Visiting Europe’s Largest Book Fair

On Sunday 4th, I visited Deventer in the Netherlands for Europe’s largest book fair: 6 kilometers of book stands! You may also call it heaven for booklovers.

Event

This book fair, called the Deventer Boekenmarkt, is always hosted on the first Sunday in August, in case you’d like to visit sometime. The city Deventer has been a literary city ever since the printing press was invented, so it’s very fitting that they’re hosting such a large book fair, and the beautiful old inner city definitely adds to the atmosphere of the fair.

My family and I have made this into a bit of a tradition, as this has been our 6th time visiting. I’ve been known to buy a ton of books, because they’re, you know, really cheap. But having bought lots and lots of books there over the years and having only read a few of them, I tried a different approach this year. And I’m very proud, because I only bought 5 books!

I tried to only go for books that I definitely want to read soon, to make sure I’m not buying anything “because I want to read it some day”. And this was very successful, because I bought 4 books I’m dying to read, and one exclusive edition by one of my favourite authors.

---

Haul

First off, I bought the sequel to The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell. I bought book 1 at the book fair last year, and I enjoyed it, so I was happy to find a discounted copy!

Then I bought a collection of Dutch children’s stories, “Iedereen was er” by Toon Tellegen. These are all very short animal allegories that are very cute at first glance but always have philosophical undertones. I bought a beautiful hardback, and I think I’ll read a few stories before bed every night.

As I recently bought Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and I’ve been dying to read her books, I was very excited to find pretty hardbacks of book 2 and 3 as well. So now I have a matching set! I’ve actually already started reading Assassin’s Apprentice, and I’m absolutely loving it so far.

Lastly, I bought a beautiful exclusive edition of Cloud Atlas, which has a 3D picture on the front and red sprayed edges. I was debating on whether or not to buy it, as it wasn’t the cheapest, when I flicked through it and discovered it was signed!! Such a lucky find!

---

Do you like to visit book fairs?

Advertisement