Frankfurt Book Fair

The world's largest international book fair is held every October in Frankfurt, Germany. The 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair was this past week, featuring trade publishers from around the world and open to the public October 17-18. Every year, the Book Fair chooses one Guest of Honor in order to highlight the books and literature from that country; this spot can be controversial, and has previously been awarded to Catalan culture and Turkey. This year proved tense as well; China was the Guest of Honor and, according to the NYT, seemed to exhibit its struggle between desiring Western markets but despising Western dissidents.