Let’s Enjoy Books!

The 11th Seoul International Book Fair 2005 (Chairman Park Maeng-ho of the Organizing Committee for SIBF 2005) will be held under the theme of “Into the book, into the world, into the future” at the Pacific Hall and Indian Ocean of COEX in Samsung-dong from June 3 to June 8. Some 409 companies including publishing companies, magazine publishing companies and e-book publishing companies from 23 countries as well as 126 Korean publishing companies will participate in the fair.

The public can enjoy a variety of book and events for free from noon on Friday, June 3 and from 10:00 a.m. between June 4 and June 8. The closing time during June 3 to June 7 will be 6:30 p.m. and 5:30 pm on June 8. “The exhibition to celebrate the Andersen 200th anniversary” will be held during the fair, which shows his writings and illustrations.

One of the interesting events is the “Jikji exhibition,” which displays the world’s first movable metal types “Jikjisimgyeong” and shows the production procedure of movable metal types and the printing procedure of ancient times. A cafeteria “Forest for book-readers” will be provided to give people a comfortable environment for book-reading. For detailed information, visit www.sibf.co.kr. Tel.02-734-0790

Ki-Tae Kwon kkt@donga.com