Scott Selby, who’s been reporting from the Swedish Book Fair, brings back one last dispatch: “Sunday was the last day of the book fair. With the sun shining outside and most of the seminars over, things were winding down. I took this opportunity to wander around the exhibit hall and see what I could find.
Upstairs, the Swedes converted a giant room into a combination garden and cooking center. With pumpkins, gourds and flowers of all kind, it looked like a traditional Swedish colony (a small garden plot outside of the city). Cookbook authors took their turns demonstrating some of their signature dishes, when I walked by it the smell of shrimp filled the air.
photo credit: Christian Larsson
The Swedish Church Coffee company promoted their fair trade coffee by giving it away to passersby. Swedes take their coffee seriously, they drink almost the most coffee per person in the world. By encouraging church groups, book lovers, and, well, everyone to switch to fair trade coffee they hope to make a positive impact on farmer’s lives and the environment.
Giveaway of the day–a six-sided die with suggestions on how to relax if you get stressed out. Showing in the accompanying picture is the word for love on the left and the right face has breathe.
At the end, people were hunting for last minute bargains while exhibitors closed up shop. The final visitor tally for the four day event was 102,605.
Birgitta Ekblom, the head of public relations for this event, took a few minutes after it was all over to tell me about next year. Set for September 27-30, 2007, the theme will be Estonian literature and culture. Birgitta explained that it’s a “country very close to Sweden, but when we had the Iron Wall, we did not have much contact with them so most Swedes do not know much about it still. Even now, very few books from there are translated into Swedish, although we expect many more next year and in the future.”