Last week, at the end of November, Bucharest hosted the largest book fair in Romania, Gaudeamus, at Romexpo.
As per usual, there were many publishers, many discounts, many book launches, many interviews, many signed copies, and authors.
I went on Friday evening, the 24th of November, because I was invited by my publisher, Tritonic books, to speak briefly about three books being launched in the Sociology collection. I accepted the challenge not only because I can’t say no to them given our on-going collaboration, but I was interested in all three books being launched:
- Adrian Dan’s book on development and social change; an author who is my professor and head of department, and one of those people who had a major contribution to who I am [I never told him this, but during my second year in university, I didn’t leave the city before going to the library to get the pictures of the books we needed to read by the next course so that I went prepared]
- Anca Velicu’s book on digitalisation and children’s use of technology during the pandemic, which is a topic I am professionally interested in now that I focus more on e-governance and digitalisation of public social services and
- Ionuț Anghel’s book on the theoretic interpretation of the governance of the Roma issues, whose book I’ve read multiple times because I am interested in what he generally does; not only because he’s my boyfriend, but he was my friend first and we always discussed our interests.
So, as with all the intertwines between professional and personal, I was actually looking forward to the launch. It was as expected and I am grateful for having the opportunity to be there and ask the authors two questions regarding their contributions.
I also found and photograph my booked there, so here it is!
We went back on Saturday to take part as attendees in other launches, this time on fiction, and to see what we find to buy at the book fair. And we found a few books to get. I started reading one novel about the early 1990s in Romania (Dănuț Ungureanu, Trei într-o rablă și Papi) publish by Tritonic.
All in all, going to book fairs is an activity I have mixed feelings about as it’s not so much about the books as one might initially think. I like to be there despite the noise, the gaze of bargain hunters and the worrying increase of spirituality and self-help pseudo-science publications. What’s nice about it, besides high discounts everywhere, is to see authors in person, to find new publications and to be with peers. Anyhow, books can be bought or borrowed at anytime.
Make today count!