BOOKPATHS

The American Bookbinders Museum, San Francisco, California

Sam Whiting visits Tim James, the “founder, financier, curator, display builder and text writer,” of The American Bookbinders Museum.

The concept is that bookbinderies for hundreds of years looked like little shops," James, 57, says, opening the door to his own little shop of a museum, which is marked by a sandwich board on Harrison Street at 16th. Inside are nine nonelectric pieces of equipment made of wood and metal and resembling antediluvian torture devices. – from “Bookbinder Opens Working Museum in S.F.,” by Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle

The American Bookbinders Museum Website

London, England

Audrey Niffenegger talks about her latest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, “on location at Highgate Cemetery in London.”

October 2009 Literary Events

To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company. -- Andre Gide

Australia

Write! National Young Writers Festival
October 1-5
Newcastle, N.S.W.
http://www.nywf.org.au/

Join in the jamboree of turbulent conversation : hands-on how-to’s : schmancy-pants balls: spelling bees and all-out literary smackdowns. Set your compass to Newcastle and choose your own adventure through a five day festival that flings you Fleming-style from the hot tropics of the BURNing BROW luau to the sequin-drenched debauch of the Great Gatsby Ball!

Canada

British Columbia

Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival
October 18-25
Vancouver
http://www.writersfest.bc.ca/

Writers from Canada, the US, the UK, Italy, France, Australia, Bolivia and China will join thousands of readers at the annual 22nd Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival….

Ontario

The Ottawa International Writers Festival
October 21-27
Ottawa
http://www.writersfestival.org/

We are thrilled to be hosting such a diverse and acclaimed line-up of writers and thinkers and hope you'll join us for some stimulating conversation, a pint of Beau's or a cup of fair-trade coffee and some huge talent. From poetry to politics, fiction to history, we've got everything we'll need to recharge our imaginations and connect us to the community of ideas.

England

Samuel Johnson Tercentenary Year
Thru September 18, 2010
http://www.johnson2009.org/

Havant Literary Festival – ‘a fresh page’
September 25-October 4
Havant
http://havantlitfest.wordpress.com/

The objective of Havant Literary Festival is to establish a celebration for the written and spoken word in the Borough of Havant.

Graham Greene Festival
October 1-4
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
http://www.grahamgreenefestival.org/

Warwick Words: Festival of Literature and Spoken Word
October 1-4
Warwick
http://www.warwickwords.co.uk/

Warwick Words 2009 will welcome performances from some of the country’s leading writers, including the new Poet Laureate, illustrators, storytellers with workshops on diverse literary genres by leading exponents.

Birmingham Book Festival
October 6-29
Birmingham
http://www.birminghambookfestival.org/

A warm welcome to the tenth anniversary Birmingham Book Festival.

We reach our first decade with our best ever Birmingham Book Festival. Writers, poets, performers and many others come to the Festival to share their love of writing. Many names will be familiar, but we also feature writers other Festivals overlook: the new, the challenging, the gloriously undiscovered.

There are many opportunities to participate. Workshops for those interested in developing their writing and Seminars are a chance to learn more about particular writers. Other events are made complete by audiences asking questions, joining in discussions and becoming part of the Festival.

Manchester Literature Festival
October 15-25
Manchester
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/

This year's line-up of distinguished guests includes Martin Amis, Simon Armitage, Kate Atkinson, Joan Bakewell, Eoin Colfer, Marilyn Hacker, James Lasdun, Michelle Magorian, Val McDermid, Jimmy McGovern, Jeff Noon, Ruth Padel, Frederic Raphael, Fay Weldon, Guo Yue and many others.

Cheltenham Literature Festival
October 9-18
Cheltenham
http://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/whats_on/literature_festival.html

The world’s oldest Literature Festival was founded in 1949 and witnessed many political and cultural changes. We would like to take the opportunity in 2009 not only to talk about the past, but also to look at the future ahead of us. Literature, history, politics, medicine, what got people talking, what events changed the course of history and people’s lives in the past six decades? And what does the future hold?

Guildford Book Festival
October 14-24
Guildford
http://www.guildfordbookfestival.co.uk/html/index.php

I hope you will find much to interest you as you look through the Programme and that you will leave the Festival feeling uplifted, entertained and inspired!

Germany

Frankfurt Book Fair
October 14-18
Frankfurt
http://www.book-fair.com/en/fbf/

Indonesia

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
October 7-11
Ubud, Bali
http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/#

The international Ubud Writers & Readers Festival is the major project of the Ubud-based Mudra Swari Saraswati Foundation. It was first conceived of by Janet De Neefe, co-founder of the Foundation, as a response to counteract the damaging effect of the first Bali bombing. The first Festival took place in 2004. Since its founding, however, the UWRF has grown and developed into an internationally recognized forum that fosters a global conversation and provides a platform for writers from Indonesia and around the world to share their ideas and perspectives on current issues.

Ireland

The Children's Book Festival
October 1-31
Dublin
http://www.visitdublin.com/Events/AllDublinEvents/Detail.aspx?id=235&mid=6434

Presented by CBI in partnership with the YLG, the Children's Book Festival is a nationwide celebration of children's books and reading, held every year during the month of October.

Mexico

Feria Internacional del Libro Monterrey
October 10-18
Monterrey
http://fil.mty.itesm.mx/

United States

California

San Diego City College International Book Fair
September 28-October 3
San Diego
http://www.sdcitybookfair.com/

Central Coast Book and Author Festival
October 4, 2009
San Luis Obispo
http://www.ccbookfestival.org/

Book lovers, authors and illustrators come together in historic Mission Plaza, one of San Luis Obispo's most idyllic settings. Join us for this FREE event….

West Hollywood Book Fair
October 4
West Hollywood
http://www.westhollywoodbookfair.org/

Litquake
October 9-17
San Francisco
http://www.litquake.org/

Litquake plans a real page-turner of a celebration to commemorate our ten-year anniversary!

Florida

Seventeenth Annual St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading
October 24
St. Petersburg
http://www.festivalofreading.com/

Georgia

Book Fair on the Square
October 3
Marietta
http://www.bookfaironthesquare.com/

Open your mind to the second annual Book Fair on the Square! Downtown Marietta, between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm on Saturday, October 3rd. The Square will be transformed into a literary oasis as your favorite authors, books and characters steal the spotlight during this fun event.

Georgia Literary Festival
October 7
Rome
http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Georgia-Literary-Festival/index.php

The 11th annual Georgia Literary Festival will be held in Rome on Saturday, October 17. It will mark the first time the festival, a 'moveable feast' of Georgia’s literary heritage, has been hosted in Northwest Georgia.

Illinois

The Spoon River Drive
October 3 & 4 and October 10 & 11
The Spoon River Valley
http://www.spoonriverdrive.org/

The Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive Associates invites you to come to Fulton County, Illinois and enjoy the natural wonders of the Spoon River Valley. Spoon River has carved a wide scenic valley through Fulton County as it flows from London Mills to the south and east where it joins the Illinois River near the southeastern corner of the County. The Spoon River became nationally known from the work of Edgar Lee Masters, author of the noted Spoon River Anthology.

Indiana

Bouchercon 2009
“Charmed to Death”
October 15-18
Indianapolis
http://www.bouchercon2009.com/home.html

The 2009 Bouchercon will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana, following Baltimore, Maryland (2008), Anchorage, Alaska (2007), Madison, Wisconsin (2006), Chicago, Illinois (2005) and Toronto, Ontario (2004). The 2009 Bouchercon will represent the 40th time mystery lovers have convened at this event.

Kansas

Oztoberfest
October 3-4
Wamego
http://www.oztoberfest.com/

Louisiana

Louisiana Book Festival
October 17
Louisiana State Capitol and nearby locations, Baton Rouge
http://www.louisianabookfestival.org/

Celebrating readers, writers and their books.

Massachusetts

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac!
October 1-4
Lowell
http://www.lowellcelebrateskerouac.org/

Our mission is to keep the spirit of Jack Kerouac alive and well in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts!

Boston Book Festival
October 24
Copley Square, Boston
http://www.bostonbookfest.org/

Minnesota

Twin Cities Book Festival
October 10
Minneapolis
http://www.raintaxi.com/bookfest/

The annual Twin Cities Book Festival is a celebration of books and reading that is free and open to the general public.

Missouri

Missouri Literary Festival
October 2-4
Springfield
http://www.missouriliteraryfestival.org/

The festival celebrates the written word in all its wondrous variety through author readings, presentations and workshops for all ages and interests, a slam poetry competition, live music, theatrical performances and film.

Montana

Montana Festival of the Book
October 22-24
Missoula
http://www.humanitiesmontana.org/BookFestival/bookfest.php

The Montana Festival of the Book will bring together the region’s finest writers to celebrate reading and writing in one of the Inland Northwest’s biggest cultural events.

New Hampshire

Children's Literature Festival
October 31
Keene
http://www.keene.edu/clf/

Welcome to the Keene State College Children's Literature Festival homepage. We hope you will enjoy exploring what we do in promoting the reading, studying, and use of children's literature. In addition, you can see the various components that are in place, as well as in the planning stages, for achieving our goal of making Keene State College a national center for the study of children's literature.

New Jersey

Collingswood Book Festival
October 3
Collingswood
http://www.collingswoodbookfestival.com/

This autumn, the thrill of reading will bloom once more when bibliophiles converge in the historic town of Collingswood, NJ. It's the big literary event with the small-town, friendly ambience. A week of activities will culminate on Saturday, October 3, 2009, 10 AM to 4 PM. Festival-goers will have an opportunity to stroll more than six blocks of the main street filled with nationally recognized authors/speakers for adults and children, as well as booksellers, storytellers, poetry readings, workshops, exhibitors, kid-friendly activities, and entertainment for all ages. All events are free. Stay tuned for more details.

New Mexico

Four Corners Storytelling Festival
October 8-10
Farmington
http://www.infoway.org/storytelling/

Storytelling in the Four Corners today reflects the continuation of an oral tradition that has been embraced and preserved starting with the petroglyphs of the Southwest.

Slow down the pace, kick back, and listen to traditional tales of the Navajo, Hispanic cuentos or stories, some great cowboy poetry, and a few tall tales, as told by some of the very best national and local storytellers.

North Carolina

Novello Festival of Reading
September 26 – October 31
Charlotte
http://www.plcmc.org/novello/

The popular festival brings book lovers and authors together for a celebration of books and reading. Great events are included for both children and adults during the celebration that runs from Sept. 26-Oct. 31.

Pennsylvania

Greater Reading Literary Festival at Alvernia
October 12
Alvernia University
http://www.alvernia.edu/events/2009/10/literary_festival.php

South Dakota

South Dakota Festival of Books
October 2-4
Deadwood
http://www.sdbookfestival.com/

The Festival of Books, 'Where Readers and Writers Rendezvous,' brings together more than 50 of the top national, regional and South Dakota authors as they share their life and work. Presentations focus in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, history/tribal writing, children's literature, writers' support and poetry.

Tennessee

National Storytelling Festival
October 2-4
Jonesborough
http://www.storytellingcenter.net/festival/

The festival, now in its 36th year and acclaimed as one of the Top 100 Events in North America, sparked a renaissance of storytelling across the country.

Southern Festival of Books: a Celebration of the Written Word
October 9-11
Nashville
http://www.tn-humanities.org/festival/current.php

For three days each October, Nashville, Tennessee becomes a literary mecca, welcoming some of the best writers from around the country for the Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word. The Festival marks its 21st anniversary October 9-11 as one of the oldest and most prestigious book events

Utah

Great Salt Lake Book Festival
October 21-25
Various locations
http://www.utahhumanities.org/BookFestival.htm

Confluence: a Celebration of Eating and Writing in Moab
October 22-25
Moab
http://www.moabconfluence.org/

Confluence is a celebration of reading and writing in the West and aims to inform, inspire, engage, and enrich the community through literary arts.

Vermont

Brattleboro Literary Festival
October 2-4
Brattleboro
http://www.brattleboroliteraryfestival.org/

The Festival is a three-day celebration of those who read books, those who write books, and of the books themselves. Located in downtown Brattleboro, Vermont, the Festival includes readings, panel discussions, and special events, featuring emerging and established authors. All events are free.

Washington

The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair and Book Arts Show
October 10-11
Seattle
http://www.seattlebookfair.com/

An International Book Fair featuring thousands of rare books, prints, maps, photographs and ephemera for sale.

West Virginia

West Virginia Book Festival
October 10-11
Charleston
http://www.wvhumanities.org/bookfest/bookfest2.htm

Mark your calendar! The ninth annual West Virginia Book Festival will be held October 10 & 11, 2009, at the Charleston Civic Center. Each year the festival offers something for book lovers of all ages and interests: authors, publishers, book vendors, the Festival Marketplace, a special section just for children, a used book sale, meet the author events, workshops and panel discussions.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Book Festival - "Courage"
October 7-11
Madison
http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/

The Wisconsin Book Festival is the state's largest literary festival, with approximately 15,000 annual attendees, and one of the largest in the nation. This unique event inspires book lovers from across the region to spend a weekend in downtown Madison and transforms State Street into a vast, public literary salon. In short, the Wisconsin Book Festival is a high-energy, high-profile, public literary arts and humanities program that makes an impressive cultural and economic impact each year.

Read books. They are good for us. -- Natalie Goldberg

Poets House, Manhattan, New York, U.S.

Poets House opens in Lower Manhattan.

For nearly 25 years Poets House has been an anchor for poets and poetry lovers. It lodged first in a home-economics room at the High School for the Humanities in Chelsea before settling in on the second floor of a loft building at 72 Spring Street in SoHo. On Friday, Poets House opens its spacious new home in Battery Park City hard by the Hudson River at the corner of Murray Street. – from “Transparent New Home for Poetry,” by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times

Poets House Website

Washington, D.C.

Washington D.C. hopes that Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol will “bring a boost of literary tourism" to the Capitol.

Indeed, what ‘Da Vinci Code and Brown's other hit, ‘Angels and Demons’, did for London, Paris and Rome, local officials and businesses are hoping ‘The Lost Symbol’ will do for Washington.

Among the sites appearing in the book: the Capitol building, where George Washington laid that cornerstone and where many more Masonic symbols lurk inside; the Smithsonian Institution's famous Castle; and the far less-known ‘Kryptos’ sculpture at the CIA building across the river in Virginia; and a normally ignored statue of one Albert Pike, a sovereign grand commander of the Scottish Rite of Masons. – Jeffrey Brown, The News Hour

Ethiopia; New York, United States

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

Conjoined twins are born to a nun who dies in childbirth and a skilled doctor who, confused and desperate, leaves them behind.  Successfully separated, readers follow the boys, named Mario and Shiva by their adoptive parents, through the closeness of childhood, the growing tension between them, political turmoil, separation as one seeks escape in New York, finding their destinies in medicine, and finally coming together again in an ultimately heartbreaking reunion.  Cutting for Stone holds readers attention throughout its 500+ pages, offering not only a compelling story of family, but insights into what it means to be a doctor and the impact of place in our lives.

I stood listening once the car pulled away; the dry rustle of the leaves was like a child’s hand sifting through a box of coins.  The sound had lost all its menace for me.  I found that dented and bent curb, which had stopped a motorcycle but not its rider.  I looked down into the trees and the shadows where he fell.  The spot no longer generated any fear for me.  All my ghosts had vanished; the retribution that they sought had been exacted.  I had nothing more to give, and nothing to fear.  I looked out over trees to the city.  The sky was a mad painter’s canvas, as if halfway through the artist had decided against azure and had instead splashed ocre and crimson and black on the palette.  The city was alight, glowing, but here and there it was obscured by great puffs of mist which smudged my view, like the smoke of many small battles. – from Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

Related Websites

Abraham Verghese Website

Publisher’s Website

Broughton, England

William Fiennes talks about his memoir, The Music Room.

'The Music Room' is at its heart Mr. Fiennes’s memoir of his brother, who died at the age of 41 in 2001 and was a towering presence, by turns charismatic and infuriating, charming and foolish, sweet and aggressive, swaggering and filled with doubt. But it is also about family responsibility — the responsibility of caring for a troubled child and for a glorious house rich with history and freighted with duty — and about the loneliness, interlaced with joy, of growing up with a great deal of time on your hands in a magical place that is yours but not yours.  – from “Recalling a Home That Really Is a Castle,” by Sarah Lyall, The New York Times

Oakland, California, U.S.

Blues City: a Walk in Oakland, by Ishmael Reed (New York:  Crown Journeys, 2003)

In Blues City, Ishmael Reed invites readers to join him on his explorations of Oakland, the city he calls home.  Readers follow Reed on walking tours, to parades and other events, into historic buildings, restaurants, businesses, all reflecting the many cultures that enrich this city.  But, while Reed celebrates Oakland, he also expresses anger at the politics behind its increasing development and gentrification. By book’s end, readers share with Reed both the hope and sadness he feels as he walks the streets of “blues city.”

Before writing this book, my knowledge of Oakland was like that of the early astronomers of the universe.  The universe was a small neighborhood of my concerns, and I had very little knowledge of the goings-on outside of the center of the block on which I live.  My routine usually took me to the university and, perhaps three times a week, for walks around the Emeryville marina, from where I could gaze out on the bay and on clear days see Alcatraz and the ocean beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.  In fact I live on the border between Oakland and Emeryville, and my post office is located in Emeryville, a booming city where gambling is legal.  If I hadn’t written this book, I would not have become acquainted with Oakland’s many worlds.  Nor would I have met the many volunteers, the true heroes and heroines of the city who strive to keep the heritage of Oakland alive in the face of fierce and often malevolent forces of development. – from Blues City: a Walk in Oakland, by Ishmael Reed

Publisher’s Website

Paris, France

That Summer in Paris, by Morley Callaghan (out of print, but available; first published in 1963)

Morley Callaghan recalls his “fabulous summer of 1929” in Paris with his often at odds friends, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other expatriates.

But that first night, sitting there as strangers, wondering hopefully if Joyce, or Pound, or Fitzgerald or Ford, someone we would recognize, might pass by, we didn’t feel lonely or out of place.  The corner was like a great bowl of light, little figures moving into it and fading out, and beyond was all of Paris.  Paris was around us and how could it be alien in our minds and hearts even if no Frenchman ever spoke to us?  What if offered to us was what it had offered to men from other countries for hundreds of years; it was a lighted place where the imagination was free.  Men have to make foom for such places in their thoughts even if they never visit them. – from That Summer in Paris, by Morley Callaghan

Forks, Washington, U.S.

“Fans of the Twilight book series have turned Forks, Wash., a two-stoplight town on the western end of the Olympic Peninsula into an unlikely tourist hot spot.”