I don’t like having books signed for me. I’m not a mythomaniac. After interviewing Vargas Llosa years ago in a taxi, he offered to sign “La fiesta del chivo” for me, but I told him that it wasn’t necessary, that I liked blank books. However, I … love the literary festival that runs through Spain in spring and begins on April 23 in Barcelona, where the world record for author signings in one day is broken every year. I took the trouble to count how many signatures there were on Sant Jordi on Book Day and I came up with 715 in 13 different spaces.
In Barcelona, there was almost parity: 344 female and 371 male writers signed. In the provinces, there are usually more men signing, although quotas are also used. Two years ago, I was asked to present Nieves Concostrina and I was excited because my son was going to attend. At the last moment, they told me no, that a woman would present it because of the quota. She hurt me because she had been presenting authors for years out of commitment and that time I really wanted her. I suggested that she could apply for the disabled fee, but she didn’t get it.
The other afternoon, browsing books in a booth, a woman came and asked for novels by Corín Tellado. I thought that, with so many new features, there wouldn’t be any, but the lady goes to the fair every year for titles like “Your past condemns me” or “Her passion disturbs me” and the bookseller takes them. Less endearing was the case of another lady, who, accompanied by a girl, was stealing books at the fair. They discovered her in Corín Tellado’s booth, the bookseller’s wife went out after her and caught up with her: the woman was carrying three of hers and the girl was hiding two of hers. I wonder if the girl learned that stealing is bad or that books are valuable.
#Argentina
