another bookfest to go

Of course, i totally forgot to write about going to BookFest. I did this on Saturday, despite my original decision, which was not to attend book fairs again too soon. I had taken this decision because it is so God damn frustrating for me to see all those books gathered in one place and realizing not only that i cannot have them all (and even if i could, i wouldn’t have the time to read them; life is kinda short, after all), but also that i’ve ended up reading so little nowadays in comparison with my reading habits not that long ago. However, my sister was too willing to take me there for me to refuse her, so there i was. Happily, the fest was organized in a different building from the one i was accustomed to, which made the air a little more breathable than in the past years. Crowded as usual, with lots and lots of books, publishing houses and special offers, with conferences and people who kept on buying books like crazy, this year’s edition of Bookfest was however the least disappointing for me until now. Probably mostly because of the location.

The thing i felt sorry about though was the little personalization from most publishing houses stands. While looking at the books exposed, it was becoming more and more obvious to me (and that might be obvious in book shops as well, but books in libraries are not always arranged according to publishing house, so...) that each publishing house is specific in some way when choosing the books to publish, when developing the covers, when naming the collections and so on. But their stands and manner of presenting the books was pretty much absolutely the same (the difference being, of course, the size of the stands). So maybe the big publishing houses were sure they’d sell anyway because they’re renown, and people expect them to have great books, and they do have great books indeed. But at least the smaller publishing houses, most of them with less mainstream books, books which were not very familiar to a common reader, could have used some gimmicks in order to introduce themselves in a different, attractive manner, not just use huge discounts. I’m sure it might be just me, but i would have liked a little more personal touch, honestly, because i happened to be wondering myself about a publishing house or their books in front of totally neutral stands quite some times (i don't know, i was looking for something to make me understand how relevant or particularly worthy their offer was as well, or at least a certain book in their offer)...dunno...does that make any sense?

I bought myself books like “Lovemarks”, “Clued in - how to keep customers coming back again and again” (Lewis P. Carbone), “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” (Paul Aurden), “The intellectuals” (Paul Johnson) and “Ghidul nesimtitului” (Radu Paraschivescu), as well as some magazines. And my sister was also happy about the books she bought. I loved the Catavencu promotional projections, as well as Rao’s (i hope i’m not mistaking) initiative to pay the entrance ticket for you, were you to buy books from them.

and I will update the post with more photos, as soon as blogger allows me to.