The Old Homeless bookstore found a new home in Pagrati

At the end of January and on the occasion of some news, which had made the rounds on social media, about the precarious continuation of the course of the Homeless Old Bookstore, we spoke on in.gr with the initiator of the idea, Mr. Leonidas Koursoumis.

We are three days before we announce our new space” he had told us then, after the disturbance that arose with a series of posts on social media, which predicted the disaster, wanting, of course, to prevent it.

As he and the employees of the Secondhand Bookstore have proven, after all, they know how to overcome obstacles no matter how difficult they are.

Anestios’ new space in Pagrati / Photo: Facebook

Today, a series of posts on Facebook, both on the personal page of Mr. Koursoumi and on the page of the Paleobliopoleiou, announce the new space, which is located in Pagrati, at number 11 Astydamantos street, in the beautiful Messolonghi square.

“We are, therefore, in a discussion of a new space. Everything that has been done until today, I say and mean it, has been done because we chased it. No one came to support us, it’s possible that we didn’t seek it either – we have, of course, made some very specific moves, but we never got any response, neither positive nor negative” he told us then and continued:

“Two or three discussions, in other words, that we had with municipalities outside the Attica basin.

“What matters is that we generate revenue. How are we going to cover the expenses, the daily wages of the people who work here and the fixed assets of Gravias Street – ok, here in Piraeus it is a concession…

“The four children who work here are under the roof of AMKE, the Urban Non-Profit Company” he adds. “They’re very happy here, this team is very close at the moment,” he says, explaining that “in the past they’ve worked with guys who didn’t have much of a relationship with the book, so they’ve sought their luck in other jobs.

Mr. Leonidas Koursoumis

“So we are making an effort to find a new place to be able to solve two practical issues. First let’s take the books there and register them. And there is the possibility to record them because the students from the Department of Library Science of the Western University of Attica will come doing their master’s degrees and their internships – and the books will be recorded” he explains to me to suddenly move to the bigger picture, leaving the procedural behind.

“We essentially relied on the boundless love, on what I say and will say again, on the river of love of the people who bring us books. That’s all. We initially had an idea, we tried to implement it, from then on we had the love of the world. It’s incredible what has happened.”

Anestios’ new space in Pagrati / Photo: Facebook