They keep reading!
Reading novels is fun. Beeing taken by someone´s hand, who has designed experimental environments and who creates something special with words in the reader's head, is often more than just pleasure. The Leipzig Book Fair started again today.
The Leipzig Book Fair looks back on a long tradition. Already in the 17th century, the leading publishers introduced their books here. As the first major industry event of the year, it is regarded as an important source of inspiration for the book market with its new spring releases. With 3,400 events on 570 stages all over the city, the literature festival is now the biggest one in Europe. More than 800 literary bloggers were invited to the book show. Since 2014, the Manga-Comic-Convention has also been held in parallel, with more than 90,000 comic fans visiting the event in 2016.
This year, the host country is Lithuania. The Lithuanians this time come up with 26 lately translated books. In addition, a photo project referring to the poet Johannes Bobrowski from the Memelland and an opera playing in the dark are beeing shown.
The German book market is the second biggest in the world after the USA. Publishers release between 76,000 and 82,000 new print products every year. Nevertheless, sales decline. To countersteer this development the Leipzig Book Fair launched the project "Neuland 2.0". In this part of the trade fair, the industry is looking for answers on how the future of literacy can look beyond haptic book reading. Here, the participants present ideas about apps, digital publishing and online learning platforms.
Furthermore, the political program of this year's fair is also impressive. In this context, Twitter users collected observations using the hashtag #Kaltland, which describe a harsher social climate from their perspective. Many authors are concerned with the wave of refugees or the rise of the AfD. For example, the journalist Jasna Zajcek used the keyword "Kaltland" as a title for her book, which is about social reportages.
The restrictions on freedom of opinion in Turkey are also beeing discussed at the book fair. Turkey will be the focus within the thematic focal point "Europe 21". More generally, the "How indie are you" bookmaker forum is dedicated to independent publishing.
Already yesterday evening, the exhibition opened with a ceremony in the cloth hall. French writer Mathias Énard received the Leipzig Book Prize for European Communication. Today, the Leipzig Book Fair started, the book fair has just opened its doors for visitors.
