bookshops of BA

In chile I had been shocked at the incredible prices of books- 15 euros for a trashy fiction paperback! Pablo had claimed it was due to 1. Chiles isolation 2. Chile being a very small market 3. Chile not having any publishers of note and needing to import everything 4. The government applying VAT to books, unlike in other countries, such as England where books are exempt. Needless to say, I bought no books in chile, although I would have like to have. Argentina is a different case altogether. The books go for about 5 pounds or less each, and the selection is excellent. Even more interesting are the bookshops themselves. On corrientes, my father and I wandered through endless rows of new and used bookshops, but that was nothing compared to el ateneo, a huge bookshop housed in an old theatre! It immediately went to the top of my world bookshop list. The collections were good, both of literature and music, but the setting was the best part. The stage had been converted into a café, and what had been the seats into rows of bookshelves. My father drank coffee and I wandered about in delight. We both noted that the top 2 bestsellers were peron-related: number one was on the last days of evita (how many times can people want to read the same thing over and over again???) and number 2 was about the peronist party. Clearly this country has some political oddities, but agh, the fiction section……