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Feira do livro primeiro parte / The book fair part 1 (texto português + English text)

Numa sexta-feira de agosto fomos dar um passeio num parque que não tínhamos visitado antes. Estávamos a conhecer novos lugares na cidade. Encontrámo-nos no meio da Feira do Livro do Porto. Não sabemos. Encontrei la inesperadamente. Que bom: entrada gratuita, caminhar por uma avenida de árvores, livros em grandes quantidades sob a luz do sol. Alegria.

Uma feira não é uma biblioteca. Os livros são organizados por editora, não por assunto ou género. A banca de cada editora é como uma reunião familiar no Natal - livros que são muito diferentes, reunidos devido às suas origens comuns. 

Uma feira não é uma biblioteca. Mas numa feira pode ler sem pagar, pode ler sem possuir o livro: pegue-o, leia-o, ponha-o de volta. 

O Presidente Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa também esteve lá nessa sexta-feira. Ele perguntou a toda a gente Já comprou um livro hoje? (Jornal de Noticias, 27 de agosto, p36). Mas comprar livros não é a coisa mais importante. O mais importante é lê-los. Lê-los e descobrir novas ideias, sentimentos, frases, pessoas. 

* * * 

One Friday in August we went for a walk in a park we hadn’t visited before. Expanding our knowledge of where is where and what is what. We found ourselves in amongst the Porto Book Fair: free entry; walking down an avenue of trees; massed books in the dappled sunlight. Joy.

A book fair is not a library. The books are grouped by publisher, not by genre and author. Each editor's stall is like a Christmas family gathering - books that are markedly different dragged together by their common origins.  

A book fair is not a library but you can read for free. Pick up a book, start reading, put it back. It only takes a few books for you to feel both dazed and immersed. 

The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was there that Friday too. The newspaper reports that he was asking everyone Have you bought a book today? (Jornal de Noticias, 27 de agosto, p36)

But it’s not the buying that’s important, it’s the reading. It's the reading that's important, the experience of a new feeling, or a familiar feeling expressed in a new way.

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