Guadalajara

While you're catching up with your Internetting after the long weekend, definitely check out Publishing Perspectives' coverage of possibly "the single biggest book event in the Spanish-speaking world": the Guadalajara Book Fair.

Edward Nawtoka puts the fair in perspective:

David Unger, the US representative for the Fair (and novelist and City College of New York professor and very nice guy) told me that the fair was actually larger than either London or BookExpo America. It’s not clear if this was meant in square-footage or in number of people in attendance. The fair here in Mexico lasts for nine days– attracting some 600,000 people a day (while the other two English-language fairs are just two…or is it three…so a direct comparison is probably impossible.)

And, of course, every fair needs to have its star:

Easily the biggest event of the day that I witnessed was the line that formed for filmmaker and novelist Guillermo Del Toro, who was born in Guadalajara and appears to be a local literary hero. He patiently signed copies of his new novel (Oscura – translated into English as The Fall) and posed for photos for several hundred people over the course of two hours. He seemed to be extremely generous with the time he took with each person. After watching him for ten minutes, I gave up…only to return sometime later and nearly get run by the Roman phalanx of black clad security that had locked arms around Del Torro and his entourage (yes, he had one, to be sure), who then ushered him into the most secure area on the show floor – the one place that had a narrow opening and a locked door that the public could not penetrate no matter how hard they tried – the Agents Center!