Mining Meeting shows that the physical book still attracts readers

The physical book continues to summon readers in search of encounters, stories, admired authors and the development of the imagination. People who attended the Palacio de Minería International Book Fair (FILPM) this Sunday agreed on this.

In parallel and in the vicinity of the 47th edition of this book meeting, the Book Store at the Postal Palace, organized by the Economic Culture Fund, and the 38th Second-hand Book Fair, variants of publishing offering hosted by the Historic Center, are taking place.

At the Mining Fair, which takes place from February 20 to March 1, those who have been reading for decades continue to meet with young people who are beginning the path of literature and knowledge in printed format, as well as children who discover their imagination in books.

On the very cold Sunday, the first weekend of the FILPM, the university campus already had hundreds of people at noon, mostly young people and a smaller number of adults, older adults and children. Many already carried copies.

Monse, from Toluca, told The Day It was the first time she attended the editorial meeting, since she wanted to see the writer Mei Ivens. He added: “I saw that there were many more activities; I wanted to come early to learn more. It is true that reading is a habit, and it was created in me since elementary school, with a teacher who gave us a lot of homework, including reading for a minute every day and writing.”

Andrés, who accompanied the teenager, said that he does not read as much in print, but rather on the Internet. “You download everything now. It’s everyone’s taste: the smell of the book or purchasing it digitally.”

Minería, the oldest book fair in the country, this year reinforces its attention to the areas of graphic novels and texts for children, with the creation of specific areas for these proposals, as well as the offer of workshops for the little ones. In this area, the graphic illustrator Arturo Trejo taught a short course on vignette creation.

The workshop leader introduced the children to the possibility of expressing feelings or reflections with images, since “not only letters transmit or tell stories.” In his opinion, people continue to attend these fairs because “one of the most powerful tools is the imagination, and books help us feed it.

“People are very fond of books because they become collector’s items and give a sense of belonging to those who have them.”

Among the variety of academic and literary activities, poetry has an important place in this meeting. Yesterday, for example, there was a conversation about the centenary of Jaime Sabines, starring Pilar Jiménez and Javier Aranda. On the other hand, the young Julia Melissa Rivas and Gabriela Villa, authors of the Círculo de Poesía label, gave readings of their work.

Luis, another attendee, told this newspaper that the richness of the fairs is the gathering of books from many publishers, which allows the choice of titles. “It’s a good excuse to see what others you can find and you don’t know what book, story or person you might come across. It’s something very cool.”

He added that it is a “meeting point to spend time, enjoy reading and discover other publishers. Setting it in this type of place is great. It even feels aesthetic to me to appreciate a book fair in such an old venue, where before other activities were carried out and now it is promoting the reading culture that we really need.”

This is how Sunday afternoon goes, in which there are those who paid 25 pesos to access Minería and then crossed the street, jumped a chain and walked freely through the tent where second-hand books are offered or for free at the Book Store, where in addition to the offer of copies, an oral narrative for children was developed.