Reading Copy Book Blog

For all our Australian friends the line-up for this years Byron Bay Writers Festival (July 25-27) has been announced… as always it looks like quite the event.

Writers and poets from the Hay on Wye literary festival could be going to prison reports the BBC.

Anyone in or around California the next two weekends might want to take a look at either the San Francisco Antiquarian Book, Print, & Paper Fair this weekend (Feb 9 & 10) or the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in LA which runs February 15-17.

AbeBooks world famous Story Laboratory is hitting the road again, this time dropping anchor in Portland Oregon at the Wordstock literary festival. Story Laboratory will be at the festival this weekend, November 10-11, located at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Our booth will be in the center of the children’s section.

Story Laboratory sessions help children put their stories on to paper and then create their own book. The session attracts children between the ages of eight and 12, but any child can attend. If you live in the Portland area drop by, say hello, and create something! To see some past creations check out the Story Laboratory website

For the last three days, the Story Laboratory has helped more than 120 children write their own stories and make their own books at beautiful Granville Island during the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. Here you can see kids hard at work, showing off their creations, and a couple examples of some of the fantastic books being made with the Story Laboratory! Today, we’re be holding a drop in for anyone who wants to come by and make their own masterpiece. Look for the Story Laboratory sign next to the Granville Island Waterpark!

If you happen to be on the west coast of Canada this weekend you may want to check this out. The Victoria Anarchist Book Fair runs this Saturday and Sunday (September 8 and 9) at the Downtown Community Activity Centre, 755 Pandora St.

Some of the publishers represented are: Arsenal Pulp Press, AK Press, and Seven Stories Press

Filed under “because we love you,” AbeBooks is offering up a pair of Weekend Passports to the Steinbeck Festival and two night’s stay (August 3&4) in a hotel just a stone’s throw away.

This year’s festival them is John Steinbeck and the 1960s - A Culture of Discontent, and takes place from August 2-5 in Salinas, California, the heart of Steinbeck Country.

All you have to do to enter is visit our Steinbeck Festival Contest page and tell us which Steinbeck novel began with the line “The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.”?

Contest closes July 26!

Well BEA kicks off today and a number of the Abe staff will be working the floor this weekend.  If you want to head over and say hello the AbeBooks booth is number 4300.

The Independent reports that the Hay-on-Wye literary festival has sold out.

Leading the charge is the novelist Margaret Drabble, who attended the first festival in 1988 but has vowed never to return. The author of 17 novels, two biographies, a television play and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize told The Independent on Sunday it had become too “celebrity conscious”.

“It’s a pity,” she said. “The whole thing has become a celebrity festival, not an author’s festival. Of course there are some very fine writers there this year. But the whole thing of festivals has become about book sales and marketing, nothing to do with meeting readers.”

We have an exclusive interview with Gavin Grant the winner from our Nebula Awards contest. If you were not in New York for the event, this is the next best thing.

NY Writers Coaliton is looking for volunteers for its 2nd annual Write-A-Thon, an all day writing session. You need to raise $100 or more to enter but there are prizes to the top fundraisers.

This coming weekend, May 11-13, one of the most prestigious events in the Science Fiction and Fantasy calendar is being staged at the New York Marriot Hotel - The Nebula Awards.  As some of you may remember, we held a little contest to give one lucky AbeBooks visitor the chance to take part in the fun. The winner is Gavin Grant.  He won a pair of weekend banquet passes and two nights stay at the host hotel.  Next week, Gavin will tell us how the event went for all of us who were unable to attend.  If you are still thinking about going, I’ve been told there are a few tickets left.  You can snap them up here.

The LA Times goes to Hay-on-Wye - an unlikely combination but books pull all sorts together.

The LA Times previews this weekend’s LA Times Festival of Books - AbeBooks has a booth at the event (# 654) and you can meet Thomas, Jordan and Kyra who will be representing the company. Come by and say hello.

I attended the event two years ago and really enjoyed it.

Today marks the start of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.  It’s running all weekend and features loads of AbeBooks sellers.  If you think you might be stopping in at the event take a look at Fine Books blog where they have some advice on how to get the most out of a book fair.  Also stop and say hello to Abe’ers Mark and Maria who will be making their rounds all weekend.