It was Sant Jordi (St. George's Day) here in Catalonia on Monday, so I went to the (Barcelona) city center to see some books. This day is also known as el Dia del Llibre (literally "the Day of the Book"), so, it's when everybody goes to the city center to buy some books... This, of course, means that you cannot really do or see anything; the streets are so full that you can hardly walk. But it's well worth seeing anyway.
This year, I only bought two books (I usually buy at least 4 or 5, because they give good discounts on St George's Day):
- Cosmofobia by Lucía Etxebarria (in Spanish)
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
I also found an English bookstore, which is nice, because it's sometimes difficult to find good English/American/Irish literature here, except for the top 5 best sellers perhaps. Now I know where to go when I'm looking for something interesting to read in English.
Links:
- Sant Jordi in Wikipedia
- St. George's Day in Wikipedia
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in Wikipedia
- Lucía Etxebarria in Wikipedia (English)
- Lucía Etxebarria en Wikipedia (español)
English bookstore in :
Come In - Llibreria Anglesa de Barcelona, Balmes, 129 bis., 08008 Barcelona
[this is good] Man, it looks really electric in that environment (plus, I imagine the weather must be quite pleasant over there). I must make it a point to travel there at one point in the future.
Y'know, when I think about it... I wonder why amazon.com doesn't have a website for the Hispanic market... it's such an inconvenience at times.
Posted by: shinkaide | 04/25/2007 at 11:34 PM
I agree with you: Amazon should definitely have a website for the Hispanic market, and if they are clever, they will have one in the (near) future.
By the way, if you (or anyone else who sees this) are looking for an on-line bookstore in Spanish, have a look at Casa del Libro (Spain): http://www.casadellibro.com/ Their selection is quite good, and they also have big bookshops in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, etc. (I think they have about 5 or 6 bookshops in Madrid alone.) It's definitely one of the best bookshops in Barcelona.
Posted by: Kafka | 04/25/2007 at 11:53 PM
It's great to see so many people enthusiastic about reading. I miss the small book shops that you can curl up an read in all day and we used to have street book fairs too. Where I live, we have been bombarded by the big chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders. The eclectic booksellers have all faded away. Have you started reading Curious Incident? It looks like an interesting story.
Posted by: lookingout | 04/26/2007 at 02:30 PM
No, I haven't started reading it yet. I need to finish two or three other novels first. But yes, it does look like an interesting story.
Posted by: Kafka | 04/26/2007 at 07:27 PM