Tucson Festival of Books

The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing, the clouds were high and white, and there were books everywhere I looked.  People reading books, people buying books, p eople sorting through books..... you get the picture.  The TFOB is my favorite weekend of the year.

I took a different approach this year.  Instead of working through the list of Author Events and marking out a packed schedule for both days, I just wandered.  Open seats were inviting me to hear about Martin Luther King, Jr first thing in the morning, eating my bagel and lox before hardly anyone else arrived.  

I waited in a comfy chair on the patio outside the North Ballroom before listening to Alysin Camerota and Luke Russert talk about their childhoods.  A mathematician from Britain made the case for the marvelous connections between mathematics and literature.   T.C. Boyle  read us a story.  I had lemon Italian ice for lunch.  And that was just the first day.

Reminding me why I love books and authors and authors talking about books and other authors was the morning panel with T.C. Boyle and Linda See and Viet Thanh Nguyen. I wandered through Science City and the Children's Village, collecting stickers and pens and post it notes emblazoned with logos and affirmations.  A sorority was giving away free books and I filled my backpack with goodies for the kiddos at Prince.  I have some lovely bookmarks, many small stress balls in the shape of brains, and very colorful pipe-cleaners which a delightful science educator encouraged me to fashion into my very own, very silly, very oversized glasses.  

With a philosopher, I considered whether TBG's watch, which has had every piece replaced over its life, is still the same watch he bought long ago.  A panel on Religion's Grip on Politics was a frightening glimpse into the vortex of right-wing, Evangelical Protestants, from people who'd been deep in the belly of the beast.  Their philosophy is bad religion and bad history, and they had the pages from Scripture and reality to back up those claims.

I ran into friends, randomly.  I chatted up strangers while we waited in line.  I walked without feeling all that tired.  What used to be a long long walk was suddenly right there.  

It's my favorite weekend of the year.