The big event in Belém for the past two weeks has been the 9th Annual Pan-Amazon Book Fair.* Under a big white tent in the eastern part of the city, about thirty vendors have piles and piles of books for sale. Books in Brazil, and Belém in particular, usually are not cheap, with most being comparable in price to books in the U.S. Belém also has few book stores when compared to other cities like São Paulo or Porto Alegre. The fair provides a convenient place for people to shop for discounted books and has a variety of cultural events as well, such as readings and book signings by notable Brazilian authors.
I went on Wednesday around noon between classes. While there were lots of vendors, I didn’t find any particularly good deals on the nerdy books I like to read. I had also recently bought some books on my recent trip to the U.S. and when passing through the Brasília airport. So after dodging hordes of children on school field trips, I had lunch and then went back to class.
A side attraction of the book fair was a free series of Brazilian films. There was a glitch in the schedule and the films being shown were one day behind the program, so I ended up seeing two crappy films instead of just one. I could briefly describe the plots of “Bens Confiscados” and “Viva Sapatos,” but I won’t waste your time as I did mine. In any case, they were free. Speaking of movies, both “Dukes of Hazzard” and “The Amityville Horror” opened up this past weekend. If anyone thinks that there are better ways to spend R$3, please advise me before Monday evening.
*Like the movie schedule, the internet information site is a bit behind, except in this case the delay is two years.
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