Happy (belated) Sant Jordi!

[AnnieSummerlee]

Yesterday was Sant Jordi (or 'día del libro' elsewhere in Spain). It's our main book day here in Catalonia, but it's also our Valentine's Day, with books and roses instead of chocolate. There are book fairs all over the country, author signings, writing competitions, etc.

I recently found out that 75% of annual book sales happen in that one day! And I guess it makes sense, considering that non-readers are also buying books, just like you lot buy chocolate for your significant other in February.

Pretty sure there will soon be a wave of new(used) books in ReRead (our second-hand book franchise)

 

[RK Wallis]

What a great day and lovely idea!

Today, we just had ANZAC day, for all the soldiers fallen in War. Lest we forget (Imagine a poppy )

 

[KateESal]

Yes!

We combined San Jorge/Jordi/St George with Día del Libro too. As you can imagine, I was in my element.

We had a book fair and the primary kids dressed up in red and white for the shield/flag of St George.

I'm not surprised so many of Spain's book purchases are made on this day...I don't know about you, @AnnieSummerlee but my impression is that Spain doesn't have as strong a reading culture and certain other countries (possibly because Spaniards tend to be highly sociable and reading is essentially an anti-social activity...)

Here's our Día del Libro book fair and our San Jordi celebrations, in case you're interested....

 

[AnnieSummerlee]

Yes!

We combined San Jorge/Jordi/St George with Día del Libro too. As you can imagine, I was in my element.

We had a book fair and the primary kids dressed up in red and white for the shield/flag of St George.

I'm not surprised so many of Spain's book purchases are made on this day...I don't know about you, @AnnieSummerlee but my impression is that Spain doesn't have as strong a reading culture and certain other countries (possibly because Spaniards tend to be highly sociable and reading is essentially an anti-social activity...)

Here's our Día del Libro book fair and our San Jordi celebrations, in case you're interested....

So jealous! I haven't gone to a book fair in a while...last year they moved Sant Jordi to 23 of July, and not sure if they had stalls at all. Went to the main fair in Barcelona a few years back and it was fantastic.
I'd say we do have a reading culture, but it's different from the UK, mainly because of how the industry works here, or at least in Catalonia. We have far too many writing competitions and not enough lit magazines. I have a friend who got published in Granta, but never won a competition or managed to make a name for herself. Even to get a book published, the main path is by winning a competition. There are only a handful of literary agents, and from what my peers have told me, they generally approach you, and not vice-versa (but I'm not sure that's true). And then the Premio Planeta is just...it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. SECOND prize gets 100k euros. First prize wins 600k euros. (But then again, it's usually only famous writers who win, and Planeta knows they're going to win every penny back). All my friends are readers, but we don't read enough Catalan or Spanish writers. There's too much push for translated works, we almost put ourselves down. Anyway, I could write about this all day.

And awwwww that is the cutest book fair I've ever seen. Those lucky kids!