The famous annual Hebrew Book Week is going to start this Wednesday, 2nd June 2010.
Many larger Israeli cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Kfar Saba, etc. offer Book Week events. Jerusalem’s book fair is taking place at the Liberty Bell Garden (Gan ha-Paଁamon) and Tel Aviv’s location is Kikar Rabin. Moreover, many local cafés, such as the Jerusalem café/restaurant Tmol Shilshom, offer discussions with famous Israeli authors.
The annual Hebrew Book Week has always been an important event where the masses were buying books for reasonable prices. In general, Hebrew books are rather expensive and a trip to the Book Fair was worth the time and money.
In recent years, however, the largest Israeli book chains, Steimatzky as well as Zomet Ha-Sefarim, have been selling books for such low prices that even famous authors won’t make a living anymore. Four books for NIS 100, where usually one book is already NIS 100 (approximately 25 dollars). Israeli authors have been complaining about this kind of dumping policy for a long time, but the public loves it.
Nevertheless, before going to the actual book fair, you should definitely have a look at Zomet ha-Sefarim (Jerusalem: Central Bus Station, Tel Aviv: Dizengoff Center) first.
from She’arim
The original text of the article may be found here.
Jewish Book Review 