New English-language bookstore offers more than books

A year and a half ago, Dan Swartz opened Hungary's first "socially-conscious" secondhand English-language bookstore, serving fair-trade organic coffee and giving space for literary and activist events. It was a job well done; Treehugger Dan's Bookstore-Café has outgrown its britches. With around 10,000 books in total, there's not enough space in the Csengery street store to display them all - and boxes fill the attic and even more sit in the café doorway.

So like most successful ventures, Treehugger's is now expanding. Swartz has joined forces with the Yellow Zebra touring company and opened a second location in the front room of their Lázár utca outlet. Next Tuesday, November 20th marks the grand opening of Treehugger Dan's Bookstore-Lounge. The event runs from 6:00-8:00 p.m. and there will be mulled wine, music, books and a demonstration of the Segway personal transport devices that Yellow Zebra rents.

It took just a few conversations for Swartz and Ben Frieday, the owner of Yellow Zebra, to thrash out a deal, as they were both sure that bringing their businesses together would benefit their respective customers.

"My clients are usually English speaking, so I know that [Swartz and I] will really complement each other," says Frieday, who hails from Portland, OR, but has lived in Hungary for the past ten years.

All it took was a paint job, some homemade shelves, a couple of comfy couches and some arm-power: for the last two weeks Frieday, Swartz and friends have been hauling over the books that have transformed the front room of the bike shop into a library-like lounge that doubles as a traveler's information center.

"We bought comfortable things that were inexpensive because we know they'll get a lot of use," says Frieday, thumping his hand on the back of the new maroon sofa, "and we still need to paint them," he gestures to the four bright red stools at the counter.

"Everything else is in place," he says, there is an Internet café and Wi-Fi, and a host of bicycles and Segways available for rentals and tours.

Like its companion store, the lounge serves the fair-trade organic coffees and teas with organic milk. Swartz, who calls environmental activism his "day job," says he keeps his prices as low as possible, with drinks ranging from Ft 200 to Ft 350 (€0.75 - €1.20).

"I want these products accessible and normal and not viewed as a luxury," he says.

The books are priced reasonably as well. A second-hand novel costs between Ft 800 and 1,500 (€3 - €6), whereas a new book at an English bookstore in the city is approximately Ft 3,500 (€14). Much of Swartz's book stock comes from book buy-backs, which will continue at the Csengary street shop only. He pays Ft 300 (€1.20) for a novel in good condition, and more for non-fiction books and guides.

The new lounge will be one of ten stores in Budapest that sells English language books. Frieday chuckles at this competition.

"You'll see like seven Da Vinci Code's on the shelf at one store, and none at another, and you wonder why they don't switch things around a little," he says.

But even with seven of Dan Brown's finest filling up the shelves in the lounge, the newest entrant in the local English-language book market is unique, being the only place in Budapest you can rent a bicycle year-round. However, Frieday admits that a hot cup of coffee and a sizzling novel may trump this feature, at least for the next few months.

"It's winter now, I understand," he says.

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