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In stark contrast to previous years, books-old-fashioned books, the kind printed on paper-were the main topic at this year's Book Expo America, held in New York City May 3-5. If booksellers weren't exactly dancing on the grave of the e-book, they certainly were noticeably excited and more than a little relieved to be talking books instead of electronics or economics. The good spirits evident on the floor of the show also had something to do with the location and the weather-glorious, cloud-free spring days with temperatures in the 80s. That the show was returning to New York-still the center of trade-book publishing-for the first time in more than a decade was itself cause for excitement in the eyes of many of the 31,726 registrants (a substantial increase from last year's 21,896). But the added sense of participating in the city's post-September 11 revival gave all the attendees still another reason to celebrate.
The aisles, especially on opening day, were jammed to the point of gridlock with eager booksellers, librarians, and media representatives elbowing their peers out of the way in a quest to collect free galleys and gawk at the various celebrities, literary and otherwise, on...