Our selection box mini series on independent Irish booksellers continues today with a visit to Antonia's bookstore in Trim, County Meath. If you're tuning in for the first time, this mini series has been put together to shine a light on some of the booksellers who are taking on the big chains and Amazon to remind us that if we don't support local business,

it will go away. We've all stumbled into an independent bookstore at some time or another

and thought, oh wow, I wish there was more shops like this. And then absentmindedly bought books

from Amazon or other places late at night when the local bookstore experience

was right there waiting for you. The thing I'm learning across this series is the power

of that seemingly small decision and how it can reverberate. And the small store experience

has come on leaps and bounds, it's fair to say. Antonia Daly isn't just the

owner and manager of Antonio's bookstore. She's also the winner of the prestigious Irish

Bookseller of the Year award. Antonia, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thanks, Charlotte, for having me on. Let me ask you this question before we get straight into

your own backstory and how the shop came to be.

Do you think indie bookstores are now taking on Amazon and winning?

Or is that just a battle that can't be won?

Oh, I think it actually is starting to happen more and more now. Indie bookshops, it has become a thing, you know, like independent record stores did. It became a thing over the last few years and even before COVID and probably during the recession, it started to become a thing to support your local independent shops in general.

But independent bookshops, because they are so community-based and you get to know

entire families and you get to know their kids and their extended families and their own

stories, that I think people view independent bookshops as part of their family.

And so this movement definitely started. And I think part of it originally was us against, you know, Amazon or

whoever else, you know, the big guys. But I don't think it really is anymore. I think independent

bookshops are now their own entity. And rather than, say, just Antonio's bookstore or just one other independent bookshops are now their own entity and rather than say just Antonio's bookstore or just

one other independent bookshop we're a group so we're now that one big entity ourselves.

Yeah and I guess it reflects the move away from Starbucks, Costa and that kind of a chain coffee store and how, you know, life is about

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