Sunday, October 16, 2011

16 October 2011 - Buchmesse



The Frankfurt Book Fair (Buchmesse) is one of the large events here each year and is a big deal (both locally and internationally) in much the same way as the International Auto Show. I remember when I was apartment hunting here and the relocation consultant and I were driving by the Messe (the convention center) she mentioned both of these events and I was wondering what in the world a book fair was. Though its importance was reinforced later when I read John Irving's book, "A Widow for One Year" (which I highly recommend).

As history, you might find it interesting to know that it dates back to the 15th century. Why the 15th century and why Frankfurt? Well, apparently Gutenberg's movable type was invented not far from here. It grew, though political and other reasons, Leipzig was the center in the 18th century. Nevertheless, after World War II, the book far resumed in Frankfurt and has been here ever since.

So I headed there today, the last of the two days that it is open to the general public, to check it out. I looked at their website in advance (wwww.buchmesse.de) and was a bit mystified by the whole thing. I downloaded the free app, hoping that might provide some insight, but it was also not so helpful. I guess if you have to ask what the book fair is all about, it might not be designed for you. But nevertheless, I went. And noted on the website that the ticket included free public transportation, which from my location is a €4,80 value and convenient as I can pick up the right Straßenbahn (street car/tram) on my own block and it takes me right there.

The book fair was only slightly smaller in scale (in terms of number of buildings) than the International Auto Show, and the individual exhibits were certainly much smaller. Essentially, each publisher had an exhibit and there are an awful lot more publishers than there are automobile manufacturers, as you can imagine. Many of them looked like small bookstores - a wall with some shelves and books on them. In most of them (but I don't think all), you can purchase the books that are on display. Apparently this was frustrating in previous years as you could see an interesting book, but would then have to write down the title and try to figure out how/where to buy it later. However, for those of us prone to read our books as eBooks, this remains a bit of a challenge.

The very noticeable thing about this fair versus the auto show, however, was that nearly every booth also had comfortable chairs or chairs and tables where readers could just sit down and read books. It was also relatively quiet. Like a combination between the Library of Congress and a gigantic bookstore with cafe. The majority of the exhibits were related to German language books, so I whizzed through them. I did, however, take a bit of time in the Tourism section to see the largest selection of Marco Polo travel guides (my favorite!) I have ever seen (and confirmed that there is not a travel guide to Bergen, Norway, which would have made that trip even better). There were also areas where they had presentations and interviews and an area (in the Audi building built specifically for the 2011 International Auto Show, I must note) where they discussed new media.

There were three buildings specifically for international publishers. One of the three was for countries where English is the native tongue - and Israel. This was also the only building that I visited where there was security and bag searches at the entrance. Terrorism at a book fair? Really? But I guess you can never be too safe. After, knowledge IS a dangerous thing. I have to say, though, that I was really disappointed in many of the American publishers, though. It was just before 14:30 when I arrived, and they were already in tear-down mode. Penguin and Simon & Schuster had already stopped selling books though you could still browse, but Random House had literally closed its gate. If I were an author who were being promoted there, I would be a little peeved that they were closed/closing a full 3 hours before the end of the event.

Overall, a very interesting experience. But I still have no idea why there were so many young people dressed in costume and roaming about outside. At first, I thought maybe it was like a Harry Potter thing where people dress up in costumes to meet their favorite SciFi authors or something, but they were quite wide-ranging. Odd.... As far as I know there isn't an early Halloween here that might explain this, either.


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