Bookbag

Independent Bookbag is our Bookshop of the Month for May. It can be found in Exeter’s indie West Quarter and, since opening in 2020, has become a space where community and creativity come together, based on shared values. We chatted to Charlie, one of the owners, about why they opened a bookshop, what their customers are reading right now and about their ambitious event and community project program. Read on to find out more.

1. When you opened Bookbag in 2020, what was your vision, why a bookshop?

We (Charlie and Malcolm) have always loved bookshops and visited so many over the years. We were also inspired by records shops, libraries, music venues, coffee shops and community spaces. Bookbag is housed in an arcade in Exeter, a striking, light-filled space filled with indie shops and cafes who have real purpose in what they do. We wanted it to feel creative, homely and welcoming, with comfy chairs and art on the walls. We chose the book selection to have a local/global focus, with space for Black and marginalised voices, women’s voices and translated writing on the shelves. Both classic and contemporary books, and indie presses, across all sections; fiction, politics, music, nature, young people. We wanted to put on events that had this energy too.

2. What’s the best thing about being a bookseller, and the worst?

The best things are the books, the people you meet along the way – including Bookbag team (past and present), our regulars, the local community and people in the book industry.

The worst are quiet days and admin.

3. Bookbag feels like it’s got a strong sense of community – tell us more!

We opened at a time when people had been isolated during the pandemic, in a city that hadn’t had an independent bookshop for many years, and during the early days people came in and sat on the floor and read or talked. For four years we have been part of a collaborative group who produced an Exeter version of the literary festival Africa Writes, celebrating writers from Africa and the diaspora. This relaunches this year as Echoes, a festival rooted in the South West, 19-21st June.

We’ve run community projects like Fore Street Stories, a funded writing project that paired early stage young writers with local businesses to create a zine about our neighbourhood with local author Davina Quinlivan, and a city-wide poetry display for hope – Poems For Hope & The City– where we hung poems in the windows of community centres, cafes and indie shops. We’re grateful to the Exeter community for buying books to keep us going, and for the sense of community we find here.

4. What are your customers reading at the moment – is there a particular trend you’ve noticed?

Translated fiction is always popular, the International Booker Prize shortlist has just released so people are reading that, and Solvej Balle’s Calculation of Volume series. Nature writing does well here. Our fiction section always starts with A for Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart, and Yale’s A Little History of series is popular too. When the sun comes out and the promise of summer is in the air, I go heavy on recommending these books: Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson, The Seaplane on the Final Approach by Rebecca Rukeyser, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson and Hot Milk by Deborah Levy. Fight me.

5. And finally, do you have any exciting plans for the shop in the coming months that you’d like to share with us?

Yes, it’s our 5th anniversary this year, and we’re definitely celebrating that.