Luly’s Adventures in the Buenos Aires Book Fair

As some of you may know, I’m a publishing student in the University of Buenos Aires. Since the career was celebrating its 20th Anniversary, they organized a series of Conferences (Jornada Académica de Edición) yesterday in the Buenos Aires International Book Fair (that takes place between April and May every year). 

Since we were invited to attend before the Fair actually started, I sneaked through the stands to take some pictures of Hunger Games’ publisher in Argentina: Del Nuevo Extremo, before they opened. They had gigantographies of the movie around the structure:

One was hanging close to the cealing, it was pretty impressive

The books had its own structure, with the new edition of the movie poster cover as a sign

There’s a plastic above because the fair hadn’t started yet and what I was doing of sneaking around wasn’t allowed.

All the shop assistants were wearing a Mockingjay pin and since I had mine, they asked me about it. Since I’m working on a YA project this semester, me and my classmate had to ask some stuff to companies that work with YA and I asked the assistants about the pins. It seems the publisher gave each one of them the pin for free to use in the fair and they can take it home afterwards. Nice job, isn’t it?

The assistant also told me that he had seen Tributes with their pins around since the fair started, and when I moved to another stand I corroborated it myself. I was stopped by a mom and her daughter, who had a mockingjay necklace, and they asked me about my pin. 

In other news, “The Death Cure”, the third book from the Maze Runner trilogy was out THIS WEEK, so I wasn’t expecting to find it in the fair. Because of our project, we had to go to that stand (we made an interview with the publisher that brings Maze Runner to Argentina) and there it was! So, I got it. My sister, my brother and my dad all read the Maze Runner books too, so they were really happy when I go back with it xD

Our covers for Maze Runner are made by an argentinean illustrator (and awesome guy) called Marcelo Orsi Blanco who has a DeviantART account you can check out [x]

I also bought Cecelia Ahern’s “Girl in the Mirror”

And a couple of Ouran mangas. 

The best book I saw (but I couldn’t buy…yet) was “The Art of Walt Disney” by Christopher Finch in the stand of Paragrafica. I was there checking Mark Ryden books and looking for a Tara McPherson one and the assistand showed me a compillation book with Candy Bird drawings (among others) called “The Garden of Eye Candy” when I saw this huge book with Mickey Mouse on the cover. She brought it down for me to see. It’s perfect. But I didn’t have enough money to buy it. I may go back to the fair though, I’m not sure yet.

The Conferences were interesting, there was some mention of fanfiction which is always a good thing xD I didn’t know how aware these “important” publishing professionals were of fanfiction, but since my teacher liked the idea to include the subject in our YA project, it was good to hear them talking about it. Even if they haven’t got the slightest idea of how serious it is for the fandoms

Anyway, more or less that was my experience yesterday =)

(Source: starberry-cupcake)

Book vs Book Situation

I’ve read an amazing insight from Amie in The Vivacity Blog about the Twilight-Hunger Games situation (it is very well explained in her article and she talks about a neologism she likes to call “twilightitis”) and she inspired me to write something I’ve been thinking and talking about for a while but never put a proper space to it: the book vs book situation.

I know the competition isn’t something that happens only in one sphere of culture, but I will take this post to talk about books. I am pretty sure it won’t go very far, because my opinion posts never do, but I thought I should let it out.

When I was 11 years old (to be exact, in 2000) I read “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”. My father had always been a “Lord of the Rings” fan, so he told me the story when I was even younger and encouraged me to read “The Hobbit”. As I grew up, I realized that many “Lord of the Rings” fans were against the Harry Potter books. Many of them bashed JK Rowling for taking things out of Tolkien’s world and many others said Lord of the Rings was much better, Harry Potter was then seen by many as “inferior”.

Some years went by and in 2007 I got to read “Twilight”. I wasn’t very keen to read it in the beginning because romance is not my thing, but since I was always interested in vampire stories (from books like “Interview with the Vampire” to anime/manga like “Hellsing”) I decided to give the book a chance. I was very entertained by it, even if I couldn’t compare it with my favorite books (“His Dark Materials” series by Philip Pullman is my favorite series), but I found the 3 first books quite entertaining, despite some of the characters tended to be a bit boring, some others made things better (Bella is a lousy female character but Leah Clearwater is a pretty good one, for example). Anyway, when the movies came out and the series became popular, Harry Potter fans did what Lord of the Rings fans had done years before, considered Twilight the “inferior” one.

I need to clearify that this “inferior” judgment is 90% of the time done by people who haven’t even read both of the books they’re judging, most of the times they’ve read just the one they defend.

Now that the Hunger Games movies are coming out and the books are becoming more popular, this competition is staring between Twilight and Hunger Games.  There are fights among the two fandoms such as “don’t say Team Peeta, this ain’t Twilight” or “Hunger Games people is doing the VMA thing just like Twilight did” and so on.

I don’t know if you can appreciate how unnecessary and silly these competitions are. Do you know who gets something positive from this? Publishing houses that use the comparison as a marketing weapon instead of exploring what the book has new to offer. And by getting caught in this nonsense, readers only end up closing their minds to other book series and disrespecting what their favorites have and the others don’t.

LOTR, HP, Twilight and HG are all different; therefore, they may be attractive for different kinds of readers. If you like Harry Potter and you don’t like Twilight, maybe you’re not the kind of person to read that book, let it go. If you like Twilight and don’t like Hunger Games, then keep reading those kinds of things. And if you are open minded or uncertain even, give a bunch a try and judge after reading to see which literary path is right for you.

I’ve read those all and each one has opened some kind of door for me: knowing LOTR I gave a chance to Harry Potter, which made me grow up not being afraid of huge books, leading me to His Dark Materials and many other amazing books. Twilight made me realize I could read romance stuff and opened my mind to romance authors like Cecelia Ahern or Charlaine Harris, and vampire related books different to the Anne Rice’s I had read before, like “The Historian” or “The Society of S”. Hunger Games led me to an amazing fandom and gave me the chance to think, leading me to other series with dystopian plots such as “Uglies” or “Maze Runner”.

Just like in Cornelia Funke’s “Inkheart”, each book holds a world inside. The choice to enter it is just yours and if you don’t go in, why trying to prevent others to do so? 

I was reading a magazine today and when I turn a page…BOOM, MAZE RUNNER! I was very proud of our boys having a full page to announce the release of “The Scorch Trials” here. That page will become a poster, I’m pretty sure of that. I’ll have Maze Runner and the Hunger Games Comic-Con mini poster in my bedroom wall very soon…

I was reading a magazine today and when I turn a page…BOOM, MAZE RUNNER!

I was very proud of our boys having a full page to announce the release of “The Scorch Trials” here. That page will become a poster, I’m pretty sure of that. I’ll have Maze Runner and the Hunger Games Comic-Con mini poster in my bedroom wall very soon…

Viktor’s Victory Path Random Fact:

The Wronski Feint/Chimaera’s scene was based on The Maze Runner (by James Dashner), specifically when Thomas and Minho are on the maze, trying to defeat the Grievers. I wanted to connect the books, I really love intertextuality.

I believe Tributes can enjoy the Maze Runner series very much, and why not, Harry Potter readers could like them too. 

(that’s SHINee’s Minho, because I’ve mention Maze Runner’s Minho and I said I like intertextuality)

The Children/Young Adult’s Book Fair and Symposium

What I did there

Well, it’s not the first time I go to the annual Children & Young Adult’s Book Fair, but it’s the first time I get to go to the Symposium they make. I got the scholarship in my college and I was invited to go for free…and got discounts on the books..Boo-ya.

I was able to meet so many people and see presentations about books for children and young adults, the situation in my country for publishing houses that work with those books and, most importantly, how to be a good mediator between children and books. 

I was in a 2 day course with Adela Castronovo, a very amazing woman with a huge career in children’s books, and I was delighted with all the information I could gather. And I bought one of her books too =)

I was also in a business meeting, even if I have no business xD but I got to talk to editors from different countries and ask a lot of questions. I was so nervous, I felt like nothing around those people, but I kept thinking someday I’ll be on the other side of the situation. Hopefully.

What I got

First and foremost, A LOT of catalogs.

A LOT. I asked for some and they gave me others, so I ended up with those many catalogs. And well, on the first day I was looking at Random House’s catalog and saw this

And I thought “I have to tell Kaiti later” xD and then in my lunch break I went to their stand and bought “Pretties”

Again, translation fail on the title xD I have already started “Uglies” and it does have a Hunger Games feeling…I’ll see how it turns out. 

The next day of the Symposium (yesterday, to be exact) I got Alfaguara’s catalog and, between the things that doesn’t seem likely that I will ever read like Monster High and Ghost Girl, I found this book that a teacher recommended me once

It’s a book by Amélie Nothomb, the Belgian writer born in Japan, and it’s called “Brillant comme une casserole”. It was translated in spanish but not in english, it seems…wow, that makes me feel special as a spanish speaking person xD Of course I bought it

I also found the second book of the Maze Runner series, which my brother, sister and I love, and we bought it and got a bookmarker each. For free. Yeah.

Random Fact: My sister knows the guy who made the cover’s illustrations for this Argentinean edition of the Maze Runner books.

We also found a very cool little publishing house that had some new and cheap books with awesome illustrations, and we bought one with my sister. It’s called “The Sadow Gate” and it’s by Lene Kaaberbøl.

And they gave as a poster. For free. Yeah again.

Well, apart from the book my brother bought (“The Analyst” by John Katzenbach), my sister met one of ther heroes, Liniers (an amazing Argentinean cartoonist you should all know because of how awesome he is) and he signed one of his books for her.

Well, all in all, it was a very cool experience for me and we really used that discount of mine xD I hope I can go again next year =) 

Book Challenge

Day 1 - The best book you read this year

Oh, Challenge-san, the year has just started! I bearly read 5 books by now! I’m in my 6th D: And The Hunger Games don’t count because I read them all in 2010 T-T

Anyway…by far I really liked “If You Could See Me Now” by Cecelia Ahern and “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner.

“If You Could See Me Now” was my first Ahern book (I’m reading my 5th now) and it was my favorite so far because, first, even if my favorite couple ending was Joyce/Justin from “Thanks For The Memories”, my favorite characters and couple are Elizabeth/Ivan. I feel closer to Elizabeth from all the Ahern female characters, she’s strong and independent yet vulnerable and soft; and needs that spark that only Ivan can provide. And Ivan is just perfect, he has the soul of a kid with the heart of a gentleman. The story was lovely, the message comes across and everything was cute and bittersweet just like Ahern likes it. I have to give also a special mention to “Love, Rosie”, it was amazing too, but ”If You Could See Me Now” is my favorite Ahern so far.

And Maze Runner…well, I’m glad these science fiction thing is catching, it’s gonna bring great stories and Maze Runner promises a lot. I’ve already talked about it, but I’m just gonna say it’s interesting, catching, mysterious and full of hot guys (I’m in love with Newt and Minho is awesome). It’s very interesting and the perspective you share with Thomas and the little he and everyone else knows about why they’re there and what will happen, makes you be expecting the unexpected all the time. I hope the next ones of the series keep that mystery too.

My Fangirl moment on the Fair

So, the Buenos Aires Book Fair is also a place for me to fangirl all over the stands with my favorite books of the moment. In this year’s case: The Hunger Games and Maze Runner.

The Hunger Games saga is published here by “Del Nuevo Extremo” and they had huge signs on top with covers of their most important books. Of course my beloved HG were among them

There’s Greg too xD Greg’s cool Anyway, I had a talk with the editor and he told me they’ll also publish ‘Gregor’ by Suzanne Collins too this year. And I fangirled even more when he told me they were also gonna publish the Gemma Doyle trilogy I’ve been looking for everywhere ♥

In another stand, the one of “V&R” we came across with the Maze Runner sector

 

And they told us that the next one will be out here in May =D good news!

keep-calm-and: Keep calm and read The Maze Runner

keep-calm-and:

Keep calm and read The Maze Runner

I ♥ Newt
I finished The Maze Runner =D

Is it me or “science fiction/action/post apocalyptic world in need to be saved” is the new “vampire romance” which was the new “wizards and magic”? It’s ok, I needed a change in themes lately. 

I liked it, not as much as HG but this one isn’t over so I can’t say yet, but still it was good.

Now I’ll go to an opposite direction and go back to Ahern, I’ll read “There’s No Place Like Here” ^^

I’ll tell you how is it when I start it =) but I’ve just read a few chapters by now

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Themed by: Hunson