DAY 5. THE JOB OF BOOKSELLERS IN THE 2015 FILVEN

The International Book Fair of Venezuela (FILVEN), taking place every year in the city of Caracas, is a great cultural party in our country, since it gathers, in one entertaining and well organized place, all those people who work tirelessly 365 days a year to make the publishing industry advance with firm step, and offer quality products to readers, the real reason behind their passion. One of the more noble tasks we may find in the fair is that performed by people in charge of the book stands representing the different publishers, who, from the beginning of the day, and during the whole event, do their best to provide people coming to buy their books with a memorable human experience, not a mere commercial exchange, which may leave them wishing to come back. And the strategy has yielded its fruits! The proof is the talk we had with two of them, Luis Montenegro, from the publisher Vadell Hermanos; and Julio Villamizar, from Libros La Merideña. These booksellers told us about their satisfaction on the huge attendance to the fair, and on how all the visitors have left with books in their hands, full of the wisdom they enclose. People in charge of the Vadell Hermanos stands, that exhibit political books; and of Libros La Merideña, focused in classics of the world and Latin American literature, as well as books for children; tell us about the different kinds of people attending the fair, who go from people looking for specific titles to those who just watch the books exhibited and decide to buy one that calls their attention and, sometimes, ask for their opinion or recommendation, as they trust in the knowledge and long walk through the world of words and paper of booksellers. At the end of the day, it is rare to see people empty handed. It is just that it seems wrong to visitors to come to this paradise of the national literature and not taking to the real world a souvenir of their adventure, chosen from the hands of the always kind booksellers.

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