Hundreds of book lovers flooded Copley Square on Saturday to tour the maze of literature at the third annual Boston Book Festival.
The festival featured “more than 100 world-renowned authors and thought leaders,” according to its website.
Friday night the festival began with a discussion with the cast and creators of the television series “The Wire.” Writer and producer George Pelecanos joined actors Tray Chaney, Robert Chew and Jamie Hector in a question-and-answer session moderated by Rev. Eugene Rivers.
The featured One City One Story book of the festival was Richard Russo’s “The Whore’s Child,” a piece that examines the relationship between Catholicism and the Bostonian psyche. Russo discussed his story in the Boston Public Library’s Raab Auditorium and later held a book signing.
“That rare occasion when you happen to be sitting on a plane and two rows up, someone’s reading a book of yours, that’s as close as you come to seeing anything land,” Russo said. “Sitting here today has been both emotional and very humbling to listen to all of you pay such deep respect to something [I’ve written].”
Russo, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his novel “Empire Falls,” also discussed the story’s dark tones and poignant themes, as well as his subtle use of humor throughout the narrative.
“I learned from ‘Huckleberry Finn’ that if you’re going to be an American writer and you’re going to deal with violence, ignorance, racism and every kind of hatred imaginable, people aren’t going to follow you unless you give them some sort of reason to,” he said.
Russo said that he thinks humor is the reason why readers enjoy books that discuss such issues, “because humor can also be very wise.”
This year, Boston’s NPR news station 90.9 WBUR served as the festival’s presenting partner for the first time.
“The last two years, we’ve been a media partner and we’ve had a booth. So we said, ‘We want to do more,’” said Kristen Holgerson, director of marketing at WBUR. “Books are such a huge part of what’s on our air.”
Several WBUR personalities stopped by the booth, including Sacha Pfeiffer of “All Things Considered,” Meghna Chakrabarti of “Radio Boston” and Tom Ashbrook of “On Point.”
Boston-based food truck Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese attracted a crowd that snaked down Boylston Street. Featured on the second season of Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race,” the bright yellow truck boasted unorthodox specials such as the “fall melt”: Vermont cheddar, rum-soaked raisins, apples and butternut squash.
Meanwhile, iPad wielding members of The Greater Boston Food Bank asked passerby to draw virtual turkeys as part of their “Give a Doodle” campaign. For every hand-turkey drawn, the Food Bank’s corporate sponsors agreed to donate a Thanksgiving meal to someone in need.
“Unfortunately, if kids don’t have enough food, they can’t have active, healthy lives,” said Kate Goodrich, individual gifts manager at the GBFB. “They won’t be literate, and they won’t be able to do things we all take for granted.”
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