For Mark Anthony Vella, owner of Wise Owl Bookshop, 2020 was a rough year. His company, which started the year with five branches finished it with two, closing branches in Swieqi, Qawra, and to the disappointment of loyal customers, a flagship Rabat branch.

In comments to WhosWho.mt, he remarks that “while coronavirus may have given these three shops the final blow, it is the people’s choice of engrossing the internet giants rather than visiting their local bookshop that plays the crucial role”.

Bookshops in Malta and elsewhere have naturally suffered during the boom of e-commerce, best illustrated by the enormous growth of Amazon from an online bookshop to a commercial giant which in August achieved a valuation of $1.7 trillion (€1.39 trillion).

Book shops have been forced to reduce prices drastically to compete, leaving them in a vulnerable position and facing increased pressure, like that brought about by Brexit, which has added an import fee to the vast majority of English language books that Wise Owl imports from the UK.

Mr Vella comments that whilst the industry’s online competition constituted of “extremely witty businessmen” who will largely be able to avoid the impact of added import fees, in the case of Wise Owl, he will be forced to absorb these costs to keep prices low for his clients.

Despite coronavirus, Wise Owl Bookshop keeps adapting. To facilitate a better mail-order service, they have enlarged their Hamrun bookshop, which is located in a Maltese stately house. According to Mr Vella, its previous inhabitant was a baroness, now every floor is full of books.

For people like Mr Vella, business is more than business, it is fundamentally personal. He is not driven by profit, but by a desire to find books their loving home. For his clients, many of whom reacted with devastation to news of his Rabat branch closing, his offering is joy.

In a strongly worded message, Mr Vella concludes by calling for the public to turn to their local sellers, a message that has been echoed by local retailers across the island in 2020: "The very existence of Malta’s last remaining bookshops depends on you. Stop making the internet giants richer... your local family run bookshop and wonderful staff, their families and livelihood all depend on your occasional visit".