Thirty thousand people gathered for the ninth edition of the Guayaquil Book Fair which ran until Sunday, September 24 at the Convention Center. EL UNIVERSO took advantage of this event to learn more about the literary tastes of Ecuadorian readers.

The Guayaquil Book Fair attracted 30,000 visitors and political scientist Agustín Laje gave the most attended conference for 1,200 people

José Luis Ordóñezbookseller Mega books, states that readers are more attracted to classic literature, adventure, fiction, comics and mangas. He says his clients regularly look for contemporary literary sagas technical books are the least popular.

“I think most of us Ecuadorian readers are new. We don’t have a very deep reading culture, but we are evolving in that sense” says the bookseller.

Mega Books’ readers were primarily focused on comics and fiction.

Universal literature was consulted most often Maxi bookswhere visitors of all ages sought out paperback editions of books such as The Diary of Anne Frank, 1984, Dracula, work, among other things.

At Maxi Libros, readers looked for literary classics.

Children’s books were also the favorites of this event; The booksellers think this was because they went to FIL as a family. This welcome for the children’s offering was especially felt in the Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), the bookstore Mr. Books, the Librería Española and in the Wonderland bookstore. “Families came with children of all ages. Our books seek a reality that is very much our own, they work with values“, he named Juan Carlos Alvarez, of the FCE, which claims that the surprise of the day was an anthology of the texts of José María Velasco Ibarra, which were ‘fallen and beautiful’.

Moreover, based on his experience, he believes that young adult novels get the most response from readers.

New Ecuadorian authors are among the bestsellers at the Guayaquil Book Fair; The classics were also well received.

Children’s books were a favorite of the Economic Culture Fund.

In Librería Española the reading response was varied; There were entire families looking for all kinds of books. “The youth genre has predominated at previous fairs. Not necessarily in this one; Everything was sold, especially the guest artists.he declared Ana Fernandezspokesperson for the place, who stated that Jaime Bayly’s work was one of the most requested.

All types of genres were sought by the readers of Librería Española.

In Wonderland The main characters were comic books and mangas, followed by the Harry Potter saga, which had a special section.

At Mr. Books, young adult novels and novels by guest authors were the favorite genre. (JO)