Sunday, June 17, 2018

Book Festivals

By Jeff Burns

My wife and I discovered Book Festivals.  Neither of us like crowds very much, but of course we love books. Since 2008, the Savannah Book Festival has taken place in venues on three historic downtown squares in mid-February.  Each year, the festival hosts about 40 authors from all genres in a one-day event. Even though we never need an excuse to visit Savannah, one of our favorite cities, this seemed like a great way to dip into the book festival pool.

We decided to check out the schedule and read some of the selections.  Come to find out, that’s not the usual way for Book Festival goers, at least in Savannah.  In talking to other people, we discovered that it seemed that most of the audience members for each talk hadn’t read the book, or at least a great number hadn’t.  There’s also a disadvantage to reading in advance; authors only sign books purchased at the festival.

Long story short, we thoroughly enjoyed the talks, the conversations with strangers while waiting in line or waiting for the talks to start, and even meeting the authors.  Savannah Book Festival will now be an annual destination for us, and we’re looking forward to the even bigger, 3-day, Decatur Book Festival Labor Day Weekend.

Some of the books and authors featured  at the Savannah Book Festival 2018:





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