The title of the most beautiful book of 2006 was also awarded to Masák's Memoirs

That's how it was picture

Prague – A total of 18 publications published last year received awards in the Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year 2006 competition. The results were announced today by the organizers at a press conference in Prague. The awarded books will be displayed at the Memorial of National Literature in Prague until May 27.
    Winners in six main categories received the Minister of Culture's award, which comes with a reward of 50,000 crowns, from which tax does not have to be paid. The organizer of this year's 42nd edition of the competition was the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the Memorial of National Literature.
    This year, 107 publishers submitted their publications to the competition. The expert jury evaluated a total of 196 books, of which 53 advanced to the shortlist. According to the organizers, over 12,000 books were published in the Czech Republic last year.
    "That is an enormous production and of course it is very fluctuating," said Eva Wolfová, the director of the Memorial of National Literature, to ČTK. According to her, the competition maps the best books and shows the direction in which quality Czech book production could head.
    According to Wolfová, the quality of Czech polygraphy has been continuously improving since the early 1990s. "The most beautiful Czech books are now comparable to Swiss, German, and British ones, which have traditionally been of high quality," she stated.
    The award in the beautiful literature category was taken home by Miroslav Masák for the book That's how it was. In the visual arts category, the jury awarded the publication by Otto M. Urban In the Colors of Sickness about Czech decadence.
    The ministerial award in the children's literature category went to the creators of the fairy tale book from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ateš Periša - the fiery man. In the scientific and professional literature area, the book UB 12 by Milena Slavická came out on top. In the catalog category, the book Cooperative Work: Sutnar - Sudek by Lucie Vlčková won. Among textbooks, two Teaching Texts from Charles University in Prague took the prize.
    However, according to the organizers, the quality of Czech textbooks has long lagged behind other publications. "We actually only evaluated them so that the category would not disappear," said jury member Milan Jaroš. Publishers usually say that they are too constrained by curricula and pricing, which plays a significant role for buyers in the case of textbooks, and that publishers do not want to invest in such books.
    Otherwise, however, the organizers are satisfied with the quality of Czech publications; many valuable books were not even submitted to the competition by publishers, and therefore the same companies regularly win awards. "Publishers themselves consider whether the production they release is suitable for participation in the competition or not," explained Wolfová.
    Nevertheless, the organizers send invitations to participate in the competition every year to publishing houses that publish more than one or two publications a year; there are about a thousand in the Czech Republic. "Despite this, more than a hundred publishers have regularly participated in the competition in recent years, and the number of books submitted for the competition is roughly the same," Wolfová added.

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