Can bookshops survive the digital age?

Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia has the answerAs I venture to the newly-located premises of one of our capital’s longest standing bookshops in the heart of the walled city, I wonder whether Al, online bookshops and digital formats are indeed reshaping how people discover and consume books. Are bookshops are a dying trend, not necessarily for people of my generation who were bought up with the habit of visiting and using bookshops as a means of emotional, cultural and educational sustenance, but for younger readers whose first instinct is perhaps to search, stream and scroll? The Moufflon Bookshop was founded in 1967 and long shaped by the late Ruth Keshishian, who established the bookshop that also specialised in volumes on Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, offering new, used, rare and out‑of‑print titles in English, Greek and other languages. Its focus on Cyprus‑themed books – archaeology, architecture, maps, history, arts and local fiction – as well as Ruth’s approach and broad knowledge enabled the bookshop to function as an ‘unofficial culture ministry’, a place to find inspiration, research assistance, sources and a guidance that went beyond mere titles. “At times I feel that I’m doing the hardest job in the world, which is to replace an irreplaceable human being, but it’s the only job I know how to do,” says Kris Konnaris, who bought the bookshop in 2022 and to whom Ruth passed on the baton to following her passing almost a year and a half ago. “As many times as we would discuss (the handover), I would tell her that when she was in the bookshop, I felt this safety; whoever came in, whoever asked anything, there was no way they would leave without an answer, without two books, without three references, and she would tell me that when she acquired the bookshop, handed down to her by her brother, she knew one tenth of the things I know and not to worry, that I would manage, and the truth is that we are managing. The aim is to continue the bookshop exactly how Ruth set it up.” Can bookshops carry on like they used to? But can bookshops carry on as they used to? “I’m not worried about the future, we carry on doing what we know and our clientele is growing. People are going back to reading, and this is something analysed in panels and discussions on the future of the books, and existing alongside the digital era and e-books etc,” says the historian from Limassol. “Our problem isn’t so much the end of the book, e-books function as additions. We print more books today than we ever printed in history of typography. We print some millions of books a year. The matter is which books are more practical to have on your shelf. Technical manuals, and such books tend to be electronic, others remain on paper,” he adds. Young people under 30 are interested in and seek books though, he says. “The matter comes down to do you have something to offer. And the Moufflon always had this knowledge.” And this is perhaps where the ideal recipe to sustain independent notable bookshops lies. “The nature of our bookshop has always had this recipe; we have old books, we have out-of-print books, obscure publications by individuals, it’s a capricious bookshop; we don’t work with the international best sellers, our top seller last year was on Lefkaritika lace,” reveals Kris. “We provide a need that other bookshops don’t cover.” Ruth given a place of pride in the new store Indeed, the Moufflon has always been a reference point for those interested in Cyprus, appealing to English speakers, academics, researches and artists. “Anyone who does research and visits Cyprus comes here, it’s always been a passage to speak to Ruth; she was the bridge that connected the researcher with the source of information, whether that be a person, a book, printed material, an old newspaper, anything,” says Kris. He brings the example of archaeological missions thattake place on the island every summer. “Archaeologists have been using our bookshop for years, our collection on the archaeology of Cyprus includes books which libraries don’t have, we have gathered a stock which is very difficult to gather in the first place,” explains Kris. “Yet we also have the passerby, the tourists and individuals who have searched the bookshop beforehand; they walk into a guide on Cyprus and they find a reference in the bookshop. Then, there’s also people from Cyprus that are only discovering us now”. Admittedly Kris has also brought his own touch to the bookshop, an element that Ruth was convinced would enhance both its popularity and the content of its shelves. “The Moufflon has 70 per cent English books and 30 per cent Greek books as well as other languages; Arabic, French, German etc. If a book has anything to do about Cyprus we try to have it. And with Ruth’s guidance, I came in and added Greek titles.” As a manger of an archive in Greece for over two decades and having studied the history of Cyprus, Kris has a sound knowledge of Greek literature. Missing ‘personal wikipedia’ of late owner “We miss Ruth often, we don’t have the ease of picking up the phone and asking her a question, for example to say, Ruth, do we have anything about traditional shadow puppeteer? She was a wikipedia and we would have the answer in a minute. We don’t have this anymore, but we do our own search, we have an archive. The years we worked together was as if I had done two PhDs,” says Kris. The Moufflon also had its own publishing arm, an element which for Kris goes hand in hand with the field. “You have a bookshop that gives the potential to a small publishing house that publishes one or two books a year not to worry about the money,” says Kris. But Moufflon publications are also a serious imprint in Cyprus. To date, Moufflon has published 26 books, a practice Kris intends to continue with. “This is one of the reasons I wanted to get the bookshop, without saying that the bookshop is exclusive to the publishing side, but I believe they cannot be separated because the bookshop gives you and teaches you what the gaps in the bibliography are; you can use this knowledge to complement to gap. And this is very important for a small publisher, whose books are not best sellers but slow sellers.” As many bookshops, Moufflon sources its new titles from distributors. “We also have books from small publishing houses, abroad and locally who publish very specific things or we buy from authors themselves,” says Kris. “We also have another source for second-hand books which are usually the out of print; the old, lost, rare books. We rely on an unofficial network of people who know that someone is wondering what to do with their books, and they refer them to us. Often, usually in summer, when Cypriots come to Cyprus from the diaspora and empty houses, or a grandparent dies, they call us and send us their books, or we go and see libraries and accordingly we take them. Part of our bookshelves rely on this network, which was built throughout the years, and is once again, difficult to build from scratch.” A valuable Cyprus archive Moufflon’s most treasured collection is Cypriot translated literature that includes books that are written by Cypriots in English or foreigners who live in Cyprus and write in English or Cypriots from the diaspora who also write in English. “The most important thing that Ruth did, even if not on purpose but through her actions, was making Cypriot history and culture known abroad and I feel this too, we send books all over the world, and if you’re not from the field you’d be surprised at how many and how specific these books are.” The new Moufflon is kept busy To this end, Moufflon’s archives may potentially be more valuable than the bookshop itself. “If you take our archive of maps for example, that’s another category on its own.” Another section dedicated to ‘not for sale’ preserves Cyprus’ literary heritage. “We are book collectors and we hold certain titles back because they don’t exist in libraries; these are obscure publications which if sold will vanish in a library in a home and will not be accessible to anybody. This makes us into a sort of hub where if someone wants something from this material, they come here, take a photo, and do their research.” And so, for decades, the Moufflon has acted and still acts as a living bridge between readers and writers, between past and present and between the many communities that form the island. “Often, a client walks in and asks about a book, and then the author walks in,” says Kris. Ruth Keshishian left a legacy that still shapes every shelf, and Kris carries it forward – interwoven with Ruth’s inheritance, with Cyprus, with generations of book lovers and the island’s layered history and culture. “Sometimes, I remind myself to slow down and be grateful for the time we shared with her; the work continues, but the memory is a quiet companion. There’s something almost metaphysical about this place: strange encounters, uncanny coincidences, a constant flow of people coming and going, asking, calling, emailing. That movement is what a bookshop does best, and it’s how Moufflon has always lived. Online sales have grown and help financially, but it’s the shop itself that brings the money and, more importantly, the people. Our online catalogue focuses on books about Cyprus; you won’t find Kafka or Tolstoy unless there’s a translation into the Cypriot dialect, for example. And that’s the recipe: we didn’t set out with business plans or niche markets, and we still don’t work that way. There’s no self-help section, no stationery, no pens or paints – just books, artworks, and maps”. “I’m deeply grateful and proud that Ruth entrusted me with this; one day I too will pass it on too, because Moufflon must continue,” he concludes. Moufflon Bookshop Faneromeni Street 44, opposite Faneromeni Church, old Nicosia. Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Tel: 22 665155, [email protected], https://moufflon.com.cy/