The book about the chaotic Barça universe by the members of the most listened to independent podcast in Catalan manages to be the best-selling non-fiction work in this language
A couple of things always appeared in the previews of this Sant Jordi as conditions for the party (without looking at the sky). The first: that it fell on a Sunday. The second: that Barça was playing at the Camp Nou against Atlético de Madrid at 4:15 p.m. At that time the members of La Sotana, authors of the sharp book on the chaotic Barça universe called -without any type of rigor- ‘Gran Enciclopèdia del Barça’ (Blackie Books), had signatures scheduled in a couple of stands in Barcelona. On Friday, the writer asked one of them: how do you plan to follow the game? “The truth is that we hadn’t thought about it. What time do you play?”
With a carefree pose and witty and irreverent humor, they have made La Sotana the most listened to independent podcast in the Catalan language.a, a space in which Barça is the center of everything but at the same time an excuse to also talk about many other things. Until today, the social and media phenomenon could be felt at parties and live programs, but Sant Jordi and the recent publication of ‘Gran Enciclopèdia del Barça’ -debut of all of them as writers- has allowed the ‘sotanera’ fever to be verified in the heated queues of followers. So much so that Joel Díaz, one of the five members of La Sotana, was surprised when he put on the thermometer at the end of the day.
“Having contact with people we don’t know at all, a priori, was not attractive to us and, in the end, it has ended up being a very beautiful thing. You see that people love you a lot and that’s cool,” commented a diminished Díaz at the end of the ‘diada’ when the effect of the first shot of paracetamol had passed by. “What we will not do is complain. On top of that people spend 30 euros on a fucking book of five drunkards!” He added, grateful.
A goal
That is said after Barça beat Atlético (1-0), a game played in their last signing period (from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.). “We have noticed quite a decline [de firmas] at game time. We have personally congratulated those responsible for scheduling this for us while Barça was playing”, explains Díaz, who has been a partner throughout the day with Magí Garcia while Andreu Juanola, Enric Gusó and Manel Vidal (the rest of the ‘basement’ team) have signed parallel at other points. Even some of the followers of La Sotana came close to two positions to complete the fifth of dedications.
Well, back to the party and the matching signatures. “We have followed him as we could on the radio and mobile phone… A guy came to me and he told me that he has scored for Barça, Ferran Torres [como así ha sido]. I, evidently, have not believed it,” Díaz is sincere.
A title
In the morning the Garcia-Díaz couple could not cope. “This ‘sotanera’ community is a sociologically precious thing. Grandparents, parents and children have come… Three generations of ‘sotaneros’. People from all sides and all with the same motto, which is ‘puta Espanya'”, revealed Díaz . The queue at the Abacus stand on Paseo de Gràcia with Calle Diputació has had to close early due to excess of people. Magí Garcia, asked about his first sensations while he was stamping the umpteenth ‘Puta Espanya’ in a book -that’s what the people asked him to do- said: “Tell me a topic, I don’t have time to think about it”. Next to him, standing, signing -and hugging- was the journalist Carles Porta dedicating ¿with blood? the book ‘Crims: pecats capitals’ (The Bell).
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Coincidences of fate, La Sotana and Carles Porta arrived at Sant Jordi in a particular face-to-face: everything indicated that one of the two would be the best-selling non-fiction book in Catalan. Finally, it has been that of La Sotana, something that the queues and the rate of sale made us foresee. In the early afternoon there were no copies of the ‘Gran Enciclopèdia del Barça’ left in the Casa del Llibre or in the FNAC El Triangle.
A little later, the publisher Blackie Books pointed out to this newspaper that they had already exhausted the stocks of the Barcelona book everywhere. That’s the entire first edition. Let’s put numbers to the thing: concretely, Today they have sold some 10,000 copies, which have been added to the 5,000 already dispatched in the month or so that it has been in bookstores. The printing press is up and running again, they announce from Blackie Books.