People are turning back to books, Mircea Dinescu says in opening of 2019 Gaudeamus Fair

Writer and honorary president of the Gaudeamus Book Fair Mircea Dinescu believes that people are turning back to books, remarking that the excitement of an author who stands in the middle of so many reading lovers is amazing. "I let myself carried away. I accepted this title. I don't know how important it is, but the excitement of being in the middle of so many people who read ... this is an amazing fact. After the 90's people no longer went to the theater, the halls were empty. They had the meetings of the National Union Provisional Council - CPUN where I was a frequent speaker to watch. And people had moved a bit away from bookshops too. Before '89, as you know, people were queuing for cheese, meat and books. It was crazy. It's been a shock, after the consumerist TV-based culture. Now it seems that people are turning back to the books, there's this excitement of touching a book and the author, at the fair. And this matters," the poet said on Wednesday in the opening of the 2019 Gaudeamus Radio Romania Fair. Dinescu announced that at this event he will launch his latest volume of verses titled "The three-legged chair". "It is a kind of praise to simplicity, because in this world it's harder to be simple than complicated," he said. Actor Ion Caramitru, who is also honorary president of the Gaudeamus Fair, confessed that "the great advantage of a fair is that one can buy books for a lower price" plus "the luxury of buying more books than if one went to the bookstore." He spoke about the book that marked his existence - "Fragmentarium" - a volume that is key to understanding national poet Mihai Eminescu. "(...) I am hereby launching a call and I am also reminding those who will perhaps quote my statement, that among the one-hundred-and-something books I have read in my lifetime there is one that has marked my existence. It hasn't been reprinted and my hope is that this speech of mine will somehow preface such an approach - it is called "Fragmentarium". In my opinion, it is key to understanding poet Mihai Eminescu," said Ion Caramitru. Thousands of titles, meetings with writers, historians, translators, literary critics and famous journalists, book launches and autograph sessions, debates and contests are the various events the publishing houses will be treating book lovers with at the Gaudeamus Radio Romania Book Fair that opened on Wednesday at the Romexpo exhibition compound and will be running until Sunday. Over 250 exhibitors are displaying in 200 stands where almost 900 editorial and professional events are due to take place. Gaudeamus 2019 stands under the banner of the 30th anniversary of the historic moment of the December 1989 Romanian Revolution. Organised by the Radio Romania Corporation, Gaudeamus is a cultural project supported by the Ministry of Culture. AGERPRES (RO - authors: Daniel Popescu, Petronius Craiu, editor: Andreea Rotaru; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)