Libris at 35: From Eliade to Gabor Maté- 35 Years of Change in Romanians’ Reading Habits Reading Between the Lines: Books as the most honest portrait of romanian society
Thirty-five years after the opening of the Șt. O. Iosif bookstore in Brașov, the starting point of Libris, the company is publishing an analysis of the bestselling books of the past decades. From previously banned authors avidly read…
Thirty-five years after the opening of the Șt. O. Iosif bookstore in Brașov, the starting point of Libris, the company is publishing an analysis of the bestselling books of the past decades. From previously banned authors avidly read immediately after 1989 to books about trauma, meaning and healing dominating today’s charts, Libris data reveals how Romania’s social, economic and political transformations have been reflected in people’s reading choices.
The analysis is based on 15 years of Libris online sales data, complemented by institutional memory and observations gathered by the team at the Șt. O. Iosif bookstore in Brașov, founded in 1991. 1991–1999: Recovering Fifty Years of Censorship in a Single Decade Romania emerged from communism with a population that had long been denied access to many of the books it wanted to read. Among the first titles purchased at the Șt. O. Iosif bookstore in Brașov, the foundation of what would later become Libris — were works by previously banned authors: Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Constantin Noica, Nicolae Steinhardt, Paul Goma, George Orwell, alongside memoirs and prison writings from Romania’s communist era. “People wanted to discover what had been hidden from them, what they had never been told. We would drive to Bucharest overnight, wait in line outside printing houses before sunrise, then return with car trunks full of books. By the time we arrived back in Brașov, people were already lining up outside the bookstore. Books sold almost instantly,” says Ana Oniță, founder of Libris. Toward the end of the decade, the first business and personal development books began appearing on shelves. Romania was learning that reinvention would be necessary and people were searching for tools to navigate it. 2000–2010: Books followed the Romanian diaspora The 2000s brought a massive wave of migration to Italy, Spain and the UK. Millions of Romanians left the country and wanted access to Romanian books they could no longer easily find abroad. At the same time, people living in smaller Romanian towns had access to very limited bookstore inventories, often restricted to school-related titles. In 2009, amid austerity measures, a 25% cut in public sector wages, VAT increases and bookstores shutting down, Laura Țeposu launched the online division of Libris.ro. “We started with three employees, 19,000 titles and parcels carried to the post office in a backpack. The timing seemed far from ideal, but online was the only way to make culture more accessible. The platform brought books to places where physical bookstores had never truly reached, smaller towns, the diaspora, and the homes of people who either lacked time or simply didn’t have a bookstore nearby,” says Laura Țeposu, CEO of Libris. 2011–2015: Romanian fiction and books as tools for reinvention
