selenak

Nah, it's not that bad. But the Frankfurt Book Fair can be pretty exhausting. I stil get a kick out of it each time, even when I feel like a zombie once it's finished. (For me. There's still one more day to go for my fellow bees in this particular nest.) Some scattered observations:

- Hall 8, with the Americans in it, is still the only one which demands security checks; mind you, everyone could smuggle pretty much everything through
them

- Peter Olson (head of Random House International and hence of the world's second largest media giant) has gotten rid of his beard which makes him
look like a kindly teacher again; Mr. "I fired him" is anything but

- switching from RL to fannish life, I got into a fierce debate with a Tolkien purist about Peter Jackson's films; a valiant battle was vigourously waged,
with quotes and paraphrases flung left and right (but what can you do if someone starts the conversation with comparing Jackson's oeuvre with
the massacre committed on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Also, this was another Glorfindel fanatic)

- a new edition of Wuthering Heights is titled "W.H - the story which inspired the MTV movie"

- the only time I got online in the last three or four days was for ten minutes which were enoug to discover

hmpf has read American Gods and

hobsonphile finished the Five Things for Vir - and that I have a lot of mail to answer

- will I ever catch up with all the entries?

- in 15 minutes, Susan Sontag will be receiving the Friedenspreis des Internationalen Buchhandels (=Peace award of the international publishing
business), and according to a journalist I chatted with, the American ambassador won't be there when one of the most distinguished awards is given to
an America citizen who also happens a major literary figure

Lastly: Icon courtesy of

butterfly. Will watch Sontag on TV now, and then answer the mail.