My Sant Jordi 2009

At 10:30 a.m. the Ramblas in Barcelona were already full of people. Normally, it is still rather quiet at this hour as most of the shops don't open before 10 or 11 a.m. One could buy roses from a wide variety of sellers: kids trying to make money for their graduation journey, others selling roses for some charity, others trying to earn some extra euro with their small unemployment allowance, ... I would call it a sign of the current economic crisis that one could buy soft-cover books and not only expensive hard-cover editions (though in Spain you find few really "hard" covers). Apart from the rose and book sellers there were stalls by political parties, the Red Cross, Intermon Oxfam, etc. There were a lot of beggars trying to sell paper handkerchiefs by the single packet - and probably a lot of pickpockets.
The bestsellers of this year's Sant Jordi were the first two volumes of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy - the Spanish and Catalan editions' third volume will be published in June. I found it a comforting thought that a lot of people bought books written by "serious" authors - and not those published by football players, former fashion models, TV presenters, actors, chefs, etc. that steal a lot of attention that better went to real literature.
This year's Sant Jordi also saw the official beginning of "bookcrossing" in Catalonia. A BMW dealership sponsored a few hundred copies, the Miró museum placed books on art at various locations in Barcelona, etc. Hopefully, this will lead the Catalans to become not just leading entrepreneurs in the Spanish and Catalan language publishing world (that they already are) but also serious readers.