« Willy Hahn – Aïcha et les 40 lecteurs – Scènes d’une vie de libraire » notices de lecture, voyages et souvenirs d’un habitué de la librairie « à Livre ouvert » à Wissembourg

This reading note is devoted to the independent bookshop "À livre ouvert" of Willy Hahn in Wissembourg, discovered by the author on 7 March 2014 during a practical course in geobotany and terrestrial ecology on "Wissembourg and the landscapes of the Outre-Forêt". It reviews the book Aïcha et les 40 lecteurs. Scènes d'une vie de libraire (bought on 25.03.2022), in which Willy Hahn — a former organ builder turned bookseller and writer — describes his life as a bookseller in Wissembourg. The author compares his own daily commute between Grünstadt and Karlsruhe with the journeys Hahn makes between Marlenheim and Wissembourg at the northern end of the Alsace Wine Route; he follows the "continuation" of the book on Facebook ("Les carnets d'Aïcha") and recommends several scenes — true literary "Kabinettstückchen" — as reading material for French classes in Germany. The chapter "Aïcha, soi fière de ton père" reminds the author of his grandfather's dream of a fairer France built on educational success, books and reading. The note also evokes the Flore d'Alsace d'après Issler, Loyson, Walter (bought in Strasbourg around 1993), now a bibliophile rarity, and the dream — never realised — of retracing the landscape history of Waldersbach and the Ban de la Roche from the writings of pastor Jean-Frédéric Oberlin, whose traces remain visible in the landscape today (the linden avenue known as the "allée des fiancés"). ... mehrFinally, the author reflects on the book's last chapter, in which Hahn anticipates the possible death of his bookshop, and on his own childhood memories: the Klaus Simon bookshop-stationery in Schramberg-Sulgen, the Fetsch press house in Lauterbourg, the Adamus bookshop in Leucate, the discovery of comics (Spirou, Tintin, Astérix, Lucky Luke) at his uncle Jean-Pierre's in Strasbourg, and his first purchase at Willy Hahn's — Philippe Sollers's Medium.