“When I graduated from high school, I took over the bookstore. At that time, bookkeeping was an underappreciated field. It was seen as so worthless that it was possible to see this worthlessness in the places given to the bookstores. Bookstores were usually underground, in damp, dark places, and on the lowest floors of passages. We were 13 neighbors in the bookstore market at that time. It was such a stuffy environment that I remember we would go out to the street 5 times a day and get some air. Maybe because we couldn't read, because we didn't have a pencil, eraser, opener, notebook, or even a book, we wanted all children to have pencils, erasers, books and notebooks. We have been worried about this in our life. We have struggled with this poverty, and we continue to do so. Our neighbors handed over their bookstore and we expanded it from 16 square meters to 100 square meters. As a family, we worried that a whole city would come to the bookstore, that everyone could touch the book and inhale the smell of the book. As I said, we struggled a lot and in 2000, we said that the most beautiful place in the city should be the bookstore, and people should meet at the bookstores, we went from the dark lower floors of the passages to the bright and spacious street and opened a three-floor place. For the first time in Bursa, a cafe and a book are together.”
Kutbettin Bingölbali has radically changed the old understanding of bookstores with its spacious, wide and bright spaces. Stating that everything is possible with a book, Mr. Bingölbali stated that he has turned bookstores into places for the new generation with various concepts, styles and ideas. He said that the Z generation lives together with social media today, so they enriched their menus in the light of these experiences they gained in BKM bookstores and turned the bookstore into cultural spaces. He also emphasized that the meaning of the books hung from the ceiling in the BKM bookstore is “the book is the crown of our head”.
Kutbettin Bingölbali pointed out that bookstores are not just a business. He described this situation in his own words:
“I think bookstores are places where people ask about each other's well-being, talk and meet, and that's how it should be. In fact, at this point, the place we call the bookstore is a kind of spiritual pharmacy. Until the evening, our customers come here and say to us, 'I have a problem with my wife, family and friends. I have this shortcoming. What should I do? What should I do?' Just as people go to the pharmacy and look for a medicine that will help their disease, they also come to the bookstore and look for a medicine to heal their soul. As a matter of fact, this (our bookstore) is a bookstore that satisfies both the stomach and the soul. Here we are witnessing how a book, preface, proverb, sentence, paragraph changes a child's life, guides him from darkness to light, and this change of path.”
The interview was followed by a question-and-answer session. In addition, Toli Games, the sponsor of the interview, gave coupons to everyone who attended, and the first four people who asked questions won gifts.
We would like to thank Kutbettin Bingölbali, Lecturer Şeyda Toprak and all our guests.
