Go Red Sox!! I mean (ahem), "Meanwhile, in Frankfurt...."

Good grief. Another week and I've laid off the gas. Damn Red Sox -- they do this to me every year. At least, every year that I've been following them (which dates to 2003, and my initial introduction to Sox heartache when Aaron Boone sent a soft Tim Wakefield knuckler to the second deck in extra innings). Just when you're about to write them off, they storm back from a 3-1 deficit to force a Game 7 in the ALCS. Oh, and I hear there's a mildly important political contest taking place these days, too. Anyway, that's no excuse. So back to the world of words....

The Frankfurt Book Fair took place this past week. It's one of the three major annual book fairs, London and Book Expo America being the other two. (BEA roves from city to city, but mostly bounces between New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.) Bookninja has a nice round-up of the Guardian's coverage, if you care to dig deeper.

I've attended two BEAs in a previous career, and I found them fascinating. But not for all of the author signings or keynote addresses. I just think it's kind of wacky that the world's publishers get together and announce, "Here. This is the culture's intellectual agenda for the next 12 months."

This is a wacky announcement because 1) book publishers are almost as slow as newspapers when it comes to adapting to the shifting sands of business in the digital age. And 2) they're still kinda right. Nothing offers quite the same ring of bona fides as publishing a book.