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I really should not be permitted near a book festival when I'm in book buying mode. [Apparently I've inherited this compulsive tendency from my father, whom my mother tells me cannot enter a book store without acquiring at least one book and usually, a hard-back, non-fiction, policy or history book. Drives her crazy.] At church today or on the way into it, JM (the greeter - who I had a crush on last year, but have now, wisely, decided he's too much of an asshole to bother with it) asked how I was doing, I said fine, but was rather distracted by the Brooklyn Book Festival - which to my credit was just around the corner and I had to wander through it to get to church.
JM: Yes, that sounds like something that would definitely distract someone like you.
Me: You've no idea.
Sort of reminiscent of my co-worker, who asked, "Are you one of those people who is always reading a book?" My response: "Often more than one."
So, I wandered into the Brooklyn Book Festival (determined not to buy any books) - every year I tell myself that I'll skip church and do the Festival in the morning before it gets too crowded and every year I don't and live to regret it. I also tell myself I won't buy any books. The dang thing was packed to the gills after church. But I was determined to visit as many booths as possible. Better selection this year than last, each year it gets a bit better. More minority writers, less self-published young adult romance novels - which seemed to take up half the booths last year (resulting in less book buying on my end last year), didn't see any this year. I think that trend may have finally reached its saturation point (we can only hope).
Also managed to listen to a few speakers. The organizers wizened up and instead of long lines, do it by click - they count off and close off the room once it hits capacity and have the bigger, more popular events outside where more people can attend. I didn't stay long enough to see Naomi Novik, Temeri, Hamil, or Cat Valente...which is just as well, they were all speaking around 3-5pm, I left at 2:30pm, due to information overload and low blood-sugar (I hadn't eaten anything since 9:30 am and had a headache coming on as a result.
I did watch and for a bit, listen to Tony Danza discuss his experiences teaching in the Philadephia inner city schools, Julia Glass (The Three Junes) discuss writing methodology, Naomi Wolfe (The Vagina) on the new female sexuality, Kate Bornstein discuss the Beauty myth from the perspective of queer jewish boy who wanted to be a girl, and I meet Denis Lehane, Edwidge Danticat, and Nandi Keys. Also saw Walter Mosley.
I told Edwidge Danticat that I don't normally like to get autographs. They embarrass me to be honest. But with writers, especially novelists, I can't help myself. She told me as a writer she appreciated that greatly. And wrote in her autograph - to continue to "read dangerously". Which is an interesting sentiment. Although it was clearly a play on words - considering she was signing her award-winning book of personal essays, Create Dangerously. Still I found it inspiring, as both a reader and writer. I'd picked up a book to get Lehane to sign, mainly because I wanted to personally thank him for his writing on the tv series The Wire - he joined in S3, and wrote a lot of episodes in Seasons 4 & 5. The man understands gritty urban ambiguity quite well. Not a very tall man. Quite small in stature. Makes me think of Jimmy McNulty for some reason.
Julia Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Junes) published her first novel in her 40s. ( Read more... )
JM: Yes, that sounds like something that would definitely distract someone like you.
Me: You've no idea.
Sort of reminiscent of my co-worker, who asked, "Are you one of those people who is always reading a book?" My response: "Often more than one."
So, I wandered into the Brooklyn Book Festival (determined not to buy any books) - every year I tell myself that I'll skip church and do the Festival in the morning before it gets too crowded and every year I don't and live to regret it. I also tell myself I won't buy any books. The dang thing was packed to the gills after church. But I was determined to visit as many booths as possible. Better selection this year than last, each year it gets a bit better. More minority writers, less self-published young adult romance novels - which seemed to take up half the booths last year (resulting in less book buying on my end last year), didn't see any this year. I think that trend may have finally reached its saturation point (we can only hope).
Also managed to listen to a few speakers. The organizers wizened up and instead of long lines, do it by click - they count off and close off the room once it hits capacity and have the bigger, more popular events outside where more people can attend. I didn't stay long enough to see Naomi Novik, Temeri, Hamil, or Cat Valente...which is just as well, they were all speaking around 3-5pm, I left at 2:30pm, due to information overload and low blood-sugar (I hadn't eaten anything since 9:30 am and had a headache coming on as a result.
I did watch and for a bit, listen to Tony Danza discuss his experiences teaching in the Philadephia inner city schools, Julia Glass (The Three Junes) discuss writing methodology, Naomi Wolfe (The Vagina) on the new female sexuality, Kate Bornstein discuss the Beauty myth from the perspective of queer jewish boy who wanted to be a girl, and I meet Denis Lehane, Edwidge Danticat, and Nandi Keys. Also saw Walter Mosley.
I told Edwidge Danticat that I don't normally like to get autographs. They embarrass me to be honest. But with writers, especially novelists, I can't help myself. She told me as a writer she appreciated that greatly. And wrote in her autograph - to continue to "read dangerously". Which is an interesting sentiment. Although it was clearly a play on words - considering she was signing her award-winning book of personal essays, Create Dangerously. Still I found it inspiring, as both a reader and writer. I'd picked up a book to get Lehane to sign, mainly because I wanted to personally thank him for his writing on the tv series The Wire - he joined in S3, and wrote a lot of episodes in Seasons 4 & 5. The man understands gritty urban ambiguity quite well. Not a very tall man. Quite small in stature. Makes me think of Jimmy McNulty for some reason.
Julia Glass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Junes) published her first novel in her 40s. ( Read more... )