People of the Book

June 23, 2009 - 9:56 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, General, History and Culture, Israeliness 

First Book Week, 1926

First Book Week, 1926

We made it to Hebrew Book Week on Saturday night on the very last night of the fair, which is a good thing because I don’t like to miss any annual countrywide events.

Hebrew Book Week, although it’s actually more like ten days, is a very quintessential Israeli event. It’s the ol’, People of the Book checking out books, mostly in Hebrew, obviously, and with book stands from all the major Israeli booksellers, from Keter, Modan and Am Ovad to the ‘sifrei kodesh’ (literally, holy books), map makers and the newspaper mongers. In Jerusalem — as in other major cities where there are Book Week booths set up at some major central site — Book Week was held at Gan Hapaamon, Liberty Bell Park, where people and families pushing baby carriages brushed up against each other as they ponied up to the booths, checking out children’s books, adult fiction, the latest Mapa map books — that’s where we spent a lot of time — non-fiction, biographies, treastises on all kinds of subjects, and generally lots of printed pages.

There’s music blasting from mounted speakers, but not too loud, as to disturb one’s contemplation of a possible book purchase. And surprisingly for an Israeli event, no food, save for the beigale and cotton candy peddlers at the entrance to the park. I like that. It’s just about books.

Tags: , , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap