FOtHB Report—Down by the Bay

The Happy Booker can't be everywhere, no matter how much we'd love to be out and about soaking up the literary scene and hobnobbing with some of our favorite authors. Often we find we must rely on the kindness of friends to send us wish-you-were-here snapshots of what we've been missing, especially since sequestering ourselves in our hermetically sealed suburban pleasuredome, avoiding the ever-rising heat index and humidity that passes for summer in DC.

Word reaches us today from Michelle Richmond, who sends us a Friend of the Happy Booker (FotHB) report from the opposite coast. Richmond spent a sunny Saturday at Books by the Bay, a one-day literary blow out in San Francisco. For those unfamiliar with Richmond's work, she's the author of the award-winning story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress and her novel, Dream of the Blue Room, is now available in paperback. In addition to being a wonderful writer, she has proven a good friend in supplying us with this account of yet another event we wish we could have attended.

FotHB Report—Books by the Bay, with Michelle Richmond

If anyone needs proof that Books by the Bay is magical, one need look no farther than the thermometer, which registered temperatures in the eighties yesterday at Yerba Buena Gardens. For those of you in other climes, that may not seem exceptional, but remember, San Francisco is the city of which Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

I joined Bookmark Now editor Kevin Smokler and novelist Karl Soehnlein under a big white tent to talk about Books in Unreaderly Times. We had a good crowd, whose questions ranged from worries about the plight of books in a blogging world—Kevin reiterated his assertion from the intro to Bookmark Now that new technologies may actually enhance reading, rather than kill it off—to the prohibitive prices of hardbacks—Neil Soffman, owner of A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, spoke up from the audience to say that publishers are increasingly open to the idea of reader-friendly paperback originals. My personal take on that matter is that, while hardbacks are indeed quite expensive, a hardback book costs the same as two movies at the theatre. Being an avid moviegoer (and, on a sidenote, an ardent disciple of Walker Percy's The Moviegoer) who thinks nothing of shelling out ten bucks for a movie, I rationalize my overzealous hardback purchases by telling myself I'll get a longer period of enjoyment with a good book than I will from two movies. (Unless it's a Benicio del Toro movie, but that's a story for another blog.)

Following the panel, the three of us went over to the signing tent, where I met a lovely man named Ian who had bought Dream of the Blue Room at last year's Books by the Bay and was buying another copy to send to his sister in Manchester (I say spread the word to the Brits, whom I've always considered to be my long lost countrymen).

Anne Lamott was also on hand to sign books; oddly enough, there wasn't a line of fans snaking out the tent to touch the hem of this Bay Area favorite, but I imagine they just hadn't found her yet. I was a bit sad to miss the More Than Just a Job: Writing About What You Do panel, featuring, among others, Blair Tindall, the oboistauthor of Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music (and I thought the rocker guys had all the fun). Best Giant Storytelling Creature costume award in my book went to the sassy mouse in the hot red leather boots. I kinda wanted to ask her out for a drink afterward, but I don't know the protocol for courting children's book characters.

Perhaps the nicest thing about being a participating author at Books by the Bay is the free book certificate you get—I used mine to buy K.M. Soehnlein's second novel, You Can Say You Know Me When, which couldn't be fresher off the presses. Karl hadn't seen the book before yesterday, when he walked into the tent and voila, there was a nice tall stack—its release date is September but a few lucky folks got to take home an early copy, which is a little like showing up at Krispy Kreme at 5 a.m. before the doors open and talking the nice fellows in white hats into giving you a glazer fresh out of the vat.

Hats off to Hut Landon, the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, and the whole Books Inc. crowd for putting on a delicious summer lit event. And hats off to the weather gods for the very cooperative sunshine.

[Ed. Update: For additional Books by the Bay coverage check over at Ed's place, and on Fran's site]

Comments

[Christy]

Thanks for this firsthand view of happenings on what sometimes seems like the other side of the world, from east coast to west coast. San Francisco is forever such a city of the imagination, and The Yerba Buena Gardens seem the perfect place for this event, given the great public art and absorbing public spaces--with different surprises all over those grounds (how amazing to come up unknowing to that full glass wall, peering into the performance space liek a voyeur!). And whose trouble couldn't be washed through by the MLK fountain in its alternate peace and crashing noise?

And oh, Michelle, you should have had that drink with the sassy mouse! I've always regretted saying no to a date with Clifford the Big Red Dog (or, at least, the guy in the costume who propositioned me when I was a bookseller at the local mall's Waldenbooks).