This is a documentary about a man and his books and about the special place he created - the most unique bookstore you probably have ever seen.
But most of all, this is a story about passion.
Scroll your way through and dive deep into a world full of paper and ink - the world of the Bookman!
Prologue
Before certain books, one wonders: who will read them? And before certain people one wonders: what will they read? And finally, books and people meet.
We do not know if these words of André Gide were ever read by The Bookman but what is clear is, that this spirit does live in him as well. Due to his love for books, the Bookman has been collecting them since 2010. Big, small, new, old, English, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, Italian literature. All of his discoveries rest in one of the most fascinating bookstores you can find, with the soul of a museum and a labyrinth at the same time. When visiting this bookstore, all Gide's doubts are resolved, because whoever you are and whatever you are looking for, the books and you will find each other. It is the place of Geir Hovind Frøysedal, also known as The Bookman.
Chapter 1. How it all began
The Bookman has loved reading books since he was a small boy. His passion for collecting books started when he was 10 years old. Most of all, he liked to read geographical atlases and because of this, he gained a great knowledge about the capitals of most of the countries.
Once he came to Volda, he started to read and collect a lot more books than he did before. When the collection became too big, he had to come up with an idea for a place where he could keep them all, because the apartment he owned was too small for such a big amount of volumes.
When you have books, you don’t need movies or anything else!
Once the process of searching for new books started, he knew he would have to create a place to store all these books. A place, that will later be called a phenomena. And that is how the bookstore was created.
Chapter 2. Story of the bookstore
The Bookman had to find some place to store all of his books, the number of which grew steadily. He then decided, he could as well make a living out of his passion and open a store to sell books.
As fate would have it, a former record store in Volda had to be closed and therefore was open for a new tenant. For Geir, this came just at the right time and he found the perfect place to start his business.
When he took over the place, he also bought most of the CDs and vinyl records that were left in the store for a cheap price. Unfortunately, the shop was almost empty and to exhibit all of his books, he first needed shelves...
The Bookman still has this old sketch of the building plan. He built almost all of the shelves by himself to store his collection, which was constantly growing. The journey had begun and the shelves were waiting to get filled with tons and tons of paper and ink. But how does The Bookman find all these books?
Chapter 3. Finding books
The process of finding books is like Christmas everyday.
It is the best thing to do!
Geir keeps searching for new titles everywhere, even in empty houses. A rare edition can be worth more than a brand new car!
His goal is to get more than one million books, which is quite hard, because there is one person in Norway that has more of them than him - over 1.1 million books. He wants to beat that. This is his motivation to keep the collection growing.
His family has supported him since the very beginning. But it is not so easy to collect such big amounts of publications from places he is picking them up. They are very heavy. Currently, there are more than 30 tons of books in the bookstore.
He manages to find most of the books by online search and phone calls. Once he bought 30 000 books with just one phone call in Oslo. At first, he didn’t realize that he would have to travel with his car more than once to get all of the books he bought. In the end, he had to travel 10 times to Oslo and back.
But he does not only collect Norwegian literature. The books he owns come from all over the world and are written in multiple languages, which also allows him to travel to foreign countries from time to time. His favorite journey so far was to Riga, the capital of Latvia.
When asked about what keeps him motivated to search for books, he answered:
I just have a passion for it. You never know what you will find. There are so many interesting books out there.
Where do the books come from?
Click on the pins on the map to see some examples of international books the Bookman sells in his store!
Chapter 4. Passion
The bookstore is Geir's only income. He won't make a fortune with it, that's for sure, since he buys more books every day than he sells. But he still couldn't imagine having another job.
I don't care what money I get. I care about books.
And the Bookman has collected an enormous amount of books. Right now, Geir owns 252 177 books, and it is not even the biggest amount he had! His record is 252 340.
Not only is his collection impressive, but also the number of titles he has read. Per year he reads about 2000 books - which means that he reads 5 to 6 per day! You need a passion for reading to achieve that - and a lot of time. The Bookman surely has both!
And his passion definitely seems to be contagious: Once you enter the store, you also get the hunger for reading and will discover books you may have never seen before and have never thought that you can have. It is almost impossible to leave the shop empty-handed.
When you open the doors to the bookshop, you will most likely find Geir with a book in one hand and a coffee in the other, listening to an old record of rock music in the background. The atmosphere in the store is what makes visiting this place such an unique experience.
Other than the books, the Bookman owns an impressive collection of vinyl records and can tell you a lot about music.
Besides reading, another passion of Geir is playing chess. He's very good at this game, so be careful if you dare to play with him!
The oldest book Geir owns is from 1762.
This book is not for sale in the store. The Bookman keeps special books like this one safe - in his apartment.
Chapter 5. The future
Whatever happens, happens.
The Bookstore is still growing. It may seem like it doesn't have limits, but it has. Geir has the goal of collecting more than 1.1 million books and he says he won’t stop until he'll achieve this goal. Will the bookstore remain the same? It is possible, that he will need a larger place at some point, if he gets more and more books to store.
The new home for the volumes that are about to come, must breathe the same air of love and dedication towards something. Previously, this store did not sell books. At the time, the shelves were filled with thousands and thousands of CDs with the same dedication and love for art that Geir has. Only, on that occasion, the passion for music. That passion of the former owner surely guided Geir in his own project. Wherever the Bookman decides to expand his collection, his love for literature will make him choose the right place where, hopefully, he will continue the legacy of someone that loved so much and so well, as him.
I won't stop. This is for a lifetime.
Explore the store!
Epilogue
And now only one thing remains to be said...
Come and visit the bookstore in real life!
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