House Voices: Catarina Costa
With two years under her belt, Catarina Costa is a bookseller, multitasker and owner of a genuine enthusiasm that infects those around her. She talks about books as if she were telling secrets, compares Frankenstein to human relationships, and declares her eternal love for Twilight... and Post Malone. An interview where humour, emotion and literature mix like in one of those novels she likes: with good twists, intensity and a happy ending.
LL: Is there any memory from your childhood that you think already pointed you towards the world of books?
CC: I've always loved reading, ever since I was little. My mother gave me pocket money and sometimes I didn't even have lunch at school so I could buy books. It started with Twilight, which is the best saga ever, forget Sarah J. Maas! Then I read Margarida Rebelo Pinto, for example, who isn't talked about so much today, but at the time was an icon. Her books were hardcover, with fabric that you closed with a ribbon, it was very aesthetic.
LL: How did Livraria Lello become part of your story?
CC: I have known Livraria Lello for many years. When I was little, I used to come here often. I worked in a field that had nothing to do with books – even though I also liked them very much – and I was looking for a new job because I worked many nights.
When I went to university, I studied tourism and didn't like it. Then I enrolled at FLUP, in Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and at the time I was finishing my degree, but I loved books and learning about books so much that I applied to Livraria Lello. I've always loved reading, so I combined business with pleasure and stayed here.
LL: What has been the most special moment you've experienced at LL so far?
CC: I have many. At the bookshop, we have a very strong bond between us all, partly because of the experiences we share and partly because I spend more time with my colleagues than with my own family. But the moment that stood out most for me was on one of my first days: a lady came in crying. Literally crying. For us it's commonplace, isn't it? We have the sea, for example, but there are people who have never seen the sea. The bookshop is like that. There are people who come to Porto specifically to visit us and when they come in they start crying - mainly people from Asia, because they don't have the same aesthetic as us, or from the United States. If you go there early in the morning, at 9 a.m., all you hear is ‘Wow, wow’. There was also a couple, who loved the bookshop, who came from Brazil especially, and he took advantage of the visit to ask her to marry him. I started crying, I was so moved. I think it was a really beautiful moment. Would I want to be proposed to here? No. But I thought it was really cute.
LL: In your daily life as a bookseller, what can't you do without?
CC: Humour. Because I think humour and books always go hand in hand. Good humour and a good mood are what make the day go smoothly.
LL: Romances, dramas, literary scandals: what attracts you most in a good story?
CC: Romances. I still really like reading Young Adult, OK? Don't judge me. Twisted Love, ACOTAR, Maxton Hall. I really like those stories where they don't like each other and then fall in love. But I also really like classics. I really like Charlotte Brontë, for example. But romance, without a doubt, is what makes me dream. I don't like dramas because life is enough to make you cry, isn't it? I'm not a big fan of horror either. We have colleagues who love Stephen King and I like him too, but I'm very eclectic when it comes to literature. Right now I'm reading Off-Campus - read it, it's amazing.
LL: If you could have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be?
CC: The person has nothing to do with books. It's Post Malone. He's amazing, not just for his lyrics. I've seen him live loads of times and I'm obsessed with him, to a slightly unhealthy degree. I think music and literature go hand in hand. We have songs that mark our lives, like poetry, like everything else. And the way he writes his songs, how profound he is, that enchants me.
LL: What book has had the biggest impact on you?
CC: Frankenstein. The first Frankenstein was published anonymously, with a preface written by Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley's husband. This led many people to believe that the author was Percy Shelley, and it was only years later, in subsequent editions, that Mary Shelley's name appeared on the cover. This story alone draws us in and leads us to the theme of how women have always been oppressed by society. Today, I think we still are, in certain ways.
This book struck a chord with me because we have a character who builds a man up and then abandons him. And I think that's life. Sometimes we have people in our lives who leave a mark on us and then, overnight, abandon us. Sometimes life pulls us apart, or even we do it without meaning to. We leave a mark on people. And sometimes we don't realise how much. And I think this work shows a little bit of that philosophical side: the marks we leave on people.
Everyone interprets literature as they wish. This is my interpretation of Frankenstein. That's why I really like it. I love Twilight too, but that has to do with the phase I was in when I read Twilight: that happy phase when we were young, Edward, Jacob — it was crazy. But my favourite is definitely Frankenstein. It's really cool. And it's a quick read because it's very easy.
LL: If your life were a book, what would the title be?
CC: Chaos. My life is constant chaos. Because I am a person—I don't know if you can tell—who is always thinking about a lot of things. I am very fast-paced and very lively at the same time. So I think if my life were a book, it would definitely be something like Chaos.