lundi 16 mars 2009

A night dedicated to books










I’ve always wanted to visit the Salon du Livre but for some haven’t been able to for one reason or another. This year, thanks to an invitation from the Mairie, I was able to attend the opening of the 2009 Salon du Livre last Thursday at the Paris Expo Hall in Porte de Versailles. It was quite thrilling to enter with my precious invitation when the doors opened. This year, the guest of honor is Mexico. Not quite as controversial as last year’s choice but nonetheless interesting in its own way. As a result of being the guest of honor, there is a wide range of books by Mexican authors such as Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo and Enrique Serna to name a few available in their French translation. Now is a good time to immerse oneself in Mexican literature.
I didn’t realize that the opening night of the Salon would have such a festive air. I suppose I should have expected it because the entire French publishing industry is present at the Salon. You have of course all the biggies—Gallimard, Flammarion and Albin Michel with their entire range of books. But the academics are also well represented. And because it was opening night there was lots of champagne and hors d’oeuvres at every booth. I loved this part and suffice to say this really added to the festive air of the Salon. It was really cool to wander about the different booths just seeing how much was available for the public. It leaves an impression (well-founded I hope) that in France at least there is still a dominant class of readers. What’s really nice about the Salon is that all the books are available for sale. This is unlike the big London Book Fair where the publishers are represented but are not there to sell to the general public. As such, you see catalogs of the publishers and numerous ads for their titles but their actual books are not in the fair. The London Book Fair is really for the professionals while the Salon du Livre is open to everyone. One feature of the Salon that struck me was the section devoted to ebooks, considered by some to be the future of books and reading. Its funny but a recently conducted survey found that only about 9% of French readers were adept at ebook technology and that 83% of those polled were not interested at all in ebook technology. I have to say that this gives me hope for the survival of all the independent bookstores that depend on traditional readers. Let’s not go the way of Jeff Bezos of Amazon who says that books are going to go the way horses went with the invention of the automobile. I can’t imagine a world without actual books. Can you?


Practical Details
Salon du Livre 2009
12 March - 18 March
Hall 1
Porte de Versailles

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