The tenth Bookfest, the most important book fair in Romania, opened on Thursday and will stay open until May 24.

Under the sloga, “Czech Republic — Republic of Literature,” this year’s fair will have a Czech flavour with a series of events promoting Central European literature in Romania. Five important contemporary Czech writers will present their books in Bucharest.

During the book fair, an expected 100,000 visitors will enjoy works from some 200 publishers. Several thousands of new titles and a promised 300 events that range from launches, debates to colloquies, film screenings and interactive events are to take place.

While many people queue to enter Bucharest’s books fair each year, industry specialists are pessimistic about the future of reading in Romania as a whole, however.

The average number of books each inhabitant buys per year is just one. In Poland and Hungary, the average is eight to 10. Surveys reveal a worrying lack of interest in books among young people.

The number of bookstores is dropping all the time. For every 550 bookstores in Romania four years ago, only 150 remain today. Some towns with as many as 70,000 inhabitants now do not hae a single bookstore, and there are some counties with no bookshops either, according to the Publishers Association of Romania.

During the Communist era, Romania invested heavily in literacy campaigns and books were available in large numbers at cheap prices.

The average price of a book in Romania is now 25 lei, or around 4.5 euro – too much perhaps for many in a country where incomes have been squeezed in recent years.

Money is not the only isue, however, Over the past 25 years, habits have changed radically, with television and Internet supplanting reading as most people’s source of information and entertainment.