What is fun on its own is usually more enjoyable together.

"Reading has always been a lonely business in the most beautiful sense of the word," says Ina Hartwig (SPD), Head of the Department of Culture.

But there is no substitute for meeting people.

The city councilor, who is presenting the program of the city's reading festival "Open Books", is therefore pleased that the Frankfurt Book Fair is to take place again as a face-to-face event from October 20 to 24, with 1,500 exhibitors and 25,000 visitors a day, which the health department has given special permission .

Juergen Boos, the director of the book fair, is doing everything to make the exhibition center the meeting place for the international book industry again: “No small feat.

For that, my greatest appreciation and thanks. "

Florian Balke

Culture editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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However, readers only have access to the book show after two and a half days of trade visitors.

That is why the Cultural Office has been organizing the accompanying festival since 2009, which is intended to enable them to encounter the books of autumn and their authors from the first day of the fair.

With free admission.

“Open Books” even took place last autumn when the book fair had to be relocated to the Internet shortly before its opening due to the increasing number of infections.

"We received a lot of thanks and encouragement from visitors, publishers and authors," said Hartwig: "We were very pleased."

Events for children are also planned

This year, too, the space available is smaller than usual due to the rules for distance and hygiene. In total there are 8,000 places around the Römer for 112 readings. From October 20th, 150 authors from fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics and children's books can be experienced. Reading takes place daily from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in the Katharinenkirche at the Hauptwache, in the Römerhallen and in the Ratskeller, in the Evangelical Academy, in the Haus am Dom and in the Frankfurter Kunstverein as well as in the Free Deutsche Hochstift and in the Volksbühne. The reading festival has another offshoot in the Schulstrasse 1a exhibition hall in Sachsenhausen.

At the opening on October 19, the winner of the German Book Prize, who was chosen the previous evening in the Kaisersaal des Römers, will make his first public appearance, in the following days authors such as Wolf Biermann, Jenny Erpenbeck and Eva Menasse will be guests as well as Volker Kutscher, Asfa-Wossen Asserate and the film director Sönke Wortmann. The designated Peace Prize winner Tsitsi Dangarembga and Romy Schneider's daughter Sarah Biasini can be seen as well as the musician Peter Licht, the historian Herfried Münkler, Florian Illies and the tree expert Peter Wohlleben. On the book fair weekend there is the children's program “Open Books Kids”.

The 3-G rule applies to the entire festival with a mask requirement up to the seat or, depending on the venue, after the seat has been reached.

Further information and maps are available on the Internet at

openbooks-frankfurt.de

.

Added to this are the 57 events of the “Bookfest City” at the book fair, which is taking place for the fifth time this year.

The 80 guests include authors such as Dacia Maraini, Aka Morchiladze and Aminata Touré.

Tickets at

bookfest.de

.