I visited today Bookarest (homepage), an international bookfair in Bucharest.
It was a pretty interesting experience. The 2 floors in the National Theater which hosted the fair were full by people (&books, of course). Lots of interesting books - some which you would have definitely wanted to have in you personal collection (even if it were for the ~60 volumes of Britanica Encyclopedia 
).
If only I had time to read all…
Regarding the content of the fair (the topic of the books), I was surprised to see that many editors now have books about personal Management. And I am not talking only about Economy here, I am talking about Management in general. “How to manage your… “/ “How to get.. ” Lots of “How to”-s actually. I think (I might be wrong) that this is a new tendency in the books industry, if I may call it that way. Many of these books are translations of foreign books. The Western mentality is slowly entering the Romanian society by these books. After reading these books you might have a glimpse of how do the western cultures achieve so much things, knowledge etc. You’ll see psychologists writing books on “How to become your own boss” (and others like this).
All these topics go pretty much into each one of the readers’ mentalities in my opinion, affecting (changing) them more or less. I can’t help thinking that proffesional training is something, but mental training is somethign totally different. Adopting others’ mentalities without understanding is simply wrong. You can’t expect something to happen exactly the you find it in a book. The Romanian people might see these books as the key to total happiness.
It is well known that during the communist period the people were dependant on the leaders because of financial issues (the work & the money were provided by the state). Nowadays, although the situation is different, there are some similarities. You are no longer controlled what you do, but you are controlled on how you do it (this also affects what you do).
I am more concerned that the society might reach a level when each personal problem should find its solution in book. If the people get used to this without actually understanding the content of the book (just like the machines do) they people simply stop working unless somebody comes up with a book telling them how to continue running.
This being said, I just hope I am wrong. The moment I am right we can start comparing ourselves to machines. Maybe there’s a book on “How *not* to become a machine”/”How to think by yourself”…
Organization: I hope the next year edition will be hosted in larger space, because this edition felt extremely crowded.
P.S. Can’t wait to see the Gaudeamus Bookfair in autumn.
