A comic book lover walks into a book fair. He judges the book by it's cover. All of them.
For the first time in my life, I went to the book fair with my serious face on. I intended to buy something rather than just stroll around, feel the atmosphere and come back home empty-handed. The book fair had a familiar feel to it. Lots of families and lots of kids, who either want to go home or don't want to go home. You can't really tell one from the other because they are all small and they are all crying.Nevertheless, it was not as packed as the AutoExpo had been and it was easy to navigate through the crowd. And this was on a Saturday.
I still consider myself fairly new to books. I am pretty illeterate about who's who and what to buy. See, it's like this. Imagine a room that is filled with all the italian films that were ever made. I don't mean just the famous ones or the classics, I mean all of them. That too, arranged in alphabetical order. But when I walk in, I regret that I didn't research anything about Italian cinema and besides Federico Felini, I have no idea which other director should I be looking at. At the same time, I am not going to pick up a Felini film because it's easier to find a Felini flick.
So, there I was at the Book Fair, clueless about what I should be looking for. The first stall I entered, I strolled around for a while. I tried to find something that looked interesting or even vaguely familiar. Not surprisingly, five minutes later I ended up in a rather messy comic book section. Neatly stacked were Asterix, Tintin, McCloud's Zot! and 3 volumes of Gaiman's Sandman. Unsparingly littered were Batman, Superman and Spiderman. I absent-mindedly picked up one, then another and then put them back. I didn't feel the need to buy one of these. I picked up Zot! and flicked through a few pages. The artwork was different and had an american feel to it. It didn't take me long to make up my mind and I bought it right away.
Somewhat lost, I ended up at hall 7. Hall 7 didn't look at all interesting, was small and was deserted. The stalls were owned by publishers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and other countries. I stopped paying attention to everything else when I noticed a "manga cafe". The glass shelf was lined with loads of mangas and I thought it would be nice addition to my collection. I was met with disappointment, however, when upon entering I read that none of the books were for sale and all of them were display purposes. Not my kind of place.
The rest of the book fair experience was a bit like the room I described. Walk into stall, browse through, walk out. I refused to pick up anything which had too much digital graphic work on it's cover. There were some unbelievable titles, like Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet(sic). By the way, it's a "world recipe book for everyday". I assume that has something to do with cooking. There was a creepy stall which was selling an entire vaastu kit but I did not see myself using it in the near future. Then I walked into the Comic Con stall and went on a rampage. See, I missed the Comic Con went it happened. First, I had too much work and then I was not well.I couldn't find any of the comics online. So I just kept picking up comics that I had wanted to buy at Comic Con, one after the other. Contrary to popular belief, it had nothing to do with the cute girl who was working there.
For the first time in my life, I went to the book fair with my serious face on. I intended to buy something rather than just stroll around, feel the atmosphere and come back home empty-handed. The book fair had a familiar feel to it. Lots of families and lots of kids, who either want to go home or don't want to go home. You can't really tell one from the other because they are all small and they are all crying.Nevertheless, it was not as packed as the AutoExpo had been and it was easy to navigate through the crowd. And this was on a Saturday.
I still consider myself fairly new to books. I am pretty illeterate about who's who and what to buy. See, it's like this. Imagine a room that is filled with all the italian films that were ever made. I don't mean just the famous ones or the classics, I mean all of them. That too, arranged in alphabetical order. But when I walk in, I regret that I didn't research anything about Italian cinema and besides Federico Felini, I have no idea which other director should I be looking at. At the same time, I am not going to pick up a Felini film because it's easier to find a Felini flick.
So, there I was at the Book Fair, clueless about what I should be looking for. The first stall I entered, I strolled around for a while. I tried to find something that looked interesting or even vaguely familiar. Not surprisingly, five minutes later I ended up in a rather messy comic book section. Neatly stacked were Asterix, Tintin, McCloud's Zot! and 3 volumes of Gaiman's Sandman. Unsparingly littered were Batman, Superman and Spiderman. I absent-mindedly picked up one, then another and then put them back. I didn't feel the need to buy one of these. I picked up Zot! and flicked through a few pages. The artwork was different and had an american feel to it. It didn't take me long to make up my mind and I bought it right away.
Somewhat lost, I ended up at hall 7. Hall 7 didn't look at all interesting, was small and was deserted. The stalls were owned by publishers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and other countries. I stopped paying attention to everything else when I noticed a "manga cafe". The glass shelf was lined with loads of mangas and I thought it would be nice addition to my collection. I was met with disappointment, however, when upon entering I read that none of the books were for sale and all of them were display purposes. Not my kind of place.
The rest of the book fair experience was a bit like the room I described. Walk into stall, browse through, walk out. I refused to pick up anything which had too much digital graphic work on it's cover. There were some unbelievable titles, like Padma Lakshmi's Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet(sic). By the way, it's a "world recipe book for everyday". I assume that has something to do with cooking. There was a creepy stall which was selling an entire vaastu kit but I did not see myself using it in the near future. Then I walked into the Comic Con stall and went on a rampage. See, I missed the Comic Con went it happened. First, I had too much work and then I was not well.I couldn't find any of the comics online. So I just kept picking up comics that I had wanted to buy at Comic Con, one after the other. Contrary to popular belief, it had nothing to do with the cute girl who was working there.
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