Chicline : Bonjour monsieur, can you tell us a bit about what you do ?

Claude : Well, my name is Claude, and I’m a bouquiniste on the Quai des Grands Augustins. I’ve been a bouquiniste for about four years. I decided to become a bouquiniste because of my pure passion for books. It’s not my first job, of course, but it turns out I’ve already earned enough money in my life. It’s out of pleasure alone that I’m here.

Chicline : Over the course of each year, you must meet a lot of people, Parisians as well as tourists from around the world. What do you offer them ?

Claude : Yes, there are a lot of tourists who pass by here, but I don’t really have anything for them, to tell you teh truth. I only sell literature – French and foreign, classic and contemporary. I also sell antique books and bindings. The books I sell aren’t very expensive. They’re around 25 to 30 euros. If not, there wouldn’t be any clients. I try to sell quality literature at an affordable price. And I try to sell, in priority, the books I know and like.

Chicline : Do you also sell books for collectors?

Claude : Yes, but very little, and I rarely sell them here, because there isn’t a clientele for that. I sell them more to bookstores.

Chicline : To become a bouquiniste, you have to love books, but is that enough ?

Claude : No, of course not – you also have to love people, making new acquaintances. I love books and discussions about literature. With this job, you have chances every day to meet all sorts of people, young and old. Some know more than I do about certain subjects. And then, when some visitors stop me to ask for a recommendation, it’s a real pleasure for me to communicate about certain books and authors. Very often, peopple don’t have any preconceived notions, and they willingly take my advice on what to buy. In general, they’re happy with my choice.

Chicline : Claude, if a tourist who knows how to read French came to see you, and asked you to recommend a book, what would that book be ?

Claude : What I recommend for people who want to discover French is, of course, the classics, even if the vocabluary might seem a bit rich at the first try. First off, the classics of the 18th and 19th centuries, for example Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas. And the I would also recommend reading Romain Garry, an author I like a lot, an author who, to put it briefly, is the only writer to have received the Prix Goncourt twice, because for one of the two novels, he used a penname, Emile Ajar. Me, my main interest is a literary movement called "Oulipo", which stands for " Ouvroir Littérature Potentiel" [(in English : "Workroom of Potential Literature")], founded by Raymond Queneau and François le Lionnais. Oulipo, to be brief, is literature without constraint. And the author I like apart from Queneau, is Georges Perec. Whenever I have books by him, I eagerly recommend them to my visitors. I also really like Boris Vian, and, of course, a number of foreign authors, like Beckett, who I’m especially fond of.

Chicline : I thank you for your time, Claude, and invite our readers, to come visit you soon on the Quai des Grands Augustins !