I first became aware of Borel when Boing Boing posted a video of the author demonstrating how to open a bottle of champagne with a sword.  That’s a skill you can use.  They posted another Borel video titled How to Sample Wine Without Looking Like a Clown.  That one’s fairly self-explanatory.

I’ve been meaning to check out Corked ever since. I was alerted to Borel’s upcoming Atlanta visit by Russ Marshalek, sometime BGB contributor and the hardest working man in books.  Russ sent an impassioned e-mail to his Atlanta friends and associates urging us all to drop everything and check out Borel’s reading.   Well, I’ll let Russ speak for himself…

(Dramatic interpretation of an an original e-mail by Russ M created by the Baby Got Books Thespian Society.)

The reading is at 5PM on Saturday March 6. A Capella Books will be there to hook you up with a copy.  Here are the directions.  You remembered the part about the free wine, right?

I’ll put in a plug for Inman: not only does the name evoke one of Atlanta’s nicest neighborhoods, it’s the handle of one of the most memorable literary characters of the past twenty or so years, the protagonist of Cold Mountain.

Mazel tov, y’all.

As seen on the poster, “Bookzilla” was the official mascot of this year’s fest.  #bookzilla was the official Twitter hashtag of the weekend (but I really don’t know what that means).  The giant inflatable Bookzilla towering over the old Decatur Court House served notice that this is not a book festival that takes itself too seriously.  Books are fun!

Vendor/exhibitor tents lined Ponce de Leon and the Square.  By my totally subjective count and remembrance of year’s past, there were many more vendors/exhibitors this year.  I was happy to see McSweeney’s was back in the mix, and I happily gave them a pile of my money.  An interesting new vendor to the fest (new to me anyway) was the Dust-to-Digital tent.  Dust-to-Digital are a local (and Grammy-winning) record label that specializes in releasing “rare and essential” recordings of American music.  They have a new book out, Take Me to the Water: Immersion Baptism in Vintage Music and Photography 1890-1950, that looks very cool.

One of the highlights of the weekend for my family was checking in with Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese Cat who thinks he is a Chihuahua.  Judy Schachner (Skippyjon’s author and illustrator) sang, drew, and read at her packed appearance.  Skippyjon himself made an appearance at the signature table.   He needed the Friskies, because he was there for a long, long time.

Schachner signed books at her table for at least 3 1/2 hours after her reading (and she had signed books at an author brunch earlier in the day, too).  Aye, Carumba!   One reason why she may have been there so long is that she drew a picture of Skippyjon in each book she signed.

This inscription started a two day debate over the proper spelling of the word moustache/mustache.  (The author used my preferred spelling.  Who Moustache is a whole other story.)

The offices of Lenz Marketing, the gang responsible for the look and feel of the festival, displayed some of the artwork that made onto this year’s promotional materials and signage (besides Bookzilla).  I am partial to this book-carrying gorilla that I didn’t see anywhere else.

I also dug the studious Book Worm.

Speaking of art: The world’s greatest children’s bookstore, The Little Shop of Stories was mobbed all weekend long.  On Sunday James Dean, the illustrator for the wildly popular local children’s book Pete the Cat: I love my White Shoes, was painting a new Pete the Cat canvas.  Kids were beside themselves.

And there were authors everywhere.  Did I mention that?   Many were getting the rock star treatment with lines down the block.  Sadly my pictures of these events mostly feature blurry and poorly lit blobs at a podium.

Hats off to Directors Tom Bell  and Daren Wang for putting on what, for me, was the liveliest and most fun Decatur Book Festival yet.  I’m looking forward to next year already.

There are over 300 authors descending on Decatur Square, make sure you check the list and then check it again to make sure that you don’t miss anyone.  There are at least four Pulitzer-winning authors in the house.  Local author Collin Kelley will be debuting his new novel Conquering Venus. Gazillion-selling Water for Elephants author Sara Gruen will add to her sales. And on and on.  Seriously.  Check out the whole list.

I’ll be spending huge chunks of time with my young reader at the Kids’ Stage, where it is always happening.  This year’s children’s authors include Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man, Cowboy and Octopus), Judy Schachner (Skippyjohn Jones – I am muey excited), Kate Dicamilo (The Tale of Desperaux, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Because of Winn Dixie), Atlanta’s own Laurel Snyder (Any Which Wall, Inside the Slidy Diner), and… really, check out the children’s author list.

And speaking of the kids, be sure to pick up a copy of The Wayfarers Diary from the Wren’s Nest booth.  Atlanta area high school authors have been working hard all summer to bring their top notch literary journal to the fest, which is kind of the coolest thing ever. Last year’s edition was very cool, and it’s for the kids.

There are also plenty of special events on tap, including a Literary Death Match – check out the events schedule.  Of course, there is also A Book Market and Street Fair.  McSweeney’s will be there again.  Last year they were giving huge “sweaty guy discounts” – and I still dropped a truck load of cash.  Check out the list of vendors.

I’ll be there all weekend toting a hundred pound sack of books that I didn’t know that I needed.  BGB contributor Russ Marshalek, making his triumphant return from the Big Apple, will be taking a victory lap around The Square.  It’ll be a party. If you see us, say howdy.

After the reading and over a couple beers, Ben Tanzer interviewed me for a podcast that he’s posted over at This Blog Will Change Your Life. I’ve never been on the receiving end of interview questions before, so you’ll hear some mumbling, long pauses, and the occasional “uh…” on my end of the conversation.  I’ve helpfully annotated our discussion with some handy links.

You’ll need to go here to listen.

Helpful links for some of the items discussed:

• Manuel’s Tavern
• the Poncey-Highland neighborhood
• Radiant Days by Michael Fitzgerald
• Dave Eggers
• Zeitoun and
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• A Prayer for Owen Meany and
• The Cider House Rules by John Irving
• Black Flies by Shannon Burke
• Safelight by Shannon Burke
• R.E.M. vs U2 (I’m right.  For the record.)
• Poutine
• Ira Glass

Many thanks to the always happening Ben Tanzer for the fine excuse to be out and about on a school night.

Details:

Thursday, August 6, 2009

7:00pm

Beep Beep Gallery

(via Galley Cat)

The book fest is Labor Day weekend, September 4-6.  The very cool poster looks like this:

The list of authors that will be appearing at this year’s fest can be found here.

If you’d like to volunteer for this year’s fest, check in with the DBF here.

Much more info about all things book fest will be coming as the event gets closer. Stay tuned.

• 8:33 last day of bea. Kinda want to say ohthankgod but this has actually been a great, great weird set of days. Rushing to get to javits for a session on the google book search and archive and what it means for publishing (rights, etc), the 11 am session is beyond full so a 9am one opened. Probably not going to make it in time. If I do, it will mean sacrificing coffee, and dear reader I will not.  I’m going to have to miss one of the big things I wanted to do this weekend: luis urrea reading from his amazing into the beautiful north at kgb bar tonight.  I can’t sing the praises of that book enough. Another gorgeous day in new york, another battled hangover, and it does feel like the last day of school: you know you’ll see some of these people again. Some of them you’ve no desire to ever again talk to. Some of them have become real friends but now disperse across the country. Someone should be playing “don’t you forget about me”
• 8:54 dammit not going to make it to the most controversial session here
• 8:57 ah well. Going to miss session. Getting coffee and reading catching fire instead. Can I call it catching fireyah?
• 9:25 feel better. No one could find session. Want to make joke about google archiving rights, but can’t think of one. The exhibit hall is full of books being thrown at attendees. No one wants to lug anything back to polatka.
• 9:38 google session is hot secret ticket. Going to bumrush the 11am session
• 10:16 stephenie meyer doesn’t believe in fun
• 10:24 discussing splitting up neil gaiman and amanda palmer. Can’t tweet about that.
• 10:31 bumrushing the 11am google session. Rumor of food.
• 10:33 ppl lining up at 10:30 for a noon nicholas sparks signing? We know where the housewives are (ed: zing!)
• 12:04 google session had to compete w nicholas sparks signing next door. Was fascinating and overwhelming. I don’t mean sparks
• 12:07 basically, w google archiving content, new distribution methods mean new and added value for titles if rights can be worked out
• 12:57 never gonna pay 10 bucks for rice and beans again
• 1:26 final missive. Big top closing. Don’t don’t don’t you forget about me bea, ill always remember you. Stay sweet have a good summer.

Closing remarks:

Here was the thing with my first BEA ever-it was incredible. I know folks felt like this was a lesser/off year, but maybe it was the sheer childlike magic that is the inexplicable “social networking” , but I found myself surrounded, on the whole, with really, really good people. You know that obnoxious Kerouac quote about “the only people for me are the mad ones”? Yeah, Javits was, since Thursday, filled with those people-the mad ones. The ones mad for books and literature and in love with the written word in many forms, driven by fear and by need but also by desire and by love. This is a generalization, of course, but it’s true enough with those I encountered, either randomly or purposefully, that everyone wants to not just save publishing but revolutionize it, everyone has an idea, everyone’s so hungry for change, for improvement, for more.

I never, at all, heard anyone utter the phrase “I hate my job” and mean any more than “I hate having to go back to the hotel to get my wallet”. I challenge any industry to top that.

It’s weird-I’m so tired. SO tired. Tired to the point where last night, in a cab back from Brooklyn, I had an utter breakdown to 2 trusted compadres. About life, the universe, everything. And as we crossed the bridge, and I saw the city lights, I realized exactly how full of life the past few days have been. The hunger, the love, the joy that was in that stupid “Catching Fire” line, the publisher of SoHo press, the oldest and also sharpest human being in the Google Book Search discussion session, laying on the table for everyone exactly who we need to realize is dictating the online content pricing rules-it’s all been a whirlwind haze.

I am known for over-emotionalism. (It’s a word, deal with it). But what I saw at BEA 09 was a lot of hope. that may be, I concede, because I don’t surround myself with those who are afraid of the future, but with those who seek to embrace it. I know for a fact that doesn’t include everyone in publishing, but I’ve met enough now where I feel like, should we need to form an army, we could do it.

Now I have to get these books home. All four bags of them.