Bostonians turned out in droves on Saturday despite the strong October winds for the second annual Boston Book Festival. The completely free, non-profit book festival brings together authors from all over the country to participate in different panels over the course of the day at over ten different locations around Copley Square.
Last year, over 12,000 people attended the various events, and organizers predicted that attendance would double this year. After each panel, attendees were buzzing that it was the best one they'd seen all day. As the festival gains a foothold in Bostonian culture, those planning on attending next year's event should have a pretty firm grasp beforehand on what to expect. Here are a couple of rules from a first-time festival-goer.
1. You can't possibly see everything and everyone you want.
The festival takes place over the course of one day. That means that of the over 100 authors present, you'll probably get to see only 10 to 15 of them if you stay for half of each panel session. That's just for the events where authors are actually featured. If you try to get into the more fun, interactive events that the Boston Book Festival puts on — like Writer Idol in which amateurs bring 250 words of their manuscript to be read aloud and judged by a panel — you'll need to line up about 20 minutes before the start time.
It's also good to have stamina. In order to make it to the keynote speech at the end of the day — probably the one event that ties the whole festival together — you'll have to make it through eight hours worth of events. Since the festival is spread out over approximately four blocks surrounding Copley Square, you'll be schlepping back and forth all day, and you can't go into the festival thinking you can avoid a lot of physical activity.
2. Listening to a favorite author can be underwhelming.
The one non-superstar fiction panel I made it to was one of the day's first — "First Time's a Charm," about life after a successful debut novel. Justin Cronin, author of one of this year's best books, "The Passage," was on the panel with Jennifer Haigh ("Baker Towers" (2005)) and Joshua Ferris ("And Then We Came to the End" (2008)).
"The Passage" is best described as a vampire/zombie apocalypse novel that starts off a promised trilogy. As outlandish as the novel is, Cronin and the rest of the panel were quite disappointing. They were all panelists because they have won the PEN New England award at some point in their careers. Coincidentally, the PEN New England Foundation sponsored the event, so the authors spent the first approximately 20 minutes of the panel discussing how the award has changed each of their writing careers. After that, the discussion picked up slightly, with each author talking about their writing process, and Cronin did eventually address "The Passage."
The lesson to take away from this is that the authors we love aren't like celebrities — they aren't trained to be witty and funny in the public eye, and just because they write a fabulous science fiction novel, it doesn't mean they are going to be a complete science fiction nerd. It's good to keep low expectations going in.
3. The Boston Book Festival is not just about books.
The festival, while celebrating print media as it slowly dies out, also realizes that e-readers and technology have a lot to do with the publishing world today. Google and various e-readers had a merchandise tent taking center stage in Copley Square, confirming suspicions that most people own some sort of electronic reading device.
One panel I attended, "The Tendencies of Technology," addressed the issue of reading in a modern world. The auditorium was packed, and while each of the four authors present had a different take on technology, all agreed that we must adapt to technological changes in order to be functioning members of society.
Most interestingly, Nick Bilton, the head writer for the New York Times' technology Bits Blog, pointed out that humans weren't even born to read. He noted, while referencing Tufts Professor of Child Development Maryanne Wolf's research, that our brains' capacity to recognize symbols has morphed into an ability to read.
"We rewired our brains to learn how to read, and now we'll do the same for electronic information," Bilton said. "It's just a new kind of narrative."
4. Bostonians love Dennis Lehane (and Tom Perrotta, too).
By far the best panel of the day was "From Page to Screen," featuring Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River" (2003), "Shutter Island"(2010)) and Tom Perrotta ("Election" (1998), "Little Children" (2006)), who spoke about the triumphs and difficulties of seeing their material turned into films.
Of course, Lehane stole the show talking about how whenever he sells the rights to his work, he always hopes that he has made a good choice in terms of the director. "I don't want to be like that guy in ‘Animal House,'" Lehane said. "You know, the one that comes in and sees everybody playing cards, and goes, ‘Hey, you guys playing cards?'"
Perrotta, on the other hand, writes his own scripts and enjoyed the collaborative efforts he has participated in when bringing his works to the screen. Even though he knows that many aspects of his books get changed in the process, he described the mediums as completely different.
"Adaptation means letting go of some of the choices you made in the novel," Perrotta said. "It's like a puzzle that you spend time taking apart after you put it together, and then you have to figure out a completely different way to put it together for the screen."
The Boston Book Festival has a lot to offer for the curious reader willing to sniff out interesting panel discussions and activities. The overwhelming popularity of this young event proves that Bostonians are still reading, and it looks likely to become a mainstay on the Boston scene.
