On Thursday, I went to the Helsinki Book Fair. Fairs are a bit too marketing-focused; I prefer literary happenings that focus on discussion. My book purchases nowadays require careful consideration: I don’t have any more room on my shelves. If I buy new books, I have to get rid of some I already have.
At the fair, I noticed that two-euro bargain bookcases have taken over most of the fairgrounds. To me this is a sad example of the state of the traditional publishing industry. A high proportion of books, including some representing years of work by the author, will end up in the bargain bin, because even booklovers like me are reluctant to add to our collections.
Fortunately, the contents of the book aren’t confined to one format, as Niklas Bengtsson stated during an interview at the fair. Bengtsson described a wide range of forms that books have taken, from papyrus to a folded format, and wondered whether a man could be considered as a book if he has tattooed a poem collection on his skin.
New formats are electronic, and the bookcases at the Exhibition Center are passé. It seems that book fairs and publishing houses faithfully hold onto the old format because they haven’t figured out as profitable a revenue model for electronic publications.