The Cape Town Book Fair

So, on Saturday I went to the Cape Town Book Fair (alone because all my friends have gone overseas!).

I have been twice before and this year was quite disappointed. There were not as many stalls as usual and, most significantly, there was no exclusive books stall. Apparently, there has been some conflict among the organisers and shops which led to Penguin and Jacana both pulling out. There were a lot of South Korean, Chines, Arab and Japanese stalls, which is weird because really...the majority of South African's cannot speak any of those languages. I have come to realise that the book fair is not a place for a public nobody in the publishing world but for people to try find publishers and authors to get published and people to advertise and launch books.

Nevertheless, I went to two talks. There were not many to choose from and definitely not many interesting ones. One talk was a launch of the UKZN press book 'The Curse of Berlin: Africa after the Cold War' by Adekeye Adebajo (who is a very prominent scholar), which was very interesting and looks at Africa's problems with integration and how this is not the solution for Africa and how Africa needs a new regional leader to unite it. Something like that; very interesting and i recommend you take a look at it. The other talk was by the HSRC Press on the book 'Trade Unions and Party Politics', which was not so interesting but then again trade union and me are not academic friends.

I did find UCT Press, which is a first. I have always heard they existed but did not know who or where they were. They have some very interesting books coming out. The academic press stands were there in full force, and despite the resigning of both UKZN and HSRC Press' publicity/press directors, they had some good books, a good stand and the usual schmoozing of people.

All in all, the food was bad, there were no real bargains on books and there was not much to see. So, if you did not make it this year, do not despair because it was nothing to marvel at.