The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest event of the publishing industry. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a meeting place for the industry’s experts and the most important marketplace for books, media, rights and licences worldwide. Be they publishers, booksellers, agents, film producers or authors - each year in October, they all come together and create something new.
As soon as I heard Paige Toon and Cecelia Ahern are coming to The Frankfurt Book Fair for Events and signings this year, I immediately started planning my trip to Frankfurt. I am a huge fan of both authors so there was no way I could miss this. I remember telling Paige a few years back that the Frankfurt Book Fair was the place to be and the best way to meet her german fans. I'm so happy it finally happened :)
The Frankfurt Book Fair 2016 took place from 19 to 23 October. Only on Saturday and Sunday privat visitors are allowed on the fair, so my niece Laura, who joined me for this trip, and I made our way to Frankfurt on Friday evening with a long distance bus. Frankfurt am Main is about 180 km away from the town where I live. We took the train to Heilbronn (20 minutes journey) to go to the pick up point for the bus. Normally you receive a text message when the bus is delayed due heavy traffic, unfortunately not this time. We waited over one and a half hour when the bus finally arrived. The rest of the journey went luckily well. We arrived in Frankfurt at the central station about two and a half hours later. We took a taxi to our hotel, Citadines City Centre, which was near the fair. At about 11 o'clock we finally moved into our room and fell into our beds.
The room facilities were excellent. Everything was clean and nicely done up. We had a good night sleep before we headed down to breakfast around 8 o'clock the next morning. The breakfast included a wide varieties of bread, eggs, cold meats, fruits, cereals, yogurts and cappuccinos, expresso, and more. At 9 o'clock we checked out and made our way to the fair. Frankfurt's fair is HUGE. There are 6 halls in total with 1-3 levels. It took us quite a time to go to our first spot, Paige Toon's Jessie Jefferson Bingo at the Herzenstage (HarperCollins Germany) booth in Hall 4.1.
The event was about to start at 10.30 but we already arrived there about 10ish. I spotted Paige in the crowd, she was standing with her back to us, talking to someone. Tall, long blond hair with some curls and a black top. I just thought "that must be her". I was smiling from ear to ear when I recognised it was really her. I have bought my first Paige Toon book, Lucy in the Sky, in 2010 and ever since I was a fan of her and her books.
As I live in Germany (also not in the biggest city, where author tend to visit) and I only read books by english authors, I have never attened a singing, book launch or bookish event before. I was so nervous to actually meet an author who I really love. Paige recognised me by the second even we have never met in person. That was a incredible feeling. She was so nice, took a selfie with me and signed my copy of The One We Fell In Love With. Meeting her met the world to me and made me the happiest girl at the book fair. Thank you Paige for so many amazing books! I hope there are many more to come.
Afterwards Paige joined the girls from Herzenstage on stage to do the Jessie Jefferson Bingo. Beforehand the crowd received the papers with the game and the introductions. Paige has read the second chapter of I Know You were Trouble and the crowd needed to listen closly to get the words on the paper. Everyone who got 4 words horizontal or vertical in row received the newest german book in the Jessie Jefferson Series. I was not lucky to win one but I don't mind it because I read the english version anyway :-)
After I ticked that off my list, we were ready to go to the next signing. I was shocked when we arrived at the Fischer Verlag booth (one hour earlier before the signing started) to see that at least a hundred people already queuing for the Cecelia Ahern signing. If I were on my own I would have lined up as well but not with my niece. We decided to walk around the halls and go back to the signing later just to see her. Luckily that worked and I could snapp a few pictures of her. She looked so lovely!
Another highlight at the book fair is to see all the Cosplayers. From comics to cartoons to manga, funnies for children, romance for teens and graphic novels for adults, there’s an audience for every genre. You'll see the the coolest, weirdest and funniest costumes. I actually saw a whole group of teenager dressed as Sam, Dean, Castiel and Crowley, my all time favourite TV Show Supernatural. That got me cracked up laughing. Totally amazing! I also stopped by at the stand of Choc Lit. Unfortunately I had a bit of a bad timing. No one was around when I was there. Well, maybe next time.
At the fair you will see many books you would like to buy right away. Whether you're excited about the newest manga or the first edition of an underground poet, on Sunday you can buy them all. If I could have bought any books that day I propably would have got so many that I couldn't even carried them :-D Sadly we had to go back to the hotel early enough to pick up our luggage and head back to the central station to get our bus home. I never had any difficulties with the long distance bus yet but this weekend we were not on the lucky side. The bus delayed for almost an hour again :( It was freezing outside. We were so glad when we were home. Beside the problems with our journey we had an amazing day! The fair was well worth a visit :)
Have you ever been to a bookfair? What are your experiences? I'd love to hear from you!
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