Boston Book Fest

I had the opportunity on Saturday to attend the Boston Book Festival. It was pretty fantastic. I had class in the morning, but managed to get to Copley just in time for the lecture I wanted to attend: Great Brits and Books--a lecture about authors Austen, Dickens, and Barrie. It was a fantastic lecture. Because I arrived right as it was starting they wouldn't actually let me in (standing room only), but my patience won out and after not too many minutes of straining to hear a few people left freeing up some space for those of us just outside the door.

I learned many interesting things. One was that Victorians considered novels to be throw-aways. Most Victorians didn't keep a lot of novels around their homes and the ones they did keep typically were presentation copies with inscriptions. They didn't treat them like coffee-table books that cluttered up their homes. They thought of novels and circulating libraries in more of a netflix-like way. The panel also talked about how Dickens and Austen are very fairy-tale like, especially to modern-day readers. It was really a fascinating lecture. I'm so glad I could go.

The booths around the festival were pretty good too. I managed to score free tickets to the ABAA fair in November and the Book, Print, and Ephemera show (also in November). It was a pretty successful afternoon.