Saturday, April 24, 2010

Budapest -- Book launch a big success!



There was an overflow crowd at the Budapest International Book Festival for the official launch of Zsidó emlékhelyek Közép- és Kelet-Európában -- the Hungarian edition of "Jewish Heritage Travel." It was really great to see so many people -- and I was gratified that most of them were people I didn't know!

We had some technical problems setting up the projector, which delayed the start of the event -- my photo-illustrated talk about Jewish heritage sites around the region. And also, the book's editor at Geographia press, who was supposed to moderate the event, wasn't there -- he got stuck in New York because of the volcanic ash cloud.....

Still, it went off well, and the audience I'm sure would have stayed much longer than the allotted hour.... 

I'm told that even though the book is not yet in most stores, there is a lot of buzz about it, and the publishers are thinking about having a few more events, which would run longer and enable more discussion with the audience.

This interest was certainly demonstrated today -- the book is a handsome, hardback edition and costs the equivalent of $20 a copy -- there were lots of sales during my book signing: one man bought four copies! And I'm told there will be articles and reviews in the press here.

I want to thank all involved for taking on the project and bringing out this edition!

Me with the book's translator, Laszlo Benke, after the signing

3 comments:

  1. Mazel Tov! How do you say that in Hungarian?

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  2. It was a great experience for me to take part on this event. Your photos and experience are fantastic! További jó munkát!

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  3. Thanks! It was great fun to give the presentation and I only wish there had been more time available.

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