S1 Ep. 8: Pil Cappelen Smith, Cappelens Forslag (Oslo, Norway)

When you walk inside Cappelens Forslag, you are reminded that strong essences are kept in small bottles. This Oslo bookshop is dressed up in leather and wood and sells, in the words of its owners, interesting books; new, second hand or antiquarian titles, mainly in English and Norwegian. No bestsellers, chick lit, crime nor self-help make the cut, unless extremely well written, out there weird, contrarian or from a different epoch. Cappelens Forslag publishes its own book as well, the Conversational Lexicon, an exquisitely crafted encyclopedia ‘freed from factual accuracy’ that won the Gold Prize in the annual competition The Year’s Most Beautiful Books. Owners Pil Cappelen Smith and Andreas Cappelen have been friends since they were twelve and together, have created a space much beloved and championed by the local community. They travel the world with empty suitcases to get books for Cappelens Forslag and come back with film-worthy stories. The bookshop has seen both weddings and fistfights and runs a Death Café, where people gather once a month to talk about death. We are very thankful to have Pil with us today to tell us all about this magical place. Books recommended by Pil: Cappelens Forslags Conversational Lexicon We by Yevgeny Zamyatin Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami  Woolgathering by Patti Smith  The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe