Since October, observers have been following the Un país para leerlo route with steady interest, guided by the poet Mario Obrero. They’ve watched bookstores across the country, and every week two writers with ties to that land sit down to discuss the program’s direction. The project travels from city to city, turning shelves into stages and bookish conversations into small social happenings that ripple through communities.
The format is simple but effective: each installment centers on a provincial capital, without giving special preference to any autonomous community, accent, or regional language. Mario Obrero handles the variety with ease, showing a rare talent for weaving together diverse linguistic textures into a single, coherent narrative. By chapter 34, the journey arrives unexpectedly in Elche, a moment that feels almost cinematic in its ease and spontaneity. The chosen bookstore for this stop is Ali i Truc, a longtime cultural landmark founded in 1977. Guest writers for the occasion are Vicente Molina Foix and Alicia García Núñez, whose perspectives enrich the dialogue and broaden the scope of the readings.
What stands out at this point is how Alicante, despite its absence from earlier installments, becomes a quiet but persistent presence in a cycle that has already produced 34 chapters and could extend well beyond it. The arc unfolds with a confidence that suggests a plan, yet it maintains the flexibility to highlight each locale in its own right, letting communities shape the conversation rather than the other way around.
The narrative around a Seville bookstore’s playful sign has added a layer of viral charm to the tour. The sign, which reads an affectionate playful prompt, became a talking point far beyond the shelves it graced. Readers and visitors alike paused to consider the moment: a reminder that literature can spark delight in everyday spaces, turning a routine visit into a shared, memory-making experience. This moment also underscores how the route blends cultural exploration with a sense of humor, inviting readers to see bookstores not just as shops but as living rooms for ideas and encounters.
To round out the Elche visit, a stop at Monóvar offered a chance to explore the House Museum where José Martín Ruiz Azorín was born. The participation of José Ferrándiz Lozano provided a thoughtful outline of the city’s literary geography and how local history threads into contemporary reading life. The exchange between these voices anchored the visit in a broader tradition of cultural memory, inviting readers to reflect on the spaces where literature takes root and how those spaces inform present-day conversations.
There was a certain nostalgia in recalling a previous episode where Página 2 had passed through Murcia. During that stop, Mariano Sánchez Soler was invited to sit for an interview with Óscar López about a new book—a moment that highlighted how these road trips stitch together personal histories with ongoing literary work. For some, such anecdotes might seem trivial, but for others they carry weight as markers of a living, evolving project. They serve as proof that the route is less about delivering a fixed itinerary and more about inviting communities to participate in a shared literary journey that evolves with every stop.
Across these installments, the project shows a knack for building a sense of place. The travelogue becomes a braid of conversations, regional flavors, and the tactile experience of paper and ink. Readers are drawn in not merely by the authors involved but by the simple act of gathering in bookstores—spaces that have always served as social hubs where ideas are weighed and recommitted to memory. The Elche episode, with its host store and guest writers, demonstrates how a curated route can resonate on multiple levels: culturally, socially, and emotionally. It invites people to imagine their own towns as potential stops, encouraging a broader, more inclusive view of what a national reading culture can look like in practice.
Note on attribution: the following reflections are drawn from contemporaneous reports and the collective experience of participants along the route. They are presented here as a synthesis of observed moments and conversations that capture the spirit of the project.