At the Book Fair

Turun kirjamessut, a local book fair, started yesterday, and I went, of course. For the price of the ticket you can scope out the offerings of the booksellers and visit the food fair and the collectors' fair. There are also lectures and author interviews, but nothing really grabbed me about the ones on Friday, and I had my writing assignment for the online writing course to finish, so I didn't stay for more than a couple of hours. 

Look at all the pretty books!

After browsing for a couple of hours with a bag that was getting heavier and heavier, I needed a snack, so I checked out the food fair. That's goat cheese with beet pesto, and it was delicious.

Then I came across this stand from Pink Vanilla desserts. They have shops in Turku and Uusikaupunki, and I've been meaning to try their cupcakes, which look delicious. And they do cupcake decorating parties and cater events. But look at that dragon cake! How amazing is that? I know where I'm ordering my next party cake from. 

These Halloween cupcakes were from the Confetti stall. I've used their webshop from time to time, but now they've opened a shop in Raisio! Yay!

Here's my pile of purchases. The Zahn books are a present for a friend's son, but the rest are all mine. The book of symbols should be useful for writing, and I've been looking for Aiotko kirjailijaksi? (loosely translated: So, you want to be a writer?) by Mika Waltari, a famous Finnish author, for three years now, and I finally found it! Master and Margarita by Mihail Bulgakov is another book I've wanted for years, but haven't found a nice enough edition. I prefer the Finnish translation for this one, because I can't read it in the original Russian. I discovered the hard way that you have to really do your research with English translations. In Finland, I'm used to the translation being of a very high quality, especially the older ones, so I've been taking it for granted. (Sorry, and applause for any Finnish translators reading this; you guys rock! Prose to the people!) 

I'm always on the lookout for "inspiration books," which basically means any weird nonfiction that captures my imagination. This time I found Syntisiä satamia (Sinful Ports), a travelogue by Joppe Karhunen (come on, could you leave something like that on the shelf?) and Kadonneita kaupunkeja (lost cities) by Hermann and Georg Schreiber.    

So that's what I'm doing tonight, liquorice and Waltari. Hope you have a nice weekend!

Oh, and the fair is open all weekend, if you want to check it out. More  info here.