One of Boston's oldest neighborhoods, the North End, began attracting Italian immigrants in the late 19th century and eventually became known as Little Italy. Today, you'll find I AM Books among its iconic restaurants, bakeries, and specialty food shops.
Opened in 2015 by former Italian journalist Nicola Orichuia, originally from Rome, the store is known for its exclusive selection of literature by Italian and Italian-American authors and books related to Italy or Italian-American culture.
I spoke with Nicola about how the store started, his curation methods, emerging trends, ways he collaborates with authors and organizations, business challenges, and what he hopes to share.
How and why did you decide to open I AM Books?
I moved to the U.S. in 2008. I was a journalist before, and then I stumbled into this world of books. I have been a reader since I was a kid, but I had never thought about opening a bookstore until a space opened up in the North End, which is basically Boston's Little Italy.
I wanted to do something culturally relevant at the time. It was 2015, and opening a bookstore felt like the only economically viable way to do something culturally relevant in the realm of doing something Italian.
I had been working for an Italian-American publication for a long time and had started my own. I was very drawn to the world of what it meant to be Italian-American.
I wanted to bridge that divide I often saw between those who perceive themselves as Italians and those who perceive themselves as American Italians. And I always thought there was much more in common than people would see or talk about.
The bookstore was established at the end of 2015, and we were in one location for five years. COVID came, and we closed the original location. This was a blessing in disguise because several months later, we found a much bigger space with much better traffic, still in the same neighborhood. We wouldn't be able to be in any other neighborhood. It would not make any sense.
We're still carrying forth this mission of promoting Italian and Italian-American literature, mostly in English, but we also have books in Italian.
Sometimes, people think we're an Italian bookstore. We're not an Italian bookstore. I like to say we are an Italian-American bookstore.
I Am Books' inventory includes The Last Letter from Sicily.
How do you curate your inventory?
There are usually a few rules of thumb. Anything written by an Italian author and translated into English will find its way to our bookstore. We usually try to have anything written by an Italian-American author. And most books that are either set in Italy or have something to do with Italian-American culture.
For example, our travel section basically only includes travel books on Italy. Our art section mostly deals with books on Italian art, but we have, for example, an entire section dedicated to Italian-American cultural studies. Some of these may be more academic. We have a huge portion of cookbooks, Italian cookbooks, and a growing section of Italian-American cookbooks.
We also have to keep an eye on the book market's demand, so we're very careful about that. We try to be a place that can be a home for book lovers.
What trends are you seeing in Italian-American literature?
There's definitely more investment in translation. I think the phenomenon of Elena Ferrante and the My Brilliant Friend books has really sort of opened the gates to more Italian contemporary literature, as well as the rediscovery of authors of the past who have been retranslated.
Other trends are tied more to the general book market. There's a lot of historical fiction. There's also a lot of romance, although we tend not to have a lot of romance in our store. There's a big category called Romantasy now, which is a mix of fantasy and romance that is very popular.
We try to have just the titles that everyone wants. We are big on fiction and classics. People still gravitate to classics and evergreen titles.
How do you collaborate with authors and organizations?
We have ties to many cultural organizations. For example, we offer discounts to members of the Dante Alighieri Society. They have members all across the country and the world.
We have special discounts and promotions with book clubs. Again, these could be book clubs anywhere in the country.
We try to do our best with authors, such as authors who self-publish. However, it's not always easy because we sometimes have to turn down self-published authors—not because of the quality of the work. It's just because space is limited, and sometimes it's very hard to give them the right visibility.
I always try to guide self-published authors to find a way to get their books published. It will also help them get publicity and get the book out there.
What challenges do you face?
Everyone in business has many challenges. With a bookstore, you always have to be aware of what you sell, what is coming out, and what people want.
The challenge I had at first, which I've overcome after 10 years, is that you have to be patient and figure things out, which takes time. I think when you are a new business, you try to do too many things. For example, when we started, we would do a lot of events—multiple events a week—and after a while, that took a toll on the staff and the bookstore, too.
At one point, we reduced the number of events and became more selective about which ones we did. That ended up being beneficial for the bookstore because even our customers and the public were more engaged and would come out more. You have to make some sacrifices, but those sacrifices are actually for the benefit of what you're trying to do.
This year, we're celebrating our 10-year anniversary as a bookstore. I hope we can be here for the next 10 or 20 years and keep growing and establishing ourselves beyond our city limits.
We import books in Italian. That is a niche that we really know how to work with. We really know how to deal with publishers in Italy. And even though it's a smaller niche than, let's say, books in French, Spanish, or even Japanese, there's still demand.
We're trying to get our bookstore's name in libraries and schools across the country. We want to let those who might be teaching Italian or are interested in expanding a catalog of Italian titles know that we're here for them and that we can work together.
What do you hope to share?
What I really like about what we do is that we offer a space where the community feels welcome. And I know that's how they feel. They often walk away saying, "This is a nice bookstore."
We also try to offer an experience within the bookstore that leaves you with something. Our world now is very bland and homogenous.
I was on Instagram the other day, and someone was comparing what McDonald's looked like 50 years ago to what it looks like now. And 50 years ago, it was all colors, with paintings on the walls and colorful tables. And now McDonald's is this robotic experience where you walk in, there's a screen, and you don't even interact with a person. Everything is white and very ice-cold.
When people walk into a place where you have actually put in some thought and a little bit of creativity, they notice that—even if they don't buy anything. They've been inspired by something, be it the books that we carry or the types of shelves that we have (most of them are custom-made).
We should strive to do this and keep trying. I think bookstores can do the same. Creative people, like authors, want to leave something that sticks with the reader and inspires them. Hopefully, we can achieve this or at least transmit some inspiration to our community.
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