Frankfurt Book Fair/Frankfurter Buchmesse

I went to the Buchmesse yesterday. I hadn't been for three years. I spoke to two publishers, briefly. But mainly I go to look at the books, not to chat up publishers. Via Mobile: It seemed less fun than last time. I was also quite disoriented. Last time, I remember taking little buses everywhere. They must have gone to the main entrances. On foot (the Via Mobile doesn't go everywhere), it can be very wearing to walk all over a hall looking for the right exit. This is despite looking at the map online the night before. Reklam: This is probably a translator in action: Previously, I made a longer list of publishers beforehand. I would go and see small presses like Ten Speed Press or various international law publishers - as a reader and book buyer, not as a translator. Now, I suspect many presses weren't even there, and although I took quite a few catalogues, there was nothing like the superabundance of yore. Probably the financial crisis has had its effect. I had been reading Chinese novels and thinking of brushing up my Chinese, but I did not see any English-language publishers with Chinese books (there may have been some). There were some German translations around. The tent features mainly Chinese minorities, doing calligraphy, painting, embroidery, making puppets and so on - all a bit demonstratively non-political. For the Book Fair, translators means literary translators. The translators' centre, which I saw when it began, have become a firm fixture. I heard Norma Kessler and Babette Schooten talking on the topic of Wie kommt man als Übersetzer zu einem Spezialgebiet? - How does a translator find a special subject? They were talking about their position after training as translators. Babette had worked in a medical occupation for fourteen years and had done a lot of horse riding, and Norma (af…