Today wraped up the latest edition of Bookfest, and a good one it was.
I missed the first day, having graduation festivities, the second one cause of traffic but could not avoid the third day, for my day kicked off with books, mainly with J. Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles being delivered in the mail, 6 days after ordering it online from the publishing house, for the price of 10 ron, postage included. So I couldn’t resist and took off for the book fair.
It turned out to be a good decision for there were not too many people and had time to look threw the many publishing houses exhibiting their stuff.
One of the first places that gave me a good impression was Carturesti, who’s brought only their foreign language,well actually only English , along side the notebooks and tea paraphernalia . I was looking for Good Omens By Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett so I asked one of the girls from Carturesti, knowing they are usually into all the trendy books. It was a long shot, but I asked, said thank you anyway, cause she didn’t know and started walking away. To my surprise, the girl came after me, for some other colleague had overhead and told her who’d published the before mentioned book. So highest regards for Carturesti and their staff!
Same pleasant surprise at Tritonic. A very nice girl, and I do mean nice in a very not annoying way, showed me to the destination of my quest and also gave me a quick bio on the author, presented me with offers, recommended other books, in a non pushy way. Pleasant well informed staff and a very nice display space with dark wooden shelves.
Humanitas publishing has a very weird space. Yes, yes they like their flashy lights in bunches, so many in fact that they stared popping from the heat. The layout of their space was strange at the least, so kind of a maze like formation and the constantly high number of people there did not make it easier. Still, as always, books with up to 50% sale, and for a book worth 70ron it matters.
I also found a booth in the back on the fair selling a wide range of on sale cds. From Romanian rock bands and other insignificant cds to Snow Patrol’s gorgeous “Eyes Open” , going for only 10ron and to big band jazz and fado, these going for around 10ron per cd as well. Driven by some odd craving I ended up with a bag of full of jazz. Finally a cd to give my Byron disc a brake from my car cd player(it’s been in there ever since i got it ) .
I returned to Bookfest, today on Sunday, with a pretty much clear purpose: to have lunch at HR Cafe afterwards 
and also to make sure no book or exhibition space was left unvisited, since the previous day I’d had focused more on the big names publishing houses, located in halls 14 and 15.
One of the first things I came across was a book launch from Fundatia Romania de Maine and a bunch of, now, my old teachers. Of course this is not to say they were actually young or even in their 70s when they were my teachers. It gave me a slightly proud feeling knowing that was my university and my teachers, especially since one of the books didn’t sound half bad ( our Dean promising it refers “Romanians outside the borders” in a non gratuitous glorifying way).
From this I stumbled upon the booth of The Taiba Foundation, trying to promote a better understanding of islam. Very nice and driven people. Quite enjoyable conversation and I found a dvd on the Moor culture there. They also had a screening of dvd about the life of Cat Stevens, whom apparently was much more than a rock’n'roll singer.
The turn our was significantly larger on this last day, I’m assuming due to the imminent arrival of Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk .
What almost got me annoyed was the large number of book distribution firms selling all sorts of glossy, artsy,etc catalogues. Seeing almost all of them were published “outside” they were just imported and priced and overpriced. Most of the staff lack direct contact with customers.
No international publishing houses present either. Few foreign language books but, despite this,I came across french audio books that came alongside with the real book, mostly for french language students. Good buy as well, 10 ron.
All of the concerts took place at 6 o’clock, which was too late for me, after having spent around 3 hours each of the days there.
I wish we’d have a permanent book fair. Or something more like a book mall. A plain library just doesn’t cut it in today’s consumer society.
Good book fair!
On another note, the Hard Rock Cafe terace is open. I recommend the chicken Fajitas.
For all the books worth curling up with
on a nice summer day
Simultaneously with Bookfest, Indagra food and drinks fair was taking place(avoided it as much as possible for the smell alone was oh so fantastic, at least from bakery tent). this was from the cafe/terrace furniture section .
) for these bands, they turned out alright. A fairly big band and a cover band! In a non cheesy way . well they gotta be decent since they made it to the big league, international festivals. Also helps being from the country of the organizer ( look at the dutch dj’s and you’ll see it).A very fun band. This being the advantage of playing covers, there’s no first time audience. And no, it was not cause they were eye candy or something, the guys were in there as well. A very good choice
Loading ...