The Humanitas bookstore chain has added a mobile unit to its network to reach localities in the country that do not have a bookshop. 

Named Humanitas Cartea pe roți (the book on wheels), it is set up inside a van and carries a selection of several thousands of titles from various publishing houses.

The mobile bookshop is meant to “rebuild the special connection people have with bookstores, especially in the localities, not few, left without bookstores.” 

The mobile bookshop will set out on its journey on September 8, with a first stop planned in the commune of Scrioaștea, in Teleorman county. There, it will help with donations to the library project of the association Cu cărțile pe uliță, set up by Relu Voicu. 

By December, the mobile bookstore is set to visit tens of localities in the country and make donations to local or school libraries. 

In the spring of 2020, there were 200 – 250 bookstores open in the country, according to data from the Romanian Publishers Association quoted by Humanitas Group, which includes the Humanitas bookstore chain, and the Humanitas and Humanitas Fiction publishing houses. 

“We want to join the initiatives that can change things for the better to create a movement with an impact large enough to turn things around. ‘Cartea pe roți’ can be, for a while, the equivalent of a bookstore that opens in every locality it reaches and where it returns periodically,” the publisher said.

(Photo: Pixabay)

simona@romania-insider.com