Ah, e-books, these strangers. At least for me, and for all who love to touch the paper, preferably a little threadbare and worn-out. It’s a matter of point of view, like so many subjects and habits nowadays.
Whatever you think about it, it is a fact that the stories that talk about #innovation can also be found in areas that we tend to imagine as traditional and static. And sometimes we discover that there can be winning combinations that arise from these two elements, apparently so different and distant. Paolo Prota Giurleo, 79, former CEO of the Italian company Autogrill, knows something about it. He has promoted a splendid and absolutely #OutOfTheBox initiative, especially in these times, in which digital technology has replaced the rustle of paper among the hands. In short, the gentleman in question has opened a library named “Ostinata” (that in Italian means “stubborn” – editor’s note). Stubborn like this idea, which takes us back in time, to the paper consultation of books, tomes and volumes, which we used to do, in the afternoons or weekends, in search of rare pages, impossible to find on the shelves of an ordinary library. But it is also stubborn due to the address where it is located: via Osti 6 in Milan; a stone’s throw from the state road, in an area always crowded with people and scholars. This is an act of love. A real statement towards culture. Because there are things that are priceless and that we love to make circular without having any return.
Giurleo has placed a part of himself in his library, an important part, I would say. The books – to borrow or for consultation – are part of his private collection: over 10,000 pieces, which smack of history and even a little of home. In constant motion, because the 4,000 on the shelves will be cyclically replaced with those not yet on display.
What a charm, this kind of places. Once upon a time we met there, to study pages, to study each other, to search and somehow to search for each other as well. Or to meet. Again and again. Not in the metaverse. In real life.
We can bet that this place will become a meeting point for many intellectuals, curious individuals and very young people who can’t wait to pick up, in addition to old books, those healthy habits that for many of us once represented normality, but which -like the telephone booths and the scented erasers in the snacks of the 1980s – have been lost over the years. This way, slowly, without even realizing it. It’s those small, big habits that we let go, just by opening our hand, to make them fly away, who knows where.
However, it’s nice to know that, sometimes, after having flown to… (who knows?), some memories of once come back to the ground, home, to take up their place right there, in the space that has always belonged to them: in the memories and in the eyes of people, among the sheets -new or worn out- of a new beginning that tastes like paper. And that makes this magic sound “ffss”… every time we pause to listen to the sound, or better the voice of a page that has just been turned.
Valeria Bellobono
