As a bibliophile, one event near and dear to my heart is the Frankfurter Buchmesse or Frankfurt Book Fair*, which takes place every year in the second week of October and has been doing so for some five hundred years (missing a few years on rare occasion due to wars and such) since shortly after Johannes Gutenberg invented movable-type printing in the first place in the near-by city of Mainz. I even managed to attend this event once and so can attest that, although it’s mainly meant for publishing professionals, visiting it is well worth the while of any mere civilian with any interest in books – even despite the knotty problem of finding someplace affordable to stay as local hotel rates skyrocket.

This year, however, I had no interest in making the journey even if I could get away. It was clear things were going to be especially awkward. One main highlight of each Buchmesse is the exhibitions and events put on for the literature of the “guest of honor” country, but this year that Ehrengast was to be the People’s Republic of China. That’s right: not the country in the world known particularly for its free press or tolerance of free expression, which you would think would be central themes to the very ethos of the annual Frankfurt goings-on. Maybe the Buchmesse executives, after honoring one country each year for so long, simply ran out of non-problematic countries to feature. More likely – since this custom of Ehrengast countries/literatures probably does not go back that far in time – someone in charge rather felt it was time to acknowledge the economic/political/demographic gorilla in the room and finally come to grips with granting the People’s Republic that one-time special status that it “deserves.” (more…)

I’ll be off-line through the weekend, since I’m traveling again. This time it’s to the annual Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the world’s prime publishing events, with a history stretching back hundreds of years. Naturally it has its own well-developed website – actually, two, in English and in German.

I have to go as a private person (I’m not “trade”), so that means on the weekend. Will there be anything there about blogging? I haven’t found anything yet, even after some pretty substantial perusals of their websites. (By the way, both websites offer a great, and free, Palm download that enables you to identify, record, and track on your PDA the companies, people, and events you want to see; I’m just about finished with my extensive preparation along those lines.) If there is anything, and it’s interesting (especially if it can be linked to), I’ll be sure to let you know about it. It seems there’s a big category of attendee companies called “Electronic Media,” so we’ll see if that has what I’m looking for (along weblog lines, at least; I’m really mainly interested in foreign language textbooks).