult situation and that you would recommend to other women who are thinking of opening their own business?
My reading is mostly novels, so I definitely don't have a how-to manual or book to recommend.
What I discovered as I read is that help can hide anywhere in a book, even in the most unexpected corner.
Certainly the thing that comforts and supports me the most in a story is when I find something of myself in a character or a story, very often without even realizing it.
There are books that I go back to when things get difficult, this for me is one of the most powerful things about reading: being able to go back to inhabit a book, a story, where we had a good time, whenever we want and relive known but also new sensations, because books change every time together with us.
Among the books that have this power over me I would mention: What You Can See from Here by Mariana Leky, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, The End of the World and Wonderland by Murakami Haruki.
They absolutely don't talk about self-employment or similar, but they are stories capable of bringing out the best part of us, together with the right amount of courage and happiness.
However, I believe that there are no magic books, it all depends on us, as always, on how we place ourselves in front of the book, on how we enter the story, whether we raise walls or remain open, even at our own risk.
Stories can confront us with elements, bring out emotions, but then it's all up to our determination, our will and our ability to listen to ourselves and be honest with ourselves.
As you know, Easy Travel Hosting uses renewable and eco-sustainable energy to power its servers. Furthermore, a tree is planted for each new hosting, actively helping reforestation and the absorption of CO2. What do you think of this project and in general, do you think it is important to seek a more sustainable lifestyle?
I was very pleased to be contacted by you because of your commitment to your sustainability and that of your customers.
I sincerely believe that a lot needs to be done, I don't know when this much will become "enough".
Personally I try to limit my footprint and that of my work as much as possible, as far as I can.
In the private sphere I try to minimize waste, be it water, energy, food or waste in general, at home we try to buy what we need, giving up some whims, especially for clothing. We have a fairly large vegetable garden that my partner grows without the use of chemical substances or fertilizers and it gives us enormous satisfaction.
This year we also planted some trees and bushes to green up the land, unfortunately in agricultural areas like the one where we live there is very little left of true Nature to develop intensive agriculture. It is a theme that I feel particularly strongly about.
Then there is the part that concerns my work. I am aware that since it is an online business that involves shipping it will never be sustainable enough, but I try to compensate in everything.
The courier I rely on has launched various solutions to reduce the CO2 impact and plastic consumption.
Still on the plastic front, I have reduced its single-use use to practically zero: the boxes and packaging materials I use for my products are 99% recycled or FSC paper and cardboard. Wherever it is necessary to use bubble wrap or scotch tape, I always opt for recycled one, mainly coming from other shipments I have received.
Then there are the products, for example the notebooks and notebooks that I produce 100% by hand: I start from recycled cardboard to create the cover, using the boxes with which the suppliers deliver the books to me. I purchase the fabric with which it is covered from a wholesaler who sells off the smaller scraps, which are unsuitable for being processed for their original purpose and which would otherwise have been thrown away. I'm looking for an economically sustainable solution for the internal pages too.
All the brands I collaborate with have made sustainability their strong point: Sparkles&Clouds produces candles inspired by literary classics, in soy wax and 100% natural essences, non-toxic and hand-cast one by one in reusable jars in many ways.
Oh-Oh! Shop creates hand-sewn items for early childhood and for the person, while the FSC wooden toys that I sell in my shop are from Legler Small Foot, a German company that works with 0 km wood only from sustainable forests, attentive to reforestation and the use of non-toxic substances for children, and also reuses all processing waste.
I could go on but I feel like I've already taken up too much of your readers' time, but in short, here at Libercolo we deeply love the Earth and strive every day to take care of it.
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Gaia so much for taking part in our interview for the column dedicated to Small Business for Women.
If you want more information, you can follow her on her website by clicking here.
And on social media too!
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