Since 2001, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) started a practice of naming a city as the World Book Capital. Cities that have been so honored in the past include: Madrid (Spain), followed by Alexandra (Egypt), New Delhi (India), and Antwerp (Belgium). Others are: Montreal (Canada), Turin (Italy), Bogatá (Colombia), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Beirut (Lebanon), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). For this year 2011, UNESCO has given the title of World Book Capital to Buenos Aires (Argentina), and in 2012 the title will be passed on to Yerevan (Armenia).
Although all the cities mentioned above have strong literary tradition and commitment to books one would never know what other criteria that UNESCO uses to confer the title. But an examination of this year’s title holder may give some insight. It has been noted that Buenos Aires is a world book capital in more than one way. With 200 bookstores, 70 libraries, and stores of kiosks the city is assured to hold more books per sale per capital than perhaps any other city in the world.
And the Buenos Aires International Book Fair better known to Spanish speakers as the ‘Feira del Libro’, lasts for three weeks and attracts over a million visitors. Accounting for over 25% of the revenue for Argentine publishers each year, the fair also has a huge international following.
