cyprus art news - 419 - Antique Book Fair in Nicosia

Heidi Trautmann

419 - Antique Book Fair in Nicosia
11/5/2012

By Heidi Trautmann I love books, I love old books, I love the touch and the smell, the feeling that some people before me have discovered the world of written words between the two hard covers usually covered with linen and beautifully decorated, often in gold. Sometimes I find a note or a clipping between the pages, often scribblings or exclamation marks and I want to know what the reader before me would find so interesting… That is why I went to The 8th Moufflon Book Fair last weekend which is regularly held at the Holiday Inn in Nicosia South and where you meet book lovers looking for rare editions or a good bargain. You will find everything there, from natural history, art books, calendars, music and drama plays and so many other fields, and you find all kind of languages, French, Dutch and German… I found for myself two books in French by Jean Giono and Jean Jacques Rousseau and by Goethe ‘Die Wahlverwandtschaften /Elective Affinities’ and Arthur Schnitzler’s Biography ‘My Youth in Vienna’, all that for Euro 10.00. The owner of the Moufflon Bookstore is Ruth Keshishian, herself a book, fearing with so many others of her profession, that the worldwide distributors and the internet will destroy the world of books; and with the Kindle and the like books will become redundant. The same fear is shared by Nahide Merlen from Isik Bookstore in Nicosia North who, for years now, also organizes a book fair in summer in the Kisilbas Church. Both events are worth a visit, so keep it in mind for next year. Not only to find a bargain but to encourage the owners to keep on going. Published in Cyprus Observer on Nov 10, 2012