Gaudeamus Book Fair in Bucharest, November 2013

Below I’ll show you some photos from the fair, so you can get an idea what it was like.

I'm also showing some popular books -- maybe you get ideas for Christmas presents. Jamie Oliver, for instance, is always a great idea in my view, and his 15-minute meals are fabulous: I've seen many of them on TV.

Then there's Malcolm Gladwell, whose books have been around for a while. They have been published by Publika here in Romania recently. I noticed them in libraries about a year ago, I think. They're great reads. I didn't have money for them, but from what I could tell from browsing, they're fun, entertaining, and rather smart. Definitely a present that people who love a good conversation will enjoy.

Then, of course, there's Alice Munro, who garnered a lot of attention ever since she received the Nobel Prize for Literature this fall. I'm currently reading Lives of Girls and Women, and it's rather good. Next I'm going to read Too Much Happiness. Can't wait. She has a style of her own, that demands attention and keeps you wanting to read more of her *stuff*.

Finally, I bought the History of Britain and Ireland I'm showing below. DK does an excellent job every time. It's top-notch writing from prized specialists in their fields, and the choice and quality illustrations are absolutely fabulous. I wish I could buy more books like that. They're so good, they end up being more than just reference books, or great coffee table books. You can actually read these visual guides, the whole of them.

So, without further tarrying, here are some images from the book fair, and some book gift ideas!

In the meantime, I took a breather from writing this article, and signed the books I bought. Turns out I bought 15 books. These fairs are very tempting. And I wasn’t alone in buying this much. Most people carried lots of plastic bags from the various publishing companies.

There was also flirting. I won’t forget the look on a guy’s face as he was smiling with his eyes to a girl his age who was saying that Libras get along very well together. I was thinking to myself that that guy will agree to anything. I did a double take at the girl and then at the guy. Yep, something was definitely getting started there. It was so good, I kept thinking it should be in a movie. But you can’t fake that look. It was so good :). (I loved being the fly on the wall, as you can tell.)

There were also book launches and people talking about this and that. Humanitas had one I missed. Book launches are always interesting. You learn so much about people and life when they present their book or a friend's. I told myself I should go more often. I went to see one in particular, and as I was listening to the speeches, I noticed other people were stopping by and staying put for a while. As I tell you, book launches are interesting. Except, maybe, the kind where they read long passages from their books. Those can get boring (not always, though).

I noticed a good number of books at the fair. Here are some of my favorite titles.