 Here, There, and Everywhere Which is where I am. It’s been fun though tiring so I am going to take it easy and share a few things in keeping with the title. Here (at BiblioBuffet) we have two changes. First is the addition of our newest contributor, Gillian Polack, who can be found at Bookish Dreaming. Gillian hails from Australia, Canberra to be precise, a city about which Bill Bryson said, “It’s a very strange city, in that it’s not really a city at all, but rather an extremely large park with a city hidden in it. It’s all lawns and trees and hedges and a big ornamental lake—all very agreeable, just a little unexpected.” Gillian, in an e-mail, described it a bit differently: I live (in case you wanted to know) in the centre of the known universe. The outside world calls it ‘Canberra.’ I’ve spent most of my life in cities that are actually on the cultural map and rather enjoy being in a smaller place. . . . We exist because of an argument between Sydney and Melbourne and have our own clause in the Constitution. Tourists appear mostly because they took a wrong turn on an interstate highway. If only we could get the politicians to take wrong turns on the interstate highways we could get rid of them, and Canberra would be perfect. That comment, combined with her first column, should give you a good feeling for what Nicki and I felt when she first e-mailed us about writing for BiblioBuffet. We loved her Aussie sense of humor, and we know you are going to love it too. She will occasionally review books, but more likely her pieces will revolve around the unusual like “Medieval wines toughing it out in a literary battle.” The second change is in my editor’s letter. A month or two ago I asked for feedback on a blog post about whether to give books away here. The response was positive so starting with this issue, I will be offering up a book a week. You don’t have to “do” anything except send me an e-mail if you want to be part of it. See below for details. For “there,” I recommend a very funny piece—“Bedside reading: the naked truth.” Darragh McManus has hit exactly the right note when he states, “I don’t believe them” about the responses newspapers and magazines receive when they ask their interviewees what is on the nightstand. The questions are usually asked of authors but sometimes of celebrities who have not achieved their celebrityhood because they read. I find I often roll my eyes at the books listed, and wonder how John Grisham and Nora Roberts sell so many damn books when no one ever lists them as being on their bedside table—when reading these in bed is just about the best place to read them. And since he asks for comments, I will say that if anyone were to look at my bedside tables right now, they’d find, well, not Grisham and Roberts because I honestly don’t read those but neither would anyone find Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy. What they would find, now, is the oversized and overweight Red Hot: A Cook’s Encyclopedia of Fire and Spice, To The Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa, Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of Dracula, A Walk in the Woods, Two Years Before the Mast, Hot & Spicy Sauces & Salsas, Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery, and the two-volume, slipcased edition of The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham. Like McManus, I tend to go back and forth in terms of quality and genre, and I am not ashamed to admit that a mystery is as likely to end up there as is Othello, the Shakespearean tragedy in which I once had the role of Desdemona. As for everywhere, let’s just say that everywhere is where my brain has been this week, most of it of no interest to anyone but me. So I’ll not bore you, but instead leave you with this thought that intrigued me enough that it stayed with me the entire week: “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.” John Burroughs is right in one sense, but wrong in another. If I worry that each day is too short to do all I want, then it is going to be even shorter than what it is for what I want. Therefore, I shall simply want what I want, do what I can do, and enjoy what I get out of that. Have a great week! Upcoming Book Festivals: The Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival will take place from Wednesday, April 7 through Friday, April 9 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is geared to teachers and librarians who work with children. The featured author and winner of the festival’s Southern Miss Medallion is David Wiesner who along with five other authors, will be participating in workshops, session, autographing, storytelling and two special luncheons. Participants can buy passes for all three days or any one or two of the days. From Thursday, April 8 through Sunday, April 11 the Arkansas Literary Festival will take place in Little Rock. This festival features more than eighty-five authors and presenters; a Vendors’ Row with authors, publishing houses, craft-makers, book dealers, cultural organizations, and more; special events (Aladdin & The Wonderful Lamp, Art to Go, Author! Author!, Become an Illustrator, Book Art, Literacy on the Lawn, Pen Women Mini Fest, A Prized Evening, Spoken Word Live!, Super Family Fun Night, Wooed and Won, Youth Poet Competition), panels, and workshops. The granddaddy of all antiquarian book shows, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up this week beginning Friday, April 9 and running through Sunday, April 11 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. Buying anything here requires substantial money, but most of us can probably afford the entrance fee—which allows unlimited drooling opportunities. Friday hours are noon to 8:00 pm; Saturday hours are from noon to 7:00 pm; and Sunday hours are noon to 5:00 pm. More than 200 antiquarian dealers from all over the world attend this one, and they bring their best books, maps, and manuscripts. The Maine Festival of the Book takes place in Portland beginning Friday, April 9 and continuing through Sunday, April 11. The Opening Night event will feature Tess Gerritsen and Anita Shreve; tickets are still available. All events on the weekend are free, and they include readings, author discussions, signings, panel presentations, book sales, a theatrical production, a poetry party, and a dramatic reading. Many of the events focus on Maine history or its role in national and international affairs and on Maine authors, but there are plenty of other interests as well. Special for the children: a Kids Cartooning Workshop, California’s Literary Orange festival will take place at the UC Irvine Student Center on Saturday, April 10, in Irvine. More than fifty authors will be appearing in a one-day program that includes breakfast and lunch, book signings, three panel sessions each with five choices, and keynote speakers Karen Joy Fowler and Dean Koontz talking and signing. The day begins at 9:30 am and ends at 5:00 pm. General admission is $60; students $25. The Ohio River Festival of Books in Huntington, West Virginia, aims to reach everyone with its week-long schedule of events running from Saturday, April 10 through Saturday, April 17. Among them are author appearances and signings, children’s storybook characters that make an appearance, presentations on eBay selling and genealogy, keynote speaker Jeanette Walls, a gallery walk, poetry reading and writing, puppet shows, a special evening on Holocaust survivor literature, a Friends of the Library book sale, writing workshops, a book appraisal, and more. The Pub House: Good idea! In searching out their books, I found several that made it onto my To Buy list. One, Brothers on the Bashkaus: A Siberian Paddling Adventure, is the story of four Westerners who on their river trip down one of Siberia’s hardest whitewater runs, the Bashkaus River, chance to meet up with Team Konkas from Latvia and end up forming a common bond over the water. Admittedly not on my list but right for someone is The Tattooed Lady: A History, which follows the history of the women who fought convention by covering their bodies in tattoos and traveled the country with carnivals, spinning stories that enthralled the men. Their own stories, however, are more intriguing, and this book explores the origins of tattoos, the women’s histories, and even circus lore. For those interested in the rapidly changing role of journalism, veteran journalist Tom Fenton’s Junk Press: The Role of the Press in 21st Century America explores what changes have been wrought within news organizations and how those changes impact their presentation of world news. But the book goes further than just elucidating the problems; it presents possible reforms and argues passionately why they are essential to our country’s and its citizens’ future. Win This Book! Imaging Books & Reading: Painted in 1886-7, the model in The Reading Girl is Hetty Pettigrew, who was Roussel’s favorite model. She met Roussel in 1884, became his mistress, bore him a daughter, and continued to sit for him until he married (for a second time) in 1914. The painting caused a mild scandal when it was exhibited in 1887, and one critic wrote: “Our imagination fails to conceive any adequate reason for a picture of this sort. It is realism of the worst kind, the artist's eye seeing only the vulgar outside of his model, and reproducing that callously and brutally. No human being, we should imagine, could take any pleasure in such a picture as this; it is a degradation of Art.” Of Interest: This Week . . . Until next week, read well, read often and read on!
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