Metropolitan a book haven in modern times

STEP inside the Capital Plaza mall in Port of Spain, and you can’t miss Metropolitan Book Suppliers, a small bookstore which has made an indelible mark on the local book scene.

In July, Metropolitan celebrated its 45th anniversary, a huge milestone for an industry that struggles to keep afloat in this country, where government taxes on books and shipping costs make staying in business difficult. Then there is the competition from the internet and electronic books available at the push of the button.

“It’s all a challenge, but I am seeing books make a comeback,” says Brett Cassim, who runs the bookstore his father Terry Cassim founded. For a time, Metropolitan was a family business, with Brett’s brother Marc also involved.

Metropolitan quickly established a reputation for being an eclectic bookstore that featured popular and offbeat Caribbean and international books.

“One of my dad’s friends, Kelvin Van Hasselt, a publishing representative from England, called Metropolitan ‘a haven for book lovers,’” says Cassim.

For the last 30 years, Metropolitan has been in Capital Plaza, formerly Colsort Mall. Today’s ground-floor store, which used to be upstairs, is a much smaller version of the original.

“We have downsized considerably,” says Cassim. “People were reading less, and with the internet and Kindle books coming on the scene,

“But I am seeing people coming back to paper books,” he smiles. “We have people who say they like the feel of a book. They come in, pick up a book and actually smell it. It’s a cycle, and they’re coming back around to books.”

Religious books, children’s books and West Indian history are popular sells these days. Adults gravitate towards poetry, fiction and Caribbean books. African and Indian history grab people’s attention along with motivational books by people like Joel Osteen.

“Bibles are always a bestseller,” says Cassim. His top-selling books, he says are the Naps; Girls’ cookbook, the Bible and, I am delighted to note, my own Wishing for Wings.

“Classics are making a comeback too,” he says. “Children are reading books like Treasure Island.”

But in other ways, children’s reading choices have changed.

“They want more suspense books, and they want books that have spinoffs on television, like The Avengers. They like the new Young Adult (YA) books. Even adults like reading YA books that often tell them a lot about the world of teenagers.”

Adults, says Cassim, are asking for books like The Art of War. They’re into autobiographies: Churchill, Stalin and Stokely Carmichael. Black Power books are in, but people are moving away from books like the Autobiography of

Malcolm X. They want to discover other people in the Civil Rights and the Black Power movement and the Trinidad connection to the movement.”

Cassim has been involved in the bookstore since 1991. He remembers his father picking him up from Trinity Junior Primary school and bringing him to the store until it closed at 4.30 pm. He remembers all the visitors who came to the store, where Diane Eckles, described by Cassim as “a human computer,” greeted customers and guided them towards their next read.

“She became a pillar of the store. She knew all the publishers, all the authors, all their books.” Eckles retired in 2017 and died in 2018.

Cassim credits the annual Bocas Lit Fest for reviving interest in books and he’s planning to harness that renewed interest by marketing Caribbean books up the islands.

He is moving with the times and stocking more Spanish-language books – even one for police officers – because of the arrival of Venezuelan migrants.

One by one, people wander into the store as Cassim talks about his plans.

“Some people pass through the mall and stop; others come looking for a book – often a book they read long ago and they want to replace,” he says.

“Tourists, workers browsing at lunch, ambassadors and embassy workers, religious people pass through, have always passed through.”

This used to be the place in Port of Spain where you could see publisher Ian Randle of Jamaica, or the late controversial radio host and the late former MP and cabinet minister Dr Morgan Job.

“He’d guide young people on what to read,” says Cassim.

“At one time, you could hear browsers strike up a conversation about a book or a topic – just like they used to in Woodford Square. This place has its uniqueness.”

Cassim holds up Think and Grow Rich and The Richest Man in Babylon.

“Here are two popular books,”

Metropolitan is still a blend of quirky selections from the past like Evan Jones’s hilarious Jamaican novel Alonso and the Drug Baron, one of the last novels published by Macmillan Caribbean; stalwarts like the Birds of the West Indies by Herbert Raffaele; and newer releases like Beryl McBurnie, Judy Raymond’s University of the West Indies Press-published biography of the queen of regional folk dance. McBurnie helped resurrect an authentic TT as it moved towards independence, representing the spirit of a nation still struggling with its cultural voice.

The same could be said of Metropolitan, which perseveres in an industry under serious threat from modern technology.