Everybody’s Going to China (to Talk Books)

BookExpo America announced yesterday that it would be sending a delegation of booksellers and librarians to the Beijing Book Fair next month. The party, which was invited by the Beijing fair’s organizers, will take part in a panel discussion on “how to balance business operations with cultural pursuits, as well as how to most effectively face the digital environment,” and be taken to “two Chinese publishing houses and four Chinese bookstores,” according to the press release. It all sounds very business-like, but, I still like to imagine their trip will go something like this:

The delegates include representatives from Shaman Drum Bookstore Elliott Bay Book Company, McNally Robinson, Vroman’s, and City Lights Bookstore, along with celebrity librarian Nancy Pearl and Barbara Genco of Brooklyn’s public library.

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