Festivalul Internațional de Carte Transilvania, or the International Festival of books in Transylvania, “is returning to Cluj” according to Ziua de Cluj.
A special guest will be Usha Akella, from the United States. If you heard of this person, then hey, special treat.
These events are special, in that it is the only place in Cluj, outside of a church, that I saw any adult read a book (apart from a textbook for a class or a Bible.) It is usually the author reading his or her own book. (And yes, I’ve been to the library many times. I even got told off once for reading a book that wasn’t from their collection.)
Most of the writers are academics, but occasionally even academics can be interesting.
There are book tents, they tend to be open after 10 am or after 11 (there’s no point getting there at 8am) and tend to close by 8pm. Officially, the festival starts at 9.30 am, but I don’t expect all the tents to be ready.
In addition to academic books, there are children’s books, sometimes books on UFOs, a few self-published authors, books from the minorities, lots of self-help and new age stuff, religious books, usually at least one second-hand book stand, and board games and records or CDs. (I think they sell like, one comic book so they get to count as a publisher or something.) I gave that description before, didn’t I?
Anyway, there are books for everyone, well, everyone who can read Romanian, and usually something interesting in English too. (Like the 60p mini books.)
Apparently, the closing day will feature some poetic dialogue about the ants and the grasshopers (the Romanian says ants and lotuses) and some fun activity for children.
“All events are free and will be held at Piata Unirii” the paper concludes.