Sooooo I know know how to say "books" in English, Spanish, Irish, Welsh, Czeck, and Finnish. Pronunciation, though . . . let's not go there! :P
Anyway, as you might've guessed, I spent my weekend (half of it, at least) at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. I went with my aunt, mystery/noir writer Denise Hamilton (who is totally awesome, by the way . . . you should check out her books!) and as such, I divided my time between the booths on the fairway, the requisite panels for English class extra credit, and the Green Room.
I went to two panels. One, that my aunt moderated, was with two young adult fiction writers, who were a lot of fun to watch. The second panel was about the art of literary criticism, and featured critics from Salon, the LA Times, and others.
The first panel was interesting because it was geared toward young adult readers, or writers who were interested in writing YA fiction. The two authors, David Levithan and John Green, were discussing their latest book, Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I really liked this panel because the authors were fun and relatable, and very engaging. I also very much enjoyed getting to hear them talk about how they wrote the book (each one wrote alternate chapters). Although I have not read the book, and probably won’t (it’s a highschool drama/comedy, and that’s not the type of books I usually read), the panel also provided some insights into how adult authors viewed the teenage world, and how those views help shape their novels.
The second panel, about literary criticism, was drier, but I still enjoyed it. It was more formal and structured, and all about how the critics went about reviewing their books. Most of the critics were self-assigning, meaning they picked their own books to review, and that, they said, was the best part of their job. As someone who writes her own, fun reviews of TV shows, movies, and books, I enjoyed seeing the perspective of those who wrote reviews for a living. A lot of what they talked about was not supremely interesting to me, but it was informative nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed hearing the panelists talk about what they do when they have to write a bad review, and what happens when they end up changing their minds about a book. I also came away from that session with several book recommendations.
Walking around the booths was amazing. I am never one to say no to a book, but I am forced to (repeatedly) here, since I usually end up wanting to buy one of everything. Nevertheless, I got to meet Nicholas Meyer (who directed several Star Trek movies) and have him sign his autobiography for me, and I bought a copy of one of Cara Black’s murder mysteries (she’s a really good friend of Denise’s, and her books are awesome!). I also rather inadvertently discovered the religion/spirituality section, and am the proud but somewhat confused owner of a Quran, six pamphlets about Islam, and two DVDs on interfaith cooperation.
But by far the best part of the day was the opportunity to meet all the other authors informally. I often found myself wondering why I had never gone to the book fair with Aunt Denise before . . . every twenty seconds, it seemed, she was pulling over Patt Morrison or Janet Fitch or someone equally as impressive. We had breakfast with Amy Alkon, the advice columnist, and I don’t think I’ll soon forget the thirtysomething writer giggling like a little girl as she related how she had told off one of her fellow authors for being on his cell phone. I also got to re-connect with one of Denise’s old friends, Naomi Hirahara (I had previously met her at a book reading/signing event for LA Noir 2), and spend some time chatting about college and writing with Cara, who writes a series of murder mysteries set in France that I love. While I loved listening to her stories about her trips to Paris, her efforts to improve my paltry French were somewhat futile :).
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