Book World 2010 - 16^th International Book Fair And Literary Festival Bookworld Prague 2010 - 13^rd-16^th April 2010

News from Book Fair

• Dear Exhibitors and Visitors,
On behalf of the main organisers – the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers and its company, BookWorld – I welcome you to BookWorld Prague 2010, 16th International Book Fair and Literary Festival.
It is my belief that these four coming spring days will bring you unforgettable experiences from encounters with international literature and its authors, as this year’s book fair plays host to exhibitors and guests from 34 countries and regions. This alone amounts to a great success for the Czech book industry, a proof of unrelenting interest on the part of foreign partners in co-operating with Czech publishing houses and promoting the works of their respective national literatures in the Czech Republic. The display section of the book fair is attended by a total of 416 exhibitors, who expect their participation to bring positive results. It is my hope, also, that their expectations will be met.
I welcome all our guests arriving as part of the programme of this year’s guest of honour – the Republic of Poland – and wish them success in attracting lasting attention not only on the part of Czech readers and professional public. Prague will play host to outstanding Polish authors and artists, writers, historians and political theorists. My thanks extend to all those who have participated in the Polish programme, as co-operation with our Polish colleagues was highly professional, providing at the same time a wide creative range.
As part of the focal points of the accompanying festival – “Intercultural Understanding through Literature” and “Growing with the Book” – we have prepared authors’ readings and debates with Czech and foreign writers, presentations of works by national minorities, as well as meetings with popular authors and illustrators of books for children and young people, and programmes focusing on the lifelong enjoyment that reading of books can bring.
Once again, events featuring Czech writers constitute a great majority of the accompanying literary events. Both individual publishers and professional organisations will treat book fair visitors to numerous meetings with Czech authors, translators and illustrators.
Since the scope offered by participating publishers is very wide – both in terms of genres and subject matters – each visitor’s special literary interests should be catered for. I also perceive the book fair as a unique opportunity for a direct encounter between publishers and the reader at whom their books are aimed.
We thank all our publishers and partners for their co-operation; we thank our readers for their unflagging interest in the reading of books, and wish you all many successes and interesting literary experiences. Dana Kalinová, BookWorld Director

• BOOK FAIR IN NUMBERS

Literary Festival in statistics

(figures from 2009 in brackets)

Exhibitors and guests are from these countries and regions (34):
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, Wales

• Prizes Awarded at the Fair
Jiří Orten Prize (organized by the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers), Premia Bohemica (Writers’ Guild), Map of the Year (Cartographic Society of the Czech Republic), Tourmap (Tourfilm Festival and Avant Promotion), Prize of the Academy of SF, Fantasy and Horror, Pince-nez and Little Pince-nez (Writers’ Guild), Dictionary of the Year (Association of Translators and Interpreters), Although we live in different countries, books bring us together (BookWorld Ltd., as part of its “Growing with the Book” campaign for the promotion of book-reading), School is the Foundation of Life (Writers’ Guild), Our World 2010 (National Institute for Children and Young People of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports), plus many other prizes awarded by individual publishing houses.

• Selected Programmes for the Professional Public
Books versus/and the world online (panel discussion with the Google company); The media and its role in the cultural dialogue; a French-Czech seminar for professionals in book publishing; Unique books: tradition and book arts today (round table); the FastCentrik PEMIC internet store – a business opportunity for every bookseller; e-Books; China Forum – a mutual introduction to the Czech and Chinese publishing industries; An opportunity to meet publishers from Germany; An opportunity to meet writers and publishers from Japan.

• Introducing Minorities
In its annual press release, Book World always quotes the number of participating Czech booksellers and national displays from abroad. However, there is one other important entity that has, perhaps, been somewhat neglected – that of the publishing activities of foreign minorities living in the Czech Republic. And yet this work is very important and authentic, often backed by effort of numerous volunteers, publishing their magazines or occasional books with no hope of financial reimbursement. Intercultural Understanding through Literature, one of this year’s BookWorld key topics, is to be credited with the fact that the results of these minorities’ publishing activities will for the first time be displayed at the book fair, stand no. S108 in the Central Hall of the Industrial Palace.
The publishing activity of minorities is concentrated under the single “roof” of the National Minorities House, located for almost three years now in 3 Vocelova St., Prague-Vinohrady. Representatives of eleven of the total of twelve officially acknowledged national minorities in the Czech Republic are seated in the House.
Should you wish to meet the authors and editors of national minority periodicals in person, you will have a unique chance on Thursday, May 13th, at 3 pm in the Lecture Room in Industrial Palace’s right wing, where a debate with representatives of national minorities and editors-in-chief of foreign-language magazines will be held. We conclude with a quiz: what are the official national minorities in the Czech Republic? The answer is: Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, German, Polish, Romany, Ruthenian, Russian, Greek, Slovak, Serbian and Ukrainian.

• Reading Poland
Interview with the director of the Polish Institute in Prague, Maciej Szymanowski, about what our northern neighbours – and this year’s guests of honour at BookWorld – have in store for the book fair.

If we were to sum up this year’s presentation of Poland at Book World in a single motto or credo, what would it be?
When I was going to school, I was being taught that in the past people were worse off, that they had bad lives. I must admit that back then I did not believe it. Today I know that even as late as early 20th century when a man came home from work he had to spend hours upon hours staring at a blank wall. That was before the invention of television. From this point of view we are certainly better off today but even now millions of people still use printed word as the main channel, or at least the main alternative channel, for getting information, e.g. from around the world. The name of this book fair says it nicely: BookWorld. The motto of our participation at the book fair also follows in the tradition of the book as a source of information and knowledge, also about Poland. That is how “Máme Polsko přečtené?” came to be.
The presentation of Poland as the guest of honour is very wide in scope and theme. What do you personally consider to be most attractive, what makes you happy?
I am very glad that two books have been published that were still missing in the Czech Republic. I mean the two anthologies from CDK publishers, or to be more exact The Return of the Person Without Qualities and With the Right Eye. They both contain texts by the most widely read authors who have significantly influenced key public discussions in Poland in the last 5–7 years. And at the same time these authors are practically unknown and unpublished in the Czech Republic.
I am also very curious about how the Czech Republic – as a true fairytale superpower – will receive the works by Polish fairytale authors, for example representatives of the youngest generation, such as Jan Brzechwa, whose poems for many years now teach children in Poland to read and whose works were very scarcely published in the Czech Republic since the seventies.
Do you think the interest of Czech readers in Polish literature and culture as such is sufficient or is there still a lot of work to be done?
In recent years it was not only interest in Polish literature that was on the rise, but also interest in Polish culture and in Czech culture in Poland. But some “black holes” still remain. On one hand, practically every month one or two translations of Polish poetry or prose are launched in the Czech Republic, on the other, however, the number of adaptations of contemporary Polish plays or films in the Czech Television is ridiculously small. The main cable channels on the Czech territory do not feature a single Polish channel, and I do not think it is due to fear of the language’s incomprehensibility or protests from subscribers.
What do Polish and Czech literature have in common and what do you think sets them apart?
Traditionally you are very strong in prose, as we are in poetry. Having said that, in recent years Polish prose brings novels focusing on intellectualls, their lives and responsibility for the choices they make in life. I mean authors like Andrzej Horubała, Tomasz Terlikowski or Paweł Lisicki. Bronisław Wildstein’s novel The Valley of Nothingness, which will be presented at the book fair, also belongs in this category. On the other hand our literature misses a trend that was symbolised here – and it is very sad to be speaking in the past tense – by the personality and the books of Jan Balabán. A very individual, personally specific reflections of the fall and rise of a human existence, which at the same time transcends beyond the horizon of an individual destiny.
The visit in Prague by the poet Wisława Szymborska no doubt represents a major event. She is known to avoid publicity. What has made Mrs. Szymborska come to the Prague book fair?
Its brand. The book fair is a quality event, both in terms of business and culture. You do not have to have any money to spend on books but you can still, as a visitor, enjoy an interesting and meaningful visit. We did not have to persuade Wisława Szymborska to come. All we had to do was respect her single condition – arranging accommodation in a hotel for smokers.
On Saturday the accompanying programme features a concert by the band Pustki. Can you briefly introduce this ensemble?
Pustki currently count among the most popular young Polish bands. Their music displays artistic qualities, but it is also very catchy and pleasant to listen to. Besides these purely musical qualities they also have strong links with literature: in the past they have composed for example music for a play by Dorota Masłowska, another BookWorld guest. In Prague they will play songs from their latest records Kalambury, which is composed entirely from texts by Poland’s outstanding 20th century writers. I must rush to add, however: when we say music and poetry, we usually think of a singer with an acoustic guitar. Not quite what to expect from Pustki.

• Google Books
Google Books have become very popular among the users but, at the same time, it is rather controversial in the book industry. No wonder, the issue is rather complex, difficult to understand and – combined with the continually evolving technologies – incomprehensible for the traditional book industry. This results in a fear of the unknown, of unseen risks, in misunderstandings or even refusal.
That is why Google Czech have decided to partner with the Prague 2010 BookWorld book fair and to host a panel discussion on the topic: Books and/versus the Online World. Santiago de la Mora, EMEA Print Content Partnerships Director, Google, will be one of the participants.

What are the benefits of Google Books against the efforts of local organisations to digitize books?
For every country, the internet is a great opportunity to maintain the national culture. Google aims to bring more of the world's public domain cultural treasure to the world. The internet makes it possible to connect authors to readers in a way which was previously impossible. This is what Google Books is about, and we welcome any initiative that aims to do the same, because a great deal of the world's valuable information is in books. We also think that digitizing books will open up economic opportunities for authors and publishers that do not currently exist.
More digitization initiatives are necessary, and we support them – we are a technology company, and we are good at solving technology problems like scanning large numbers of books and making them available broadly. But we cannot do it alone and we do not have the curating and bibliographic expertise of libraries that make up projects like Europeana. This is why a variety of projects is necessary to provide great access to Europe's cultural heritage.
In addition to working with many libraries participating in Europeana, we also look to partner with cultural organizations. Recently we signed a contract with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, on the basis of which Google and Italian national libraries will make available online millions of books that are no longer under copyright. Thanks to this, the rich cultural, scientific, philosophical and historical heritage of Italy will be substantially available to people all around the world.
Which country is most advanced in digitization efforts?
Digitization efforts vary. Books in the Google Books index represent over 100 languages. Google Books is available to users in 124 countries, across 42 languages. Over 30,000 publishers have joined the Partner Program, including nearly every major global publisher (including McGraw Hill, Random House, Hyperion, HarperCollins, and Penguin). And we have partners contributing books from over 100 countries.
We are also currently partnered with over 40 libraries around the world, including 10 outside the US. But we are not alone in aiming to digitize the world’s books. There are many efforts across Europe at present.
How many Czech publishers did already subscribe to this service? How quickly is this number growing?
The Czech Republic is an important market for us and we look forward to working even more closely with local publishers. To date we have more than 9000 publisher partnerships in Europe, many of those in the Czech Republic. We can quote Grada or Baronet as examples.
I think it is a great pity that in the Czech Republic only a fraction of what Google Books can do is available to the users. Why did you launch the service here when it runs only in a limited version?
Google Books runs in full version in the Czech Republic, although it is true that we do not have as many Czech books as we would like to have. The way we operate the service is to launch it in as many languages as possible and then work with publishers, authors and libraries to add more and more content. We think that having some content is better than having none, but we are very interested in increasing the number of Czech books discoverable online.
Any innovation takes certain time to have a full scale adoption. When mobile telephony or the internet started who could have predicted that you would end up having more than 4 billion mobile users and more than 1.5 billion Internet users. Specifically, online promotion and sale of books is relatively new, yet it is growing tremendously, in each country at its own pace.
In the case of out of copyright books, certain books might be deemed in the Public Domain in the United States and not in Europe and as a consequence access to those books would vary depending on the country. We respect copyright in all the countries where we operate. We are well aware that these new changes in the book industry can lead to misunderstandings and that they can cause worries. That is why we try to work closely with the authors, publishers, books sellers and libraries to develop together a mode of partnership that will allow everybody to profit from the internet.
Concerning the availability of texts written in our language, what is the situation of the Czech Republic compared to foreign countries?
Google Books has content in more than 100 languages, including, of course, Czech. The internet offers an opportunity for content in less popular languages to be found just as easily as content in the more widely-spoken languages. As an anecdote it is worth mentioning that this past December the Government of Catalonia gave an award to Google for the preservation and dissemination of the Catalan language.

• Wikipedia: Bringing Information, Education and Rewards
INTERVIEW WITH MIROSLAV LANGER, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE WIKIMEDIA CZECH REPUBLIC ASSOCIATION
Wikipedia, the internet encylopedia, has won worldwide popularity on the web. Why do you think that is?
Several reasons: first of all it is easy and free to access, very up-to-date and offering a huge extent of information, hardly imaginable before Wikipedia came into existence (over 160 entries in the Czech Wikipedia, over three million entries in the English version). All these positive aspects can chiefly be contributed to the way in which Wikipedia is created – from contributions of a virtually limitless group of voluntary authors. While this method may not secure a one hundred percent reliability, its protective mechanisms are stable to the point that the number of erroneous information at Wikipedia is fairly low. And that is another reason for which Wikipedia is so popular.
Czech Wikipedia only came into existence fairly recently. Can you tell us more about how it came to life?
Time is very relative and on the internet it runs very fast. The Czech Wikipedia was created in 2002, mere 16 months after the launch of Wikipedia as such, which makes it not so recent. The foundation of Czech Wikipedia must be attributed to Czech Esperantists. This artificial language is fairly popular in the Czech Republic and its speakers already had some experience with the Wikipedia in Esperanto. The first attempts at Czech articles – “Science” and “Culture” – have not persevered, but many other entries still rest on foundations established at the very outset of the Czech Wikipedia.
What are the greatest problems encountered in the creation and completion of the Czech entries? How do you seek and select new authors?
The writing of Czech entries poses no special obstacles that would make Czech Wikipedia different from other-language versions. The main thing is to adhere to the essential rules of creating quality entries, which ensure that Wikipedia at least maintains its current quality level while being able to improve it step by step. It is chiefly the rule of verification, i.e. the requirement to present sources from which unclear information originate. What can be an obstacle is a lack of courage in editing. That is why we seek editors especially by reminding everyone that besides being Wikipedia readers, they can also become its authors. All that is needed is elementary education and willingness to co-operate. That is also why we do not choose authors – literally everyone who means well with Wikipedia can become its author.
At this year’s BookWorld you will be presenting an Award for the Development of Czech Wikipedia. Can you tell us what exactly this award stands for?
We have organised this award for the development of Czech Wikipedia in order to encourage authors to start addressing topics that are important but still neglected by the Czech Wikipedia. We have created a list of some three hundred articles from the widest scope of human knowledge, from natural sciences, through society, all the way to economics. The award is reserved for those who have significantly contributed to the creation of truly high-quality articles. Thanks to our co-operation with partners headed by our general partner Česká spořitelna we managed to prepare some quality rewards for the best authors of these articles. These awards have helped Wikipedia to increase its quality content and that is why we wish to continue with them in the future. We also hope that they might attract new authors who will grow to like contributing to Wikipedia.

• Europe between the Lines
On the eve of the book fair a traditional event was held, organised by the Czech Centres – The Literary Night. This year’s motto – “Europe between the Lines: Czech Celebs Reading European Literature at Prague’s Attractive Sites” – has attracted hundreds of literature enthusiasts to Prague’s Lesser Quarter. This year’s event was a veritable literary marathon and included 17 reading sites. Many authors whose works were read by popular Czech actors and writers will be present at the book fair in person, introducing themseleves to Czech readers. These include Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès (read by Jan Budař), Maria Peura (read by Vanda Hybnerová), Simon Mawer (read by Jiří Langmajer), Attila Bartis (read by Karel Dobrý), Willem Frederik Hermans (read by Roman Zach) and Seven Regener (read by Jaroslav Rudiš).

• Meeting Estonian Poet and Thinker Jaan Kaplinski
On Thursday, 4pm, the book fair’s literary café will bear witness to a meeting with the Estonian poet, essayist and philosopher Jaan Kaplinski. The focus will be on Kaplinski’s work, the wider context of Estonian literature, as well as on Finno-Ugric nations and their philosophy.
In recent decades Jaan Kaplinski (1941) has become Estonia’s best-known essayist and poet abroad. In 1997 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature. He graduated in Romance philology and structural linguistics at the Tart University. In the 1960s he gained renown as a poet. Gradually he adopted irreplaceable status in Estonian literature as thinker, poet and essayist, addressing global topics relating to the future of mankind and nature. Kaplinski’s texts display a growing propensity to set in motion, to erase the boundaries between genres. He attempts to author texts that would be important not just to himself, but also to readers. His poems are like storytelling, they speak of the most ordinary, the most obvious, the most permanent – nature, children, life itself. Often he also focuses on the unity between various cultures and languages, and his latest collection features, among other, poems written in Finnish and English. His sympathies constantly turn to the East – the poetry of Japan and China.

Kaplinski is a modernist poet; author whose essays and poems stem from himself as an individual, his experiences, feelings, books he has read; author who thinks about many things and through his works he draws a picture of himself. Of all Estonian authors, Kaplinski manifests the greatest sensitivity towards, and the greatest knowledge of, nature – in one of his interviews he said he wished to become a flower himself. In his works, respect for all living creatures is ever-present, along with the defence of all diversity, the author’s bias for everything smaller and weaker – be it nature or a nation. Recently he has developed pronounced interest in the Estonian language, counting himself among the opponents of normative linguistics and enjoying the use of vernacular forms of the language. His prosaic works – essays, articles or travelogues – focus on topics that pertain to the entire society. Kaplinski’s poetry has been translated into Finnish, Swedish, English, Spanish, Czech, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Danish and other languages.

• The Booksellers’ Chart
The century’s first decade was marked by a boom in statistics and charts. Television channels strive to measure the number of viewers, radios the number of listeners and websites the number of visitors. Films are charted according to their box office takings and music is sorted by the sale of records. Little surprise perhaps that such statistics also feature a chart of bestselling books. We asked Vladimír Pistorius, chairman of the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers, to tell us a little more.
Where has the idea for a chart of bestselling books come from? What were its main objectives?
The main objective of any book chart is to facilitate readers’ orientation in the book production and to promote reading.
It should be noted at the same time, however, that no chart is absolute, that the standings depend on the methodology we adopt in charting bestsellers. That is why various lists may manifest material differences – the standings are different when we evaluate data from distributors, large bookstores, or booksellers from a certain region. The ACBP compiles its chart based on reports from all booksellers who are willing to co-operate with us.
How do you collect the data from these booksellers?
Data on bestselling titles in individual bookstores are collected by us every week. Some participants provide us with data from various outlets of a single chain store. Booksellers are required to complete a simple electronic form, featuring the ISBN of five titles and numbers of copies sold in three categories – fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature. This information is in turn processed automatically and the resulting table is routinely homogenized, as various booksellers often classify the same titles in different categories. At the end of the year we also use this information to create a yearly chart.
When has this project started? How many booksellers participated in it from the outset, and how many are collaborating now?
The preliminary or testing phase of the system involved 11 booksellers and was launched in 1999. We publish the charts officially since 2002. At present the ACBP chart has 170 contributing bookstores, even though not all of these are regular senders of reports. On average, today’s weekly chart of bestselling titles reflects results from some 73 stores.
What can we learn from a chart of bestselling titles about the Czech book market? What use can we make of the collected data?
I think that as a source of sophisticated information about the Czech book market the chart of bestselling books should not be overestimated. It does, however, provide us with interesting information on the most successful titles. Readers can use it for inspiration and for publishers, journalists and librarians it can serve as an interesting indicator of the readers’ tastes.
We can only add that all the weekly and annual charts that have been published so far can be accessed at the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers website – www.skcn.cz. If you would like to learn more, join an informal meeting with the most active booksellers (measured by their contribution of relevant data), who will be awarded and rewarded for their efforts – Literary Café in the right wing of the Industrial Palace, Thursday, May 13th, 2 pm.

• 16th Annual Book World Declared Open On Thursday, 13th May, Poland’s minister of culture and national heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski officially opened Book World Prague – 16th International Book Fair and Literary Festival, by the symbolic cutting of a ribbon.
The opening ceremony got off to a jazzy start, courtesy of Tomáš Liška’s jazz Trio. Then it was the Czech minister of culture Václav Riedlbauch’s turn to take the floor. “Holding a beautiful book in one’s hands is a joy in itself and doubly so if it has got meaningful content,” he said. In his address he also emphasised the significance of Polish culture and literature. Among the thirty-four countries represented this year, Poland enjoys the status of a guest of honour. Minister Riedlbauch continued: “I am truly glad that this year’s accent is on Poland, as Polish culture is great, it is exemplary. Alongside Slovakia, Poland is not only our closest neighbour, but we also enjoy linguistic and cultural closeness in a situation of absolutely above-average relations.”
The close ties between Polish and Czech culture were in turn, the close also stressed by Poland’s minister of culture and national heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski. He expressed his satisfaction that this year’s Book World will welcome, among other, the poetess and Nobel Prize laureate Wislawa Szymborska. Other speakers included City of Prague’s culture councillor Ondřej Pecha and director of the Polish Institute in Prague Maciej Szymanowski, who expressed his gratitude “that Poland could partake in this great feast of books”. Visitors were also welcomed by the book fair’s director Dana Kalinová, who, together with the Polish minister, declared the book fair opened.

• Pantomime Opened Polish National Stand
Poland, guest of honour of this year’s international book fair and literary festival Book World Prague, opened its display in the Central Hall on Thursday morning. For the opening ceremony, the organisers chose the universal language of pantomime. Actors from Wroclaw’s Teatr Formy mimed a performance entitled Circles of Memory, based on the work of the Polish romantic poet Cyprian Norwid. The audience was then addressed by Grzegorz Gauden, director of The Book Institute from Krakow. “The performance showed us one possible form of the author – publishers relationship,” he said with slight exaggeration, „but we at the Institute try our best to ensure that the relationship between authors and publishers runs very smoothly.“ The Institute also supports the publishing of translations of Polish authors abroad, and some eight hundred Polish titles have been published in various countries around the world in the past decade. The Czech translations are featured at the Polish National Stand.

• Jan Těsnohlídek jr. Awarded the 2010 Jiří Orten Prize
On May 13th 2010 a ceremonial soiree at the Book World book fair saw the 2010 Jiří Orten Prize winner being chosen from the three nominated authors: Jan Němec – Four Hand Game, Jan Těsnohlídek jr. – Violence without
Prejudice and Kateřina Tučková – Gerta Schnirch Banished.
The laureate is Jan Těsnohlídek jr. for his poetry collection entitled Violence without Prejudice (Násilí bez předsudků). The expert jury (Petr A. Bílek, Petra Hůlová, Jindřich Jůzl, Pavel Kosatík and Jiří Peňás) nominated him “for a generation’s poetic testimony of revolt at a time when reasons for revolt are not readily found”.
Jan Těsnohlídek jr. (*1987) was born on April 11th, 1987, in Havlíčkův Brod. He spent most of his life in Krucemburk, a township near Žďár nad Sázavou, and started writing while a grammar school student in Hlinsko. He was awarded in numerous literary competitions (Orten’s Kutná Hora 2005–2008, Václav Hrabě’s Hořovice 2006, 2008). Having concluded his secondary-school education he worked in the Vysočina bookstore in Havlíčkův Brod and later moved to Prague. His poems were published in HOST, Tvar and Psí víno. His Violence without Prejudice was first published in 2009 as part of the Stůl series. The second edition was brought out the very same year by Petr Štengl publishers as the first title of the Pop series.
Since 2009 the Jiří Orten Prize for young authors up to 30 years of age is organised by the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers. The award’s partner is the City of Prague and this year it has also received financial support from Czech Republic’s Ministry of Culture.

• Are Books in Danger of Electronic Demise?
Panel discussion on the topic of Books versus/and Online World came as a splash to the otherwise calm book waters. The future of printed books is a delicate topic relating to readers, authors, publishers and booksellers alike. The time of ibooks and the downloading of books from the internet has come.

Internet as a phenomenon has enjoyed astonishing success in recent years. This has, of course, also affected the world of books and, combined with the dynamic development of electronic media, it might well be spelling the “death” of books as we know them. Or are we being too pessimistic? Representatives of Google, the initiators of yesterday’s panel discussion, claim that their entry to the market will not jeopardise printed books. Publishers, however, argue back, saying that this is only temporary and that there are other companies lurking behind, hoping to exact electronic rule over the world of books. Everything seems to suggest that the struggle for books and readers using 21st century’s weapons has already begun.

Google Books
“We want to provide access to books from around the world to all the people,“ Santiago de la Mora, who came to introduce the Google Books project, said at the start of the discussion. The project elicited antagonistic reactions from booksellers and publishers. Worries regarding the possible downloading of books from the internet were among those most frequently voiced, together with the fear that this could result in a fall in production of printed books.
„Our critics are afraid that Google Books will replace printed word, but I am sure that this service will actually help people around the world discover books,” says Santiago de la Mora in defence of the project and reacts to the claim that Google Books offer to download entire books. “When you enter a query in the search window, you will access the title and a limited excerpt from the book, not the full-length text. The service will also inform you where you can buy or rent the book, so it actually helps booksellers and publishers.” Google acquires books for digitization from two sources: its partners, usually publishers, who provide it with books, and also from large libraries. “Books that could formerly be accessed only at a given library are now available to everyone within the reach of the internet,” Santiago stresses the advantages of the project. This fact was appreciated by the attending representatives of Czech booksellers and publishers, who had at the same time, however, expressed doubts as to how secure digitized books actually are. Full-length texts are at Google’s disposal. Can it protect them?

Pirates Attack
“We should learn from the course of events in the music industry, where digitized works are regularly downloaded from the internet by pirates,” says chairman of the Association of Czech Booksellers and Publishers Vladimír Pistorius. “As soon as the price of ibooks drops, it will only be a question of time when people start downloading books at will,” Jiří Srstka from the Dilia agency added. “There are many ways to download books and at the moment there are no means of preventing it. We can only make it more difficult,” Zdeněk Jaroš from Grada publishers concludes. This results in the threat of publishers losing their money in the future, just like their musical counterparts had in the past. “It is necessary to come up with a system of how to offer digital-version books to readers. Time is almost up,” says Jiří Srstka.

Rights and Prices
“The sharing of literature via the internet can be beneficial, but certain conditions must be respected, especially copyright,” poet, translator and essayist Petr Borkovec said in reference to yet another potential obstacle in the way of digitized books. The rights to individual titles can be very complicated. Rights to a single book are often the property of several people, including e.g. author, translator, and graphic designer. All these right-owners should express their consent with the publication of the book on the internet. This is not only difficult from the legal point of view, it also influences the final price of the electronic book. And the price of books available from the internet was another topic of discussion. “Many people think that electronic books should be cheaper that their printed versions, as there are no printing and distribution costs involved, but that is not the case,” Vladimír Pistorius says. “Yes, there are no printing costs, but these only amount to some 10 to 15 percent of the price. The distribution costs are 45 %, but for example the online store Amazon asks for 35 %, so not much is saved.” All those expecting books to cost e.g. an equivalent of the price of a single text message – an opinion also expressed in the discussion – will probably be disappointed.

The End of Bookstores
The time when books will be available to easily download over the internet is probably imminent and bookstores may soon start slowly abandoning their positions. “I believe there are still people who prefer printed books, graphically designed, to an internet text. Books still retain their charm, especially for the older generation,” a member of the audience said. Young people, however, eagerly await books over the internet. “Today’s students are used to getting their information from all around the world and they will surely welcome any opportunity to download a book they can use in their studies,” a student representative commented. “I know authors, including, for example, Milan Kundera, who will never consent to the electronic version of their book, as they only honour books in their traditional form,” Jiří Srstka added. “I think that printed and electronic books can co-exist,” Petr Borkovec concluded the debate. Time will show whether he is right.

• Romani Literature Is Alive
One of the main topics of this year’s book fair is Intercultural Understanding through Literature. In the field of domestic book culture this would obviously suggest establishing closer ties with Romani literature. We live right next to it, but do we really know it?
Book World offers us a look at the world of Romani literature, a chance to acquaint ourselves with interesting authors, and learn about qualified sources of further information on the Romani past and present. The cultural world of the Romani is highly variegated, but today’s society seems to be closing its eyes on it. Let us try and open them.

Magazine as the Basis
History teachers us about the importance of magazines mapping a nation’s culture and events and the role they play in a nation’s feeling of unity. The Romani have such magazine. Its name is Romano djaniben, it is published by a namesake civic association and it is the sole professional periodical publication in the Czech Republic focusing on the Romani language, history and culture. The magazine’s rich content offers expert articles from many arts fields, as well as works by Romani writers, reviews and short annotations of Romani studies literature. These are accompanied by popularising articles, making the magazine a source of information for the general Romani public. The magazine is published since 1994 – two issues per year since 2002 – every issue containing 250 pages. After the tragic demise of the magazine’s founder Milena Hübschmannová, who was also the founder of Romani studies at the Charles University, Peter Wagner became the magazine’s editor-in-chief, followed last year by Jana Kramářová and Eva Zdařilová. Under this management the magazine attempts to be featured on the list of reviewed periodicals, operated by the Science and Research Council.

Message to New Generations
Naturally, Romano djaniben magazine is not the only representative of Romani literary efforts worth mentioning. Between 2008–2009 several other interesting projects arose from the Sinti and Romani Holocaust project. One of them is the translation of a catalogue entitled Nazi Genocide of Sinti and Romani, coming complete with didactic material for the teaching of the Romani holocaust topic at secondary and primary schools. These materials should not only remind us of the past, they should also encourage debate among today’s generation of young people about the current problems with xenophobia and racism. The Romani Culture Museum, celebrating its 20th anniversary next years, has set itself the same task. “We are a space for encounters between cultures. We preserve records of Romani history as part of the European heritage. We educate the young generation towards tolerance and intercultural thinking. We play our part in the fight against xenophobia and racism. We open paths leading to the roots of the Romani identity. We do all this to achieve mutual understanding. For the dialogue between cultures. For ourselves,” declares the Museum in its mission and its activities testify to the same. The Museum assembles collections documenting Romani culture and history, displaying these to the general public in a permanent exhibition in two halls, accompanied by numerous short-term exhibitions. The institution also partakes in the Romani cultural life with numerous other projects, such as lectures, open days, book and CD launches, etc. It also organises children’s programmes in its club and offers Romani language lessons. A small sample of the Museum’s manifold activities will also be presented at Book World, for the very first time this year. Its stand will feature books by Romani authors as well as books focusing on Romani history and culture, together with audio records of authors’ readings, interviews and renditions of various works.

Romani Studies at Focal Point
For nineteen years now, everybody who is interested in the history, culture and life of the Romani has his or her interests catered for by the Arts Department of the Prague Charles University. It offers a Romani studies seminar as a workplace centring both on education and research. The key departure point of all seminar’s employees and students is linguistics and active knowledge of the Romani language. However, the scope of the Romani studies seminar is very wide-ranging: it aims to elucidate the anthropological, historical, political, religious, folklore, literary and other elements of the Romani culture and to interconnect knowledge achieved by these individual fields. Czech Romani studies count among the best in the world and of the eight international linguistic conferences focusing on the Romani language held so far, two were organised by Charles University’s Arts Department. It should be noted, of course, that Romani studies do not thrive only at the Czech academic ground; it also has its active adherents abroad. The International Romani Writers’ Association, for example, has made its outstanding contribution to the enhancement of the Romani culture, namely literature, with its Romani Library project. Its aim is to support and promote contemporary Romani works. The total number of the Romani people living in EU’s member and candidate states exceeds six and a half million. Four and a half million of these actively speak some form of the Romani language. This represents a strong enough basis for the preservation of history and the creation of a cultural future.

Stars at the Book Fair
Besides opportunities to learn more about Romani culture, this year’s Book World offers the unique chance to meet some of its authors. One of these interesting encounters, taking place on Saturday, will involve painter and writer Ceija Stojka, who has recently been awarded honorary professorship and who is the main star of the Romani section within the book fair’s Intercultural Understanding through Literature section. Another interesting Romani author at the book fair is the Finnish author, poet and screenwriter Veijo Baltzar. His works manifest pride and solidarity with the Romani community. His first novel, The Burning Road, became a sensation, and his successive works also aroused much interest. Come see these authors in person and let them speak for themselves. When you leave, perhaps you will find yourself being drawn to Romani literature on a rather long-term basis.

• Word’s Struggle with Image
The fighting title belonged to an interesting debate, attended by Krzysztof Koehler, Polish poet, literary critic, Warsaw University professor and since 2006 director of the Polish public service TV channel TVP Kultura.
His debating partner was Czech journalist and since 2009 head of the Czech Television’s current affairs cultural department Petr Fischer. The Polish guest began by introducing the project of the Polish television’s cultural channel. It was established in 2006, modelled after both ARTE and the Russian Kultura channel. The Polish channel focusing on culture broadcasts 19 hours a day and its scope is very wide – from classic culture, through alternative, all the way to the unofficial expressions of the cultural scene. The channel is financed from revenue coming from advertisements broadcasted by the Polish public service television. Petr Fischer added that such television channel is still something of an exception in the European context. Poland enjoys the advantage of a relatively strong market (more than 4x bigger than in the Czech Republic), facilitating such projects. Krzysztof Koehler admitted that his channel does not attract too many viewers, but on the other hand it boasts relatively high viewer satisfaction.
The second part of the debate centred on the issue of television rendition of literary topics. While a televised performance or the coverage of a music or drama event is relatively easy to approach, approximating something as static as a book and something as private as a reader’s experience somehow stands in opposition to the very fundaments of the language of television. What is more, TV channels are often pressed by their editors towards quick editing (reminiscent of the editing of music videos) and attractiveness of portrayed topics, which often borders on prioritising showbiz news. According to Petr Fischer it would be inconceivable in today’s Czech Republic, and probably also in Poland, to use such television reports as he had seen on American television channels and even in Germany, when for example a fresh winner of a literary competition was given three minutes in the main news programme to read very statically, in a softly lit interior, excerpts from his work.
So how can quality culture be presented on television? By finding attractive and original approach to the story. In the field of literature, Czech Television is quite successful in achieving this in its “333” magazine. Polish TVP Kultura, on the other hand, enjoys more programming possibilities. It features, for example, “The Poets’ Magazine”, a programme dedicated solely to poets, no matter what their presentation abilities are – the programme is actually based on their authenticity. TVP Kultura has also established the genre of a “book video”, wherein a book is introduced through the use of animated images.
Both Krzysztof Koehler and Petr Fischer finally agreed that presenting literature on television is a marathon task and an everyday struggle with the main editors, who succumb to the pressure for the largest possible audiences of their news programmes.

• 2009 Map of the Year
The Book World book fair has become a traditional venue for the Map of the Year award ceremony. Authors and representatives of publishers of the best cartographic publications met in the Literary Theatre to choose the winners from a total of 107 products entered by 20 publishers.
In the Atlases, Map Sets and Editions Category, the Elections Atlas – Olomouc Region Municipal Council 2000, 2004 and 2008 came out victorious, published by Palacký University Olomouc. Berounka Waterway Map 1 : 50 000 published by Kartografie Praha won in the Individual Cartography Work category.
Olomouc Safety Map by Lucie Burianová from the Olomouc Palacký University dominated in the category of Student Cartography Work.
The jury also awarded two special prizes, one to Stiefel Eurocart for its long-term and high-quality production of cartographic works for schools, and one to Trasa publishers for its dedicated publishing of the quality set of Czech Tourist Club tourist maps 1 : 50 000.

• International Awards for Children’s Literature
This year’s Book World introduces books awarded in two prestigious international competitions that present children’s literature awards – the Astrid Lindgren award and the BolognaRagazzi award.

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA)
The greatest prizefor children’s literature

“Children themselves, also with the help of books, develop somewhere in the hidden corners of their souls their own imagination. This is better than anything else. These images, so beautiful, are so important for all of us.” A. Lindgren

In honour of Sweden’s best-loved writer Astrid Lindgren and in support and promotion of children’s books, in 2002 the Swedish government established an international award that soon became one of the most respected international children’s awards. Every year the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is presented to authors, illustrators and organisers of various other activities in support of children’s reading, irrespective of their language or nationality.
It represents the most influential children’s literature award worldwide, its winner receiving 5 million Swedish crowns (EUR 540 000). The award is aimed at living artists for their lifelong achievement that would display supreme artistic qualities and deeply humane appeal, accord with the message of Astrid Lindgren’s work.
The objective of the award is to enhance and strengthen interest in literature for children and young people around the globe, while at the same time globally supporting children’s rights. The winner is selected by an international committee, its members being nominated nationally.

BolognaRagazzi Award
Winning and shortlisted books 2000–2010

This international award was presented for the first time in 1966 to best books for children and young people for graphic design and publishing achievement.
Every year the prize is awarded in the best non-fiction, fiction and “New Horizons” category, which focuses chiefly on works from Arab countries, Latin America, Asia and Africa. These have been supplemented by another award for best debuts – Opera Prima – works by new and young authors and illustrators, helping readers and publishers discover emerging talents.
The BolognaRagazzi Award counts among the most prestigious, as publishers submit their very best books, ensuring outstanding quality of candidates and their works.
The winning books receive good media coverage on the international level and winning authors and artists enjoy the attention of both professional and general public, not least within the framework of Bologna’s annual Children’s Book Fair.

• Polish Poetry’s First Lady in Prague
Without doubt, the visit of the Polish poetess and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature Wisława Szymborska counts among the most memorable events of this year’s Book World. Mrs. Szymborska met with her readers on Friday afternoon. Wisława Szymborska’s life, which started in 1923, and her artistic and creative career were first recounted by the Czech poet Viola Fischerová. She took the opportunity to quote Mrs. Szymborska’s thought that “irrespective of how long a life is, its curriculum should be short”. She also spoke about the importance of Wisława Szymborska not just in the context of Polish literature and poetry (she published twenty collections and her work amounts to three hundred poems), but also in the fields of critique and essays. Mrs. Fischerová introduced Wisława Szymborska’s main translator into Czech Vlasta Dvořáčková. The ensuing programme featured the Polish poet’s work, recited in silent but committed voice both of the author and her translator Vlasta Dvořáčková and by a drama student, actress Marie Štípková. Excerpts from Wisława Szymborska’s letters to young authors, certainly not lacking in irony and wit, added welcome flavour to the programme. It is beyond doubt that Mrs. Szymborska is Polish poetry’s first lady not just for her talents, but also for her unflagging vitality, elegance and charisma.

• Introducing Chinese Book Market
International Book Fairs Division General Manager of the China Universal Press & Publication Co., Ltd., Mr. Dai Lan, organiser of the Chinese presentation at the book fair, talks about Czech-Chinese co-operation in the field of books
What is the main reason behind China’s participation in the book fair?
Quite naturally we would like to, above all, help develop the Chinese-Czech relations in the field of book culture. China’s market is large and Chinese publishers are interested in the Czech book market. So our main objective is to promote and develop these mutual relations.
What is the offer of Chinese publishers at the book fair?
There are ten publishing houses in our delegation with a very wide-ranging offer. Our stand features children’s books, Chinese language textbooks, fiction, social science literature, literature about architecture… Before coming to Prague we looked for information about the Czech book market on the internet and we hope to further deepen our knowledge through our participation here. Perhaps the next time we come the selection at our stand will be such that it will attract even more Czech publishers.
What can you say about your participation in the Book World after the first two days?
It gets better every day! Yesterday we had a meeting between Czech and Chinese publishers and we shared information from various fields. We also received a lot of relevant information from the book fair’s director Dana Kalinová. Today we are welcoming visitors and publishing representatives at our stand who are interested in the Chinese book market – we introduce our books and offer copyright. We hope our participation will be successful.

• Premia Bohemica to Bulgaria for the Third Time
In the eighteen-year history of awarding best foreign translators of Czech literature, the Premia Bohemica heads to Bulgaria for the third time, making Bulgarian translators top the chart of this prize’s winners.
Surprising as it may seem, it does have a natural explanation. When Bulgaria finally emerged from the four hundred years of Turkish rule in late 19th century, Czech intellectuals from various fields helped shape modern Bulgarian society, laying foundations to later Bulgarian sympathies towards Czech literature. In Bulgaria the subject of Czech studies boasts very high quality and is offered by almost all of the country’s universities, turning out sufficient numbers of translators from Czech. This year’s laureate, Anželina Penčeva, enjoys a special position among them.
Anželina was born in Sofia in 1957. She enrolled for Czech studies in 1977 by sheer chance and never regretted it. Her everyday life with the Czech language has brought her a lot, including a husband. For many years Ms. Penčeva worked as editor in the Narodna kultura publishing house, specialising in translations of Czech literature. For her own translations she chose works of elaborate content, wealth of thought and linguistic complexity. She has translated works by Milan Kunder, but her prestigious discipline are translations of Bohumil Hrabal, such as Morytates and Legends, Too Loud a Solitude or I Served the King of England. She also translates works by contemporary Czech prose writers, such as Jiří Kratochvil.
In her address, Anželina Penčeva emphasised the contribution made by the Czech ministry of culture, without whose subsidies Czech books could not be published in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian book market is very small, which means its publishers are not overenthusiastic to risk the publishing of Czech translations without financial support.
Thanks to Anželina Penčeva and other Bulgarian Czech-studies experts, Czech literature presents itself in this country in a highly representative selection, lacking none of our national literature’s major works.
RaŠ

• Vision versus Money
How to get the finance for interesting projects in the field of literature and for the support of reading? Representatives of subsidised projects from Germany, Austria and United Kingdom came to share their experience.
It is interesting to note that even though representatives of similar Czech organisations and publishers were invited to the debate, not many had gathered in audience. Does that mean everybody in the Czech Republic is satisfied with the way beneficial projects are supported? If yes, it is great news, if the answer is, however, no, than what a pity they have not come to listen to their foreign partners’ interesting experiences.
Viv Bird from the United Kingdom has introduced project entitled Book Trust. “We try to attract children and adults to reading in various forms. We have many programmes, such as Book Start, wherein children get a package with book offer and some free books, which they can use to start their own little library,” she summarised a part of her organisation’s activity. Book Trust is a charity organisation, partly financed by the state and partly by the private sector. “It took us a while but in the end we managed to persuade publishers and booksellers that our activity is important for them. That the promotion of reading from a very early age will win them new customers.” In Austria they adopted a slightly different approach. Their biggest readers’ organisation is the Young Readers Club. “We are a non-profit organisation with a small subsidy from the state, so every day I have to deal with the question of how do we finance our activity. We try to support children and young people in reading, we publish magazines, co-operate with schools, but the subsidy we get from the state makes up less then 10 percent of our budget,” Gerhard Falschlehner says. “We found understanding with some big companies, such as OMW. Together we have collaborated on many interesting projects. We also involved some celebrities, and combined together it works really well.” Heinrich Kreibich from the German organisation called Stiftung Lesen, which gets no money from the state budget, also relies on co-operation with big companies. “We have several long-term sponsors. One of them is Škoda Auto, which gave us cars for our mobile readings in schools. We co-operate with the food companies Nestlé or Coca-Cola. We try to offer them interesting conditions that would promote their products. With Nestlé we have collaborated on the project Breakfast Time – Reading Time, which had involved some three thousand preschools. This co-operation was interesting for both parties,” Heinrich Kreibich said. What is the situation in the Czech Republic? Unfortunately the Czech point of view was scarcely represented. Maybe next time.
JaM

• Books Help Establish Closer Ties between Nations
On Friday morning the book fair visitors were treated to a selection of books representing the publishing activity of Prague’s National Minorities House. These foreign-language books are in direct relationship to the Czech environment.
First Mr. István H. Tóth, lecturer from the Prague Charles University, acquainted the audience with two book titles in Hungarian. These included the biographical novel entitled A Family History, written by a now eighty-year old author Taťána Poljaková from Ostrava. Her family came from Mukachevo and undertook a one-hundred-year odyssey through Hungary and Slovakia to Moravian Silesia. Some members of the family gained renown, such as the author’s aunt, who became president T. G. Masaryk’s sculptor. There were also several priests in the wider family circles. Against the backdrop of an autobiographical family saga, numerous revolutionary political events take place in central Europe, including the break up of Austria-Hungary. The book’s message is pronouncedly humanistic, and using real human lives it proves that central-European nations were capable of living together in peace and co-operation. The second Hungarian publishing achievement is a Hungarian grammar textbook. Its author is a Czech Charles University student Radek Patloka. It might be considered a rather bold move for a Czech student to write a Hungarian grammar textbook, but the Hungarian academic community has appreciated it, since the logic of the Hungarian language significantly differs from the logic of Slavonic languages. This makes Patlok’s Hungarian grammar easy to access by students from Slavonic countries.
Debate’s second guest was the German-language author Walter Piverka, who introduced his two new books. The first one was an autobiographical novel entitled Being German, which starts with the displacement of Germans after Second World War, when only a very small number of this minority’s representatives remained on the Czech territory. The main hero is a fourteen-year-old boy, who is constantly confronted with a nationally-determined understanding of history. His own experience, however, is different. He gradually comes to realise that people should much rather be divided into good and bad, and not according to their nationality. The hero’s story takes us all the way to the year 1989, when, as a mature man, he enters Czech political life. Walter Piverka’s second book is a collection of documents entitled The German Minority in Czechoslovakia. This book documents the German minority’s search for a new identity in our country between 1989 and 1992.

• Old Books for Young People
Translate or adapt: such was the explosive topic of yesterday’s discussion entitled Harry Neznaika and Co.
Harry Potter fans were probably disappointed, as the Czech translator of the popular work, Pavel Medek, had to cancel his participation due to illness, as had, in fact, some other debaters. Their hot seats were taken by translator Viktor Janiš and translator, literary critic and representative of Albatros publishers, Petr Onufer. Together with the debate’s moderator Lukáš Novosad and the audience they offered some unexpected takes on the topic originally defined as translations for children and young people.

• Translate or Adapt
“Children’s literature has grown complex,” the guests repeated several times. The texts children used to read are incomparable to what they read today. Books have become more complex and both the topics and their renditions are often more adult then infant. This results in a situation wherein original children’s works find it hard to reach children’s audiences in the flood of contemporary children’s literature. “We wanted to publish Jules Verne again and spent long time considering whether to translate or adapt,” Petr Onufer says. “In the end we decided to use Ondřej Neff’s adaptation. He added some things, altered some other and even deleted some. I must admit that we had some antagonistic reactions, especially from readers who are familiar with the original translations. On the other hand I know that children readers do not borrow Verne from libraries, so if in this way we can lead them to these classic works, than it is worth it,” Onufer adds and speaks about another classic author – Karl May. “Recently I read the original translation and I must admit I found it naive, even ridiculous. But I read it with nostalgia, remembering my own childhood, so I did not really mind. But if we want today’s children to find access to such work, we should consider making an adaptation of it. Even though it is clear that we cannot transform May into Rowling.” “On the other hand we should also consider the extent to which we should facilitate the reader’s role,” commented Viktor Janiš. “If we are to adapt everything so that children would understand, ten they will not learn any more complex vocabulary. I think we should have some regards, but only to an extent. The basis of any translation is honouring the author.”

• From Czech into Czech
“I find Foglar funny and naive,” student members of the audience said, giving rise to discussion about adaptations from Czech classical works. “We need to identify with the heroes and in Foglar’s case it is impossible. We can do it, however, with Joanne Rowling’s heroes,” the students say. Does it mean original Czech literature should also be adapted in order to make it more easily accessible for children, or should original versions be honoured at the risk of condemning them to gathering dust on book shelves? This is a very delicate topic. “We were going to publish Stories from the Lesser Quarter and my colleague adapted the work for contemporary children readers. It gave me goose bumps,” Petr Onufer from Albatros says. “On the other hand we recently published a children’s poetry anthology, approaching it in a contemporary spirit, and it was a clear success. We invited illustrators to co-operate with us whose approach was reminiscent of comic books and the first impression quickly sold out. We did not expect poetry to be this successful,” he adds. “This problem of original works and classic authors being inaccessible for today’s children is also inherent in the way literature is taught at schools. Children learn facts instead of trying to comprehend the works and read them. With a different approach to teaching, children would find their way to classic authors, as well as to the original version of the Stories from the Lesser Quarter,” Onufer concluded. The answer to the question of whether in the future we will dress classic children’s books in a new outfit or whether we will honour the original texts has remained unanswered. How do we solve it?

• 16th Annual Dictionary of the Year
On Friday, May 14th, Book World bore witness to the award ceremony of the 16th annual competition organised by the Union of Interpreters and Translators and entitled Dictionary of the Year. The expert jury was choosing from 87 submitted works and announced the following results:

The main prize, 2010 DICTIONARY OF THE YEAR, was awarded to:
Heřman, Karel – Blažejová, Markéta – Goldhahn, Helge a kol.:
NĚMECKO-ČESKÝ SLOVNÍK FRAZEOLOGISMŮ A USTÁLENÝCH SPOJENÍ / DEUTSCH-TSCHECHISCHES WÖRTERBUCH DER PHRASEOLOGISMEN UND FESTGEPRÄGTEN WENDUNGEN. C.H.Beck, Praha 2010.
Jury Prize for translation dictionary: Zuzana Holá: ČESKO-ŠPANĚLSKÝ ODBORNÝ SLOVNÍK
(Czech-Spanish Technical Dictionary). Computer

Press, Brno 2009.
Jury Prize for monolingual dictionary: Hendrych, Dušan a kol.:
PRÁVNICKÝ SLOVNÍK (Legal Dictionary). C.H. BECK. Praha 2009.
Jury Prize for encyclopaedic work: Zádrapa, Lukáš – Pejčochová, Michaela: ČÍNSKÉ PÍSMO (Chinese
Lettering). Academia, Praha 2009.
Jury Prize for phraseological dictionary: Heřman, Karel – Blažejová, Markéta – Goldhahn, Helge a kol.:
NĚMECKO-ČESKÝ SLOVNÍK
FRAZEOLOGISMŮ A USTÁLENÝCH SPOJENÍ / DEUTSCH-TSCHECHISCHES WÖRTERBUCH DER PHRASEOLOGISMEN UND FESTGEPRÄGTEN
WENDUNGEN. C.H.Beck, Praha 2010.
Jury Prize for dictionary published in the Republic of Slovakia: Majtán, Milan a kol: HISTORICKÝ
SLOVNÍK SLOVENSKÉHO JAZYKA (Historical Dictionary of the Slovak Language). I (A–J), II (K–N), III (O–Pochytka), IV (Poihrať sa–Pytlovať). V (R–Š), VI (T–V), VII (Z–Ž, Dodatky). Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra SAV a VEDA,
vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied, Bratislava 1991–2008.
Honorary mentions: Veselý, František Xaver – Spáčil, Jiří (ed.):
VŠEOBECNÝ SLOVNÍK PRÁVNÍ (General Legal Dictionary). I.–V. díl.
Wolters Kluwer ČR, Praha 2009. Průcha, Jan (ed.): PEDAGOGICKÁ
ENCYKLOPEDIE (Encyclopaedia of Pedagogy). Portál, Praha 2009.
Baštecká, Bohumila (ed.): PSYCHOLOGICKÁ ENCYKLOPEDIE.
APLIKOVANÁ PSYCHOLOGIE (Encyclopaedia of Psychology: Applied Psychology). Portál, Praha 2009 Ik

• Children Reading and Competing
Competition proved to represent a fresh and successful path to furthering children’s interest in reading books on Friday afternoon: The Clash of Readers tested the participant’s knowledge of books. Yesterday the book fair bore witness only to the preliminary round of the project, which is set to hit schools nationwide starting in autumn. At the book fair three teams of sixth-formers from the Prague primary schools Červený vrch, Hanspaulka and Ema Destinnová’s school compared their literary knowledge. Event’s moderator Zdeněk Eška gave the teams three detailed questions on five books from contemporary foreign and domestic children’s literature. The teams knew these books in advance and had read them carefully. It must be said that the joust did not lack in tension and competitive fervour. Applause echoed in the hall and excitement mixed with the joys of victory. Students from Hanspaulka triumphed, followed by Ema Destinnová’s school and Červený vrch. The teachers confirmed that even the preparation for the competition aroused interest in the reading of the titles in question in their classes – not just among the competitors. All the children were winners in a way, as they proved right the motto of the campaign within the framework of which the competition took place: “Growing with the Book”.

• Intercultural Understanding through Literature Awards Ceremony
We live in different countries, but books bring us together or Intercultural Understanding through Literature was the title of a literary competition for students of primary and secondary schools. To write an essay on which book has helped the competitors the most in learning about a foreign country, and which book they would themselves recommend to foreigners as best describing the Czech environment, proved a difficult task indeed. The award ceremony featured the actors Pavel Oubram (left) and Lukáš Hejlík (centre), together with the winners – Jana Balážová in the 1st category and Matouš Hartman in the 3rd category.

• The Glass Room
The novel entitled The Glass Room, whose main – if somewhat unusual – character is the Tugendhat villa in Brno, was introduced at the book fair by its author Simon Mawer.
“When I visited Brno I became interested in the villa. I had the feeling that somewhere in there a story is hidden, an idea for a novel. Eventually I became so engulfed by the idea that I wrote the novel,” the author recollected. The villa becomes a pivotal point in a story that spans across Czech history, and as people in the villa change, the building remains. “I would like to set right the speculations that the people in the book are based on the villa’s real inhabitants. That is not the case. The destinies of the Landauer family in the novel are in no way connected to the life of the Tugendhat family,” he responded to the question whether the – often very intimate – passages in the book are based on historical sources. “What is real is the house itself, that story taking place within its walls is fictional. As far as the characters are concerned, I had not used any sources. I really was interested solely in the house.” The only member of the Tugendhat family with whom the author is in contact is Greta Tugendhat’s grandson. “He wrote me an e-mail saying he had really enjoyed the book and since then we are in contact. We will meet,” he says. “I am looking forward to discovering yet another dimension of my book.”

• Where Children Read
At the Book World book fair children certainly do not suffer from a lack of reading space, which is located in the children’s corner in Industrial Palace’s right wing. Both children and their parents can avail of a little library, settle themselves into cosy chairs, relax and just read. The children’s corner also offers tables for drawing and snacks, toys and general relaxation-friendly environment. When your children start complaining about sore feet, you know where to take them.

• The Hound of Baskerville on the Rack
This year’s book fair visitors were again treated to the award ceremony for last year’s worst publishing achievement – the Pince-nez (or The Rack) anti-award, antipode to the prestigious Josef Jungmann translation awards. The jurors were same as last year – Miroslav Jindra, Václav Jamek and Vratislav Slezák. At the start the jury made it clear that its anti-award must be perceived as a sort of a game, with the objective to prod the “winners” and motivate them to better results. It is hardly appropriate to see the awards fatally, as today critique hardly has the power to make or break. It should also be noted that “certain slips” can be encountered even in the best of translations. This introduction was followed by examples of both more and less amusing translating blunders.
This year’s Pince-nez was awarded to the Hound of Baskerville, brought out in Czech translation by Milenium Publishing. Although the imprint claims the text to be that of Josef Pachmayer from 1905 (misspelled as Josef Puchmajer), in fact the translation belongs to František Gel (dating to between 1958–1969) and had originally been published by Albatros. The jurors provided indisputable proof of this in the form of quotations from both works. The prize was therefore “awarded” to a publishing achievement wherein the publisher deliberately avoided financial settlement with František Gel’s heirs. Little surprise perhaps that the winner failed to show up to accept the award.

• 2010 Tourmap Award Winners
On Friday, May 14th, at noon the Tourmap Awards ceremony was held at Book World for the seventh time.
In the category entitled Maps with Tourist Content the expert jury was choosing from 537 titles, announcing the following results:
1. Plan & Go! Jungfrau Region (Federal Office of Topography)
2. Czech Tourist Club’s Set of Tourist Maps (TRASA, spol. s.r.o)
3. Travelling around the Czech Republic (SHOCart, spol.s.r.o.)
198 products competed in the Tourist Guides category with the following outcome:
1. Bradt Guide Set (JOTA)
2. The Alps: The Big Tourist Guide (Marco Polo, s.r.o)
3. Secret London. An Unusual Guide (Editions Jonglez)
The jury has also awarded a special PRIX JURY to the Roaming Camera 9 (Freytag&Berndt)
The Travelogues category saw the competition of 31 titles and the jury decided the following:
1. Hana Růžičková: Switzerland:
A Travelogue in Photographs (Mladá Fronta)
2. From Paris… Jan Šmíd (Gutenberg)
3. Milan Silný: Every Hill’s Got Something (Cykloknihy s.r.o.)
The jury was also choosing from the best regional products, awarding the following titles:
1. OSTRAVA!!! – Tourist Guide to the City and its Surroundings (Freytag&Berndt / Statutární město Ostrava)
2. Moravian-Silesian Region Map Set (SHOCart spol.s.r.o./ Krajský úřad Moravskoslezského kraje)
3. Křížový Hill – The Circular View from the Stod Lookout Tower – City Map (RAMAP / Město Stod)