The Great Book Show

Despite the improvement in book sales, reading in Brazil
continues to be an activity reserved to a very narrow minority.
The country has a 13 percent illiteracy rate among those
who are 15 or older and from those who can read
only 7 percent have the habit of reading.

Francesco Neves

It was on an upbeat mood that Cariocas (Rio residents) staged from 17 to 27 of May its 10^th Bienal Internacional do Livro (International Biennial of Books). After the 1999 downturn when the book industry sold 30 percent less than the previous year, people are starting to go back to bookstores. According to the Câmara Brasileira do Livro (Brazilian Chamber of Books) 2000 was a much better year with an increase of 12 percent in the number of books published and of 15 percent in the amount of books sold in Brazil. This meant a revenue growth of 13 percent for Brazilian book publishers.

The Rio Bienal was never so big. There were 808 exhibitors (compare this to the 454 from the 1999 edition), 1200 new books were released and 120 authors got in contact with their public. During the 11 days the exposition lasted there were 560,000 visitors, 70% of each bought at least a book. The event has become the biggest book fair, losing even to São Paulo, which also has its own book biennial. The São Paulo event put on last year had 800 exhibitors. The book fair came a long way. The first Rio Bienal happened in 1983. The event held at the Copacabana Palace Hotel had 86 exhibitors.

In order to draw public and make the event the cultural event par excellence of the season, the Bienal organizers prepared a full calendar of seminars, conferences, and guaranteed the presence of 13 foreign writers and 107 national authors, among them some of the best-known Brazilian writers, including Lygia Fagundes Telles, Carlos Heitor Cony, Nélida Piñon, Zélia Gattai, Ziraldo, Celso Furtado, Luis Fernando Verissimo, Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza, Patrícia Melo, Tony Bellotto, Antonio Torres, Ana Miranda, Milton Hatoum, Moacyr Scliar, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, José Roberto Torero, Marina Colasanti, Sérgio SantAnna, Eric Nepomuceno and poet Ferreira Gullar.

Despite the improvement in book sales, reading in Brazil continues to be an activity reserved to a very narrow minority. The country has a 13 percent illiteracy rate among those who are 15 or older and from those who can read only 7 percent have the habit of reading. The high cost of books in Brazil is blamed in part for this situation. Publishers are accused of gouging the public, but they respond that they cannot sell cheaper before they are able to get larger printings.

While France and the US, for example, sell in average 10 books a year per capita, a Brazilian buys a mere 1.9 book a year. If we exclude the didactical works, this number falls to 0.9. There are only 2000 bookstores for a population of 168 million people, which means one bookstore for every 84,000 inhabitants. In the United States there are approximately 20,000 bookstores.

French historian Roger Chartier, an expert in the history of reading and book, who with Spanish writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán was the best-known foreign star at the Book Biennial, wasn't impressed with what he saw. "The multiplication of titles," he declared, "it's not necessarily an indication of publishing health. All over the world—and I don't believe Brazil is an exception—there's been a reduction of purchase of books by readers. Not a reduction in the number of books sold, but in the percentage of copies bought by a reader. Publishers have responded by multiplying titles so that they can draw readers for some theme or author, this way compensating the losses due to the fall of copies sold by title."

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