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Quote: The Buenos Aires Book Fair is held every year, generally during the last week of April and first two weeks of May in La Rural, a huge fair and convention center located in Palermo neighborhood. Different cultural events take place, such as roundtables, presentations, workshops, and interesting activities for children, teenagers, and adults alike. Famous writers participate in the fair every year, giving lectures and signing books, which is an attraction in itself. In 2003, we were in Buenos Aires attending a conference and Jose Saramago—one of my favorite writers—was in the fair. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it to the fair at that time. Four years later, we were coincidentally in Buenos Aires at the time of the Book Fair. Even without... Read More
From journal Buenos Aires Revisited
Quote: El Ateneo is reputedly one of the best bookstores in the city, and claims to be the largest of its kind in Latin America. That’s all well and good, but at El Ateneo, the building is what draws customers nearly as much as the merchandise: this is easily one of the most dramatic and beautiful retail spaces in the world. Even more surprising, the store has managed to fly under the radar of most Buenos Aires guidebooks, and barely gets mentioned at all in others.Not to be confused with its sister location on the pedestrian-only shopping street of Avenida Florida in El Centro, the Avenida Santa Fe location in Barrio Norte occupies an old theatre dating from 1919. Called the Gran Splendid, the theatre was constructed by Argentine entrepreneur... Read More
From journal Paris of the Pampas: Buenos Aires, Part I