Finally I made it to the “Feria del Libro” (E:Book fair). Sunday, 12 of May 2008, I met with Soledad to explore the event on its second last day. We paid 10 Pesos (2 EUR) and followed the masses to get into the first of several halls.
The first stand we ran into, was presented by the Argentine City Santiago del Estero, Soledads hometown. It’s one of the oldest Argentine Cities and so they presented very old books by famous authors such as Miguel de Cervantes (Don Quixote).
At the Santiago del Estero stand, Soledad and me made ourselves comfy to work out a plan of what we want to see. I was interested in the Argentine authors Julio Cortázar and Jorge Luis Borges. Here they are Classics.
I already read Borges’ Ficciones, but in English, not in Spanish and I was fascinated by the scenarios he created in his short stories. They are absurd, but full of truth. He writes them short, but very complex and once read, his ideas cannot be forgotten.
Cortázar is very famous for his novel “Rayuela”. I read a few passages in the internet, but couldn´t get a version in English language in Buenos Aires’ book shops. Maybe I’ll have to wait until my spanish is good enough. But when will that happen?
Apart from the two Argentine Classics, the German presentation, german and english sounding publishers were on the agenda. But Sole and me stopped nearly everywhere. At first, the stand of the Argentine newspaper Clarin caught her eye. She bought a book about Che Guevara. The people from the Clarin also offered books about Argentine Football History, but I could resist. We also spent some time a the tourism stand. Soledad works for a Travel Agency and I will never forget, how I bought two bustickets at her place. The first bus was about two hours late and the second about three hours. Of course it wasn´t her fault;-)
We stopped at several different stands, until a Fernet Branca Promotion caught my eye. Three chicas with green hair handed out Fernet Branca Menta for free. What a pity I cannot drink alcohol at 3 in the afternoon.
While I was taking pictures of the green haired chicas, Soledad was so kind to get information about where to find books of Borges. At the stand of the “Foundación International Jorge-Luis Borges” they were presenting some Borges books behind glass. They were in all kinds of languages, even one in german.
I asked about shops in Buenos Aires where I could buy some Borges books in German Language. The young guy and the old lady I was talking to were very kind, apart from the fact, that the lady was a fast speaker.
They said there should be some Boregs books available in the German Language Institut “Instituto Goethe”. I am already a member of the Goethe Library, so next time I’ll have a look.
At the very end I found a very intersting book about Argentine and Latinamerica History since 1930. It’s supposed to be a school book. The title is “Historia Argentina y Latinoamericana II” and turned out to be perfect to train my Spanish. It matches my interests perfectly and it’s quite easy to read. The publisher “Aula Taller” offers some similar books-I can recommend them for spanishleaerners.
By the way, the german presentation was very small and not really interesting. There were no Classics. I would have loved to show Sole some of my favourite German authors.
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Jan Gubenis
May 13, 2008 at 1:18 am
Hola Jancito,
now you are learning again and about all
with a scoolbook. :)
Mamita
May 13, 2008 at 1:29 am
jajaja! Tu madre;-)