Narrowly missing the arrival of Hurricane Sandy, thousands of readers came out to Copley Square Saturday and found a vibrant book industry in light of waning book sales.
The fourth annual Boston Book Festival featured a two-day literary celebration that hosted distinguished authors from Lemony Snicket to “The Tolkien Professor,” Corey Olsen. The festival included 50 presentations and panels from 150 presenters and focused on showcasing a vibrant book industry in light of waning book sales.
“The publishing industry struggles sometimes, so an event like this is great for getting people excited about books and about the exchange of ideas that happen here,” Joyce Linehan, director of public relations for the Boston Book Festival, told The Daily Free Press.
The festival, presented by WBUR, was organized by a staff of three people and had more than 200 volunteers at the festival, Linehan said.
The Boston Public Library and the surrounding churches and buildings served as the setting for the numerous panels throughout the day, most notably authors such as Lemony Snicket, the children’s keynote speaker, and Richard Ford, the festival’s keynote speaker.
Lemony Snicket, the author of the Series of Unfortunate Events novels, spoke to a full room in the Old South Church.
Snicket read an excerpt from his new novel Who Could That Be at This Hour and performed a song on the accordion.
“The accordion is a formal instrument,” Snicket said, “so I will be removing my jacket, but not my pants to play.”
Throughout his keynote address, Snicket interacted with the audience and made jokes.
“This isn’t funny,” Snicket said sarcastically, after the audience laughed at one of his jokes. “I don’t know why you’re laughing.”
Members of the crowd said they enjoyed Snicket’s performance.
“We just saw him speak, and he was amazing,” said Belinda Schwartz, a Boston University sophomore in the College of Arts and Science, who also met Snicket at a book signing after the address.
“I think that it’s great that they got Lemony Snicket to speak here,” said Christine Bennett a sophomore at Lesley University. “Last time I didn’t got to any of the workshops, but this time I knew to plan ahead because they have a lot of great speakers and authors here.”
Members of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners attended the festival, showing the people of Boston the programs and resources that the Massachusetts library system can offer them.
“Ultimately we all know that the print book is in decline,” said Mary Ann Cluggish, a board member for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, to The Free Press. “That does not mean that books are in decline.”
Cluggish also spoke to the community of book lovers that came out to support the book festival who also support their local libraries.
“We know that Boston is the hub of the universe when comes to academic, education and knowledge,” Cluggish said. “Libraries now have become more about community and meeting places.”
The Boston Book Festival not only allowed for authors to promote their newest novel, but it allowed for authors to discuss the meaning behind their work with their readers.
“An event like this is great for getting people excited about books and about the exchange of ideas that happen here,” Linehan said. “The sharing of ideas is appealing to everybody.”
Authors Tom Perrotta, Alan Lightman and Ben Marcus participated in a panel entitled “Heaven Knows,” in which they discussed the themes of religion and the mystery of the afterlife in their novels.
“It’s great that the Boston Book Festival has given us the opportunity to have this thought-provoking conversations,” said Elisa New, the moderator of the panel.
These thought-provoking interactions between the authors and their readers were the goal for the staff of the Boston Book Festival, Linehan said.
“With the college powe have at thpulation that’s here and the reputation that Boston has as a center of thought, it really makes sense for there to be a really big, glorious book festival, which is what I think is the point.” she said.
Schwartz said the festival allowed for attendees to discover a love of reading.
“I really like that here everyone can go [to the Book Festival],” he said. “It’s more about enjoying reading and enjoying books and appreciating the authors.”
Schwartz said the academic spirit of Boston made it a perfect place for a major book festival.
“Boston is such an academic city, and you have a lot of people here who love books, obviously,” he said. “It’s nice for everyone to come together. It’s a really nice atmosphere.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
