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I love annual events that get better and better each year. That's what's been happening with the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA. I did some quick math on the drive down and realized I have been going for five years now. I used to zip down on a Friday night and stay til Sunday morning, but my trip has been getting longer and longer each year. This year I started my weekend on Thursday and drove home Sunday afternoon.
Here's my travelogue on what I did there -- my version of "What I Did on My Bookish Vacation."
Yesterday I drove from my home in New Jersey to Charlottesville, Virginia for the Virginia Festival of the Book. I love road trips. Always have. If a trip is less than 6.5 hours, I drive. I loathe waiting in airports, packing a suitcase to fly and living life on an airline or train schedule. All are real stress inducers.
I love warm weather. Not hot sticky weather, but warm weather. This week I took an extended weekend trip to Florida and got just that! I had an opportunity to attend Sleuthfest in Ft. Lauderdale or the London Book Fair. I rolled the dice on sun or rain and picked Florida. As I wrote in last week's newsletter, the last time I was in Lauderdale in March was back in my college days.
Around our house we've been following the Olympics with enthusiasm. Every two years this is a two-week ritual that we embrace --- no, actually, we completely succumb to the pomp and commentary. I like it because the Olympics give us a time to pause and watch. We do a lot of talking about where we all were four years ago --- and even 18 months ago when the summer games happened. The boys are now 11 and 16 and a lot has changed since Salt Lake City in 2002. Most of all, they are staying up to watch more events at midnight!
I know there has been just a "wee bit" of media about James Frey and A MILLION LITTLE PIECES this week hence I lace the title of this blog with its own tone of hyperbole as I feel like I am spending the week with James Frey. I am starting to feel like I know James Frey. Full disclosure here: I once passed James Frey in a hallway at Penguin Putnam when I was there for a meeting. I hope he does not remember it and write about me.
I am not going to rehash the news, but here are my thoughts:
Over the holidays I did some reading outside my comfort zone --- and enjoyed it. Like many of you there are certain genres that I read that are "typical." For me, these include suspense/thriller, mystery, women's fiction and biography.
Last Friday night the time came to get really serious about shopping for the holidays. My sons and I headed for the local mall ready to shop. My husband, who has participated in these kinds of adventures in the past, opted to stay home. He is not enamored with the way we race from store to store and make this an adventure.
I have figured out why the holidaze is such a crazy time of year. There are sooo many --- too many --- decisions to make.
After spending four days at the Miami Book Fair I have decided that it is hands down one of my all-time favorite book events. I am not sure what I loved best --- the number of authors, the variety of events or the passionate readers in the crowd. I think it was a combo of the three.
I am lucky that both of my boys are very avid readers. Many of their friends are not. Cory, my 10-year-old son has more time for reading than his older brother, Greg, who is consumed by schoolwork. Cory has one friend, Josh, who reads as voraciously as he does. It's always interesting to watch them together talking about books and sharing what they read. Cory's teacher told me last week that he often rushes through his schoolwork to have more free reading time as they are allowed to open a book as soon as their work is done.
