To read a book is to live a life: UCP Bookshop celebrates 30 years

"Books make us better people, because the world enters our home through fiction, through the stories we read, through poetry, through drama. From stories that touch us, that are close or that are distant, but that are unique life experiences. To read a book is to live a life."

With these words, the Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Isabel Capeloa Gil, addressed all those who, on November 30, were present at the ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the UCP Bookshop.

The event, which took place during the month in which the Bookshop and Bookseller's Days were celebrated, was held at the UCP headquarters in Lisbon, and in addition to the Rector of the UCP, it was attended by Vice-Rectors Peter Hanenberg and José Pereira de Almeida, and the Administrator of the UCP, Helena Brissos de Almeida.

After a performance by the musical group Fado Novo, the Rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa highlighted the growth that the UCP Bookshop has undergone over these 30 years, recalling the contribution of the various Rectories along the way and the role of the "bookshop as a space for gathering the knowledge cultivated at the university", but also of fiction, "which teaches us how to read the world".

Throughout the month of November, the UCP Bookshop marked its 30th anniversary with various activities, such as offering a voucher to the 30 best customers ever and to the 30 first customers from the day the celebrations began.

To mark the date, there was also the event "A chat about Dante" with Teresa Bartolomei and Jorge Vaz de Carvalho and a tribute was paid to children's books and their illustrators, through a partnership with Planeta Tangerina that resulted in an exhibition of serigraphs by Bernardo Carvalho, Yara Kono and Madalena Matoso, which will be on sale until the end of the year.