Dymocks took over as the official bookstore this year after readings had done the job for a few years. I thought they had a much better set up this year with a good layout in the store although being able to move around is problematic in such a small space. The signing lines too were set up with good old ropes but it worked very well and gave one a bit more 'space' to have a quiet chat with writers and a bit easier if you had books to be signed by more than one author.
Unfortunately if, like me, you had a pass card you had to always have with you what sessions you were attending and I had to keep checking the paper guide to know where the sessions were because there didn't appear to be any directory on display telling you what was on where. Epic fail on that count!
- Jonathan Franzen was the opening act for me and was not exactly Mr high energy! When he managed to form coherent phrases he was very entertaining, indeed very funny but my gosh the pauses were so long at times three buses could have driven through! I had a chat with him after and asked him about the saga of the first edition of his latest book 'Freedom' needing to be pulped because it was actually an uncorrected proof containing many typos. His tip made me realise my copy is one that contained the errors!
- A session with Michael Robotham and Tess Gerritsen was hugely entertaining with lots of insights into the art of writing crime. Tess really knew how to present her stuff and told a great story about Nantucket's 'House of Rejuvenation" aka the local morgue - so named because of the preponderance of people declared dead who actually weren't!
- A session on Melbourne stories made me proud of the City I call home and reminded me how lovely it is to read a book set here. Had a nice chat to Rosalie Ham, Steve Carroll and Sophie Cunningham.
- Lynda La Plante who writes such tough characters was a quite refined woman who was absolutely hilarious and a great rubber face she used to great effect. Kerry Greenwood and Jane Clifton joined her in a session called 'lady killers'. I'm afraid I may have ignored LaPlante at the signing afterwards because I was somewhat caught up in a conversation with Kerry, simply sliding my copy of Lynda's book in her direction. A few minutes later when I picked the book up voila it was signed and I hadn't actually engaged in any conversation with her, let alone said thanks - oops!
- Terrific conversation sessions with Christine Nixon (enlightening and revealing), Jane Clifton (fascinating and charming) and Anna Funder (so beautiful and so bright) were highlights.
- There is nearly always one session that h. as an edge to it and might very well unravel before one's eyes and for me this year it was a session about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. Some vigorous discussion about what makes a journalist, freedom of speech and what responsibilities go with that and whether the person chairing a discussion is required to have an opinion. Very entertaining and interesting with a woman who co-wrote a book with Julian when he lived in Melbourne and a guy who was an expert on investigative journalism and emerging technologies for the media. Tracey Hutchison seemed ill at ease in the chair and in fact bridled at some of the responses before getting embroiled in a discussion around journalistic ethics.
- I was particularly pleased to sit in on a session with Tom Trumble and Ken Haley on 'slow travel'. Tom wrote a book about walking the Camino in Spain (which had been a selection in our work book group) and ken is a wheelchair bound traveller. We even had a bit of a slide show! Great to chat to Tom afterwards and even discussed footwear for 8000 km walking!
- Favel parrot who must surely be an Australian novelist to watch after her superb 'Past the Shallows' was terrific in a session with Malcolm Knox and Gretchen Shirm on Surf Nation. We had a lovely chat afterwards.
Long live the book and long live writers!
No comments:
Post a Comment