The Costa del Sol town with book clubs in English, Spanish, Finnish and French

One day Betty Watt walked through the doors of the library in Arroyo de la Miel, Benalmádena and that was the start of something completely new. She was a retired woman, settled on the Costa del Sol and passionate about reading. She needed the library and the library began to need her too. More books in English were coming in, all of them from donations, and it was important to have someone who knew the language, who knew authors and understood the interests of the British community to decide which books were worth keeping and cataloguing on the shelves.

That was the job Betty started doing as a volunteer and she did it for 20 years of her life, every day from Monday to Friday, where she was in charge of keeping the foreign book section alive with new books as they came in. Betty died more than a decade ago, but not before receiving the medal of honour for cultural merit from Benalmádena town hall. But before she died, she started something that others have continued on, maintaining the foreign book section of Benalmádena’s libraries, which continue to be key today.

“Normally they [volunteers] are older people, with free time. When the pandemic came, we had to close the libraries and they stopped coming, then there was fear. Now we are taking up that figure again, but it’s been difficult. Some volunteers have left us along the way and others also return to their countries of origin when they are very old,” said Maite Ortigosa, coordinator of the Benalmádena Library Network.

One of these volunteers came up with the idea of creating a reading club in English. The club called, Read On, was created in 2008. Then, in 2011, a French and Finnish book club were born in the same vein. Today, they are known as Cercle de Lecture et de L’Historie in French (Reading and history circle) and Minna Canth in Finnish. They always meet once a month. The English speakers meet on the first Tuesday of each month, the French speakers on the third Tuesday of each month, while the Finns meet on the third Wednesday.

“As far as we know, it is unusual for public libraries to have reading clubs in other languages, at least in the nearby municipalities on the coast,” Ortigosa said, who pointed out that all of the Benalmádena libraries “are alive” with many loyal attendees. It should be noted the neighbouring municipality, Fuengirola, is home to one of the largest colonies of Finnish people outside Finland.

Contrary to stereotypes, the Nordic members of this club are not only passionate about crime novels. They like to gather around classics and authors from their country’s literature, in all genres. This October their reading was Sinun tähtesi täällä, which translates as Your Star Here, written by Jenni Haukio, wife of the president of Finland.

In Spanish

And if the number in other languages is striking, so is the number of reading clubs in Spanish. Benalmádena currently has five linked to the Arroyo de la Miel library and three to the Manuel Altolaguirre library in Benalmádena Pueblo. Among them there is something for practically all types of interests. There is the club Zenobia Camprubí, which was started in 2009. In 2011, Encuentro con los clásicos was created, while one of the most recent is the comic book reading club Víctor Mora, which started in 2017. The Felipe Orlando club has been meeting on the first Wednesday of every month since 2015 to discuss contemporary novels of different genres.

Among the most successful is the club Aprende a leerte, created in 2020, coordinated by a psychologist and designed for people interested in self-help and personal development. This club has a group in the library of Arroyo de la Miel and another in Benalmádena Pueblo.

Also in the town is the Maestra Ayala club, named after a beloved and famous teacher from the municipality, which is the only one held in the morning. And the Concha Méndez club, which has been running since 2010.

“In Benalmádena people read a lot and also like to share this hobby,” said Ortigosa, who put the number of people who took part in one of the 11 reading clubs in the municipality at 632 last year.

“They are all driven by a passion for reading, there are more women than men, and except in the comics club, where there are more young people, they are from age 30 and upwards. Often they are people who come to the municipality and want to meet other people, integrate, build a community. People don’t come to a club just for literature, they also come to socialise and it’s true that great friendships are made,” Ortigosa pointed out.

This post was originally published on here