Originally Published in Print April 2022, at time of Chapters’ closure.
Art by Emily Stevenson
When I was younger and had an opportunity to go into Dublin for the day, it was rare for me to pass by Parnell Street, home to Chapters, Ireland’s best independent book shop, without stepping inside. Inside these doors you would be greeted by a two-floored multicoloured landscape of literature. If you named any book, Chapter’s most definitely had it somewhere within their shelves.
You would find your bestsellers at the front of the shop, with the children’s books hidden in the back, but the best part about one of my favourite places in Dublin was the second-hand section upstairs accompanied by a cosy seating area. There is something so satisfying about seeing a book you have wanted for ages being sold for only a few euros. I would regularly come out of there with a pile of books about half of my height, much to the demise of my bank balance. Who needs to go to the gym to lift weights when you can walk across Dublin carrying a book lover’s fresh supply of books?
I remember I was holding a book pile so large, I had to put some books back as I could barely carry them all. As I was putting some of these books back on the shelves, a customer came up to me and assumed that I worked there. I said to him that I did not actually work there but I wished I did. Even as it is closing its doors for good, I still wished I worked there.
The day before the announcement was made that they were closing shop in the new year, I had visited just for a quick browse before my lectures. There are little pros to commuting to college, but one of the few perks was that my bus stop was a five minute walk from Chapters, the perfect place to walk around if I needed to kill time. I had no idea that in 24 hours time my literary world would change forever. That week was the first time I felt truly heartbroken.
Like many local businesses during the pandemic, they struggled, while Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos was adding more and more money to his billionaire mountain, even having songs named after him. After 39 years in business, Covid-19 was Chapters’ downfall.
I regularly visited Chapter’s after this announcement and made the most of the time I had left between the shelves. The weekend the announcement was made we had to queue up to access entry to buy books the way we had to queue up outside Tesco for food in the early days of the pandemic. People were carrying baskets, and, like I did when I was younger, piles of books in their hands, as if these words were these people’s precious lifelines of survival.
It was like the Hunger Games at one point, if you put a book down deciding not to buy it, you were never going to see that book again. Tough luck if you changed your mind about a book, someone had already taken it at that stage. People wanted to get as many books from their favourite book shop as possible. It also helped that all of the books were now half price. I have gotten some great bargains these last few months. If my bookshelf was not full before the closure announcement, it is definitely full now. Then again, in my opinion, you can never have too many books.
I was there on the last day, the last minute, the last time going through that looking glass. I managed to get inside within the last fifteen minutes of the shops closing for good and people were still browsing, looking around, refusing to leave twenty minutes after closing time. They played every ‘goodbye’ themed song in the background you can think of. I first thought I was hearing things when I started listening to ‘So long, Farewell’ from the Sound of Music. They also played some sad noughties love songs, and ironically as I walked towards the till and out the door … ‘Hit the Road Jack’ by Ray Charles. They really made sure the emotions were felt as people were walking through their doors for the last time. Rather poetically , one of the last books I bought from Chapter’s that day was called ‘The French Art of Letting Go’ and after finding it hard to accept the possibility of never entering one of my favourite places again, I am ready to let Chapters go.
When I was a teenager, I would go to different university open days in Dublin (including Trinity), with my family. We would always stop by Chapters and get lost in our shared favourite place. Things seem bittersweet now that I am a student here at Trinity and Chapters is reaching its last few pages. Chapters was my childhood, a significant part of my adolescence. It is behind some of the happiest memories I had as a teenager, particularly some of the happiest memories I have with my father. I will always remember this book shop fondly, and it will be difficult to find a worthy replacement. Dublin, to me, will no longer be the same without my favourite place.
