I'm back from my involuntary blogging break of two weeks. In the beginning of October I spent five days in Berlin with three of my best friends. We did a lot of sightseeing and shopping. We went to a large store with an epic selection of movies and English books (epic for German proportions). I got a copy of CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein and PURE by Julianna Baggott. Heard so many great things about both books! Here's what my time in Berlin looked like.
After the five-hour train journey we set out to explore Berlin. We went to the old National Gallery and strolled through the Lustgarten in front of the Berlin dome. On our second day we took a Reichstag tour and climbed its glass dome. The holocaust memorial, its info center and the Brandenburg Gate were highlights, too.
The Eastside Gallery displays only a small part of the original Wall which artists sprayed with colorful paintings and messages. It was impressive and shocking to see with my own eyes that something like the Berlin Wall once existed and separated many families and friends.
Doesn't Berlin at night look great? Many sights and buildings were colorfully illuminated. My favourite place was a pond with paper-boat-like light installations.
When you stay in Berlin you should also plan in a trip to Potsdam with its beautiful Sanssouci Palace and its park. I wouldn't name Berlin one of my favourite cities, but it is a city with many facets and I'll make sure to come back soon.
Frankfurt Book Fair
And then came the Frankfurt Book Fair! This year marked the fourth in a row that I went to my favourite book event of the year. I'm still wanting to attend BEA next year (like every year ha!). I stayed for Saturday and Sunday in Frankfurt and my first destination was Hall 8, where many English publishers are located. I found: Harper Collins, Egmont, Bloomsbury, Random House, Macmillan, Bonnier, Simon & Schuster, Harlequin Teen, Sourcebooks, Walker, Scholastic and Penguin.
Some were happy to hand out review copies, others only sold their books and very few didn't give away (for review or sale) any books at all which is too mean if you spot books that you are dying to read. My favourite publishers this year were Penguin, the Bonnier Group, Sourcebooks and definitely Scholastic.
I met many Rights people and there were so many good-looking men supervising the booths. And while I was adirming all the wonderful Sourcebooks titles, I saw a familiar face approaching the same booth, Danny from Bewitched Bookworms (www.bewitchedbookworms.com)! It was the best book fair surprise of the year because I've been wanting to meet her for ages. You know she's an awesome blogger and so lovely in person.
Unfortunately I didn't meet everyone I wanted to meet, but on Sunday I met a bunch of German bloggers. I had so much fun hanging out with you, Sandy (www.nightingale-blog.net), Crini (www.itsallaboutbooks.de), Natasha (www.kattiesbooks.wordpress.com) and Eva (www.evaspiecesoflife.blogspot.de) ! x
I also went to a Cecilia Ahern signing and got my mother a signed copy of her newest book. So I came back home with aching shoulders and feet....oh, and four bags filled with books, catalogues and swag.
At the Harper Collins booth I got copies of Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris, The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore, Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell, Geek Girl by Holly Smale, Model Misfit by Holly Smale and A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin.
Thanks to Macmillan for the review copy of Thirteen by Tom Hoyle. At the Egmont stand I bought copies of Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, Revived by Cat Patrick, The Originals by Cat Patrick and By Any Other Name by Laura Jarratt.
The YA lady from the Penguin booth was so kind to give me copies of Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano, Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston and The Lonesome Young by Lucy Connors. And Simon & Schuster gave me Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory and Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.
In the picture above you see what I got from Random House, Hot Key Books and Sourcebooks. The ladies from the Bonnier Group and the Sourcebooks booth were so kind and cheerful. Thanks so much! So I got The Elites by Natasha Ngan and Racing Savannah by Miranda Kenneally. I grabbed five books at the Random House booth. Relic by Heather Terrell, The Eye of Minds by James Dashner, The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles, Teardrop by Lauren Kate and Passion by Lauren Kate.
Wow, the Scholastic Team was extremely generous. Thank you for all the books you gave me. The two boxed sets of the Shiver and The Hunger Games trilogy look so beautiful. In addition I got the movie tie-in edition of Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater, Defriended by Ruth Baron , The Drowning by Rachel Ward, Numbers by Rachel Ward, The Hit by Melvin Burgess and Wild Born by Brandon Mull.
So that was my Frankfurt Book Fair 2013 experience. I'll be definitely attending in 2014, too.
Q! Have you been to a book fair this year? Please link me to your posts or tell me about it in the comment section!
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