More Books Than You Can Shake a Stick At

This is central part of Hall I;
with Musicora to the left,
multimedia to the right.

The salon's Minitel 'browser'
to the 350,000 title database.

As you enter the hall, you can pick up a list of exhibitors and the program of the 16th Salon du Livre, edition 1996. As the program is 40 pages long, you may as well graze - unless you've come for one of the listed 33 'high points,' in which case you can plow along to wherever it may be.

If you are looking for a particular book - easier to do than look for a particular publisher - you can consult the Minitel database called 'Electre,' which contains 350,000 references - not that all these books are on the salon floor - I saw another figure of 380,000, which I assume is the number of books currently in print and available in France.

I can definitely tell you that it is impossible to visit nearly 1200 publishers in two hours. How many books are on display here? Over the next few days, 800 authors will be present to sign books, take part in debates and talk to their readers - get the program and choose carefully.

There are allusions to Madame de Sévigné and the Internet: her letters to her daughter took ten days for the passage to Provence; and this piece I'm writing will take about 1.5 seconds to pass into the network - but it is the fact that the Internet is causing people to write again and often, that makes the connection to Madame de Sévigné actual. Needless to say, there are a number of collections of her letters in print, and her powers of observation and description are much adlired to this day.

Each year the salon organizers invite a country to be guest of honor and this year it is the United States' turn. The bookstore 'Nouveau Quartier Latin,' with the co-operation of France Edition, has organized the book display of the United States - where the production of 84 publishers is shown. Along with the books, 37 representatives of major - and minor - publishers are present at the Salon. American authors invited number 31; and five of them are reading their works today in the Francis Scott Fitzgerald Room.

There are several of these 'rooms' - and authors will be reading in them daily, in 45-minute slices. Tomorrow, in the Ernest Hemingway Room, William Gibson kicks off at 10:30 and Ernest Games ends the show at 20:15: with Barry Hannah, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, Allan Ginsberg, Dan Simmons, John Ashbery, Jerome Charyn, and Ethan Canin inbetween - and similar readings will take place throughout the duration of the salon.

Many of the French publishers will have their own authors on their stands to meet the public - as will some of the major retailers: for example, the fnac with its Café Littéraire - and some newspapers will be doing this too; notably Le Figaro, l'Humanité, La Croix, Le Monde and Libération - what a list! - add the Magazine Littéraire as well.

Media presence is dense. Radio France's France Culture, France Inter, Radio Bleue, France Info and Radio France International are broadcasting from the salon, as are the private stations O'FM and RTL. Three TV stations are doing broadcasts, one cable station, and the 'export' station, TV5. The Franco-German TV broadcaster 'Arte' has a large stand on which it is presenting dozens of authors of its publishing division.

Ireland has a special presence at the salon this year with 15 publishers present on the stand named 'L'Imaginaire Irlandais,' which is part of a collaboration with a collection of regional French publishing associations (which share a form of Gaelic) - as well a general event lasting all spring.

The Ville de Paris stand,
with Ministry of Culture behind.

I think I better read the program and the catalogue carefully and go back Monday.