Around the age of 12, Rosa Aoudia Tandjaoui opened the trunk in which her father had stored all his books, including My Childhood by Russian author Maxim Gorky. “I wasn’t just reading, I was the characters, I was living them,” she says. But it was only when she went to university to study for a master’s degree in economics that she realized she “wanted to spend her time reading.”

The idea of opening a bookstore was already gestating in her mind, but her modest savings hindered her goal. Never mind; she would earn her living in publishing, first with a printing house, then with Avenir Consult, which manages content for publishing house Editions Dunod, and finally with a website selling books before she was able to realize her dream. It’s been “fait accompli” since November 2003 with the opening of Librairie des Orgues in the heart of the 19th arrondissement (district) of Paris, in a neighbourhood with highly diverse communities that she hopes to attract by creating a space devoted to varied events. These programmes will not only involve “inviting authors but also focusing on the issues they address and that illustrate the questions raised by our readers.”

AGE : 34 I  PASSIONS : Middle Eastern literature, cooking and the art of entertaining.  I PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE: sharing. I  GOALS: to turn the Librairie des Orgues, located in one of the most working-class neighbourhoods of Paris, into a destination store where you bring your friends. I FAVOURITE BOOKSTORES: Folie d’Encre, Mille Pages, L’oeil Écoute and all the bookstores along boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris.