Readers celebrating books! 33rd Buenos Aires International Book Fair

In Argentina, the publishing industry has grown like a phoenix rising from the ashes of their recent depression. The 33rd annual Book Fair in Buenos Aires got picked up by the Washington Post here. The fair, unlike other book fairs, is not aimed so much at the publishing professionals as at readers, readers, readers! The Post article notes

The publishing industry is shrinking in many countries, but not Argentina. Since an economic collapse in 2001, the number of new titles published annually here has more than doubled. Argentines are, for the most part, proud of their country's reputation as a literary capital in South America, and they're proud that their book fair is expected to draw well over 1 million visitors during its two-week run.

It is on nights like this when the fair is at its most quintessentially Argentine, when the national passions for reading and for the night feed into one another, when more than 35,000 pass through the entry gates after9 p.m., most lingering until the red-eyed hours.

Que bueno! The link in the title above is to the book fair's own site, in Spanish, of course. Browse around and enjoy some vicarious thrills from a fair and a city that considers it only reasonable to have hours that extend until 2 AM!