The Boston Book Festival

For six years now, I’ve traveled to Boston to spend an October Saturday in Copley Square. The occasion has always been centered on books, writers, and publishers. There’s also a «streak thing» going on, too.
I attended the inaugural Boston Book Festival in 2009, and each subsequent one. I always meet up with my son, Mark, and we spend the day listening to authors, perusing book tables, talking about writing (along with sports and politics), and scouting out the best offerings of the myriad of publishers who set up shop in one of the Boston’s celebrated public squares, a patch of real estate hearkening back to the city’s storied past.
The last few years, I’ve decided to leave the car behind in Portland, trading it in for a backpack and bus ticket. Concord Trailways the carrier of the MegaBus service making round trip travel to Boston possible for $ 10! I couldn’t even park for that.
Mark and I meet up at South Station (he comes up from Providence where he lives, via commuter rail), walk across town to Copley. It’s always an enjoyable walk as we talk about what’s been going on in our lives, while passing through Boston’s Chinatown, and along the Boston Commons, as we make our way up Boylston.
In the past, we’ve always tried to cram too many events into too short a period. This year, I wanted to hear Steve Almond. Mark was down with that, too. We missed out on Nicholas Carr’s talk on technology, which was another one I’d circled on the #BBF2014 event schedule when it came out.
Almond was Almond, which means he was great. He talked about his recent book denigrating football, and touched on writing and publishing in his characteristic way.
We hit up the Lily King (she of the recent Kirkus award in fiction) panel in the afternoon, moderated by the New Yorker’s James Woods. Not so great.
Another festival’s been put away and is now in the books. Happy to have one of this magnitude so close and accessible.

It makes me so happy that this free festival is now an annual occurrence in Boston. I went the first year when there were huge lines to get in everywhere and bad weather closed down the outdoor vendors early. Since then the festival staff have improved the logistics to the point my husband and I were able to get into every session we wanted with no lines.
If you love books this is a must-​visit event for your calendar.

Despite being centered on the magic of words, I don’t know that there are any that accurately describe the brilliance of the Boston Book Festival.
Taking place on a single day toward the end of each October, the BBF is a time for readers and writers from across New England to descend upon Copley Square to discuss, debate and discover the power of the pen. Panels cover a wide range of topics and genres and are spread throughout the downtown area, giving participants a chance to interact with writers as well as take in some iconic Boston scenery and architecture. A large book market is set up in Copley Square, with fresh food, BBF-​branded swag and a collection of tomes that makes my little literature-​hoarding eyes water. There is truly something for everyone.
It’s worth it to check out the schedule ahead of time and decide which panels are of interest to you — they fill up fast. I find the hardest part to be actually choosing the ones I hope to attend, as there are always at least two lectures I’m dying to see at any given time. The one event that is not to be missed, though, is the One City, One Story discussion. Each year, the People Who Make Decisions pick a short story by a local (ish) author and then distribute it throughout Boston. There are many resources to go with the story (
has more info), but the experience culminates with a large group discussion and question-​and-​answer period with the author during the afternoon panel session at the Festival. Something about seeing all of these people together and knowing that we all share such a basic love of literature in common is what really makes the Boston Book Festival special. I never miss it if I can help it!

So I have this personal goal that I have set for myself since last year. If I read 20 books I will buy myself a nifty, brand spanking new tablet. Sure I can buy one any time but I want to earn it. I had found myself frequenting the library, book store crawling and looking for websites /​books I can entertain myself with. At some point I discovered this event and thought it would be pretty neat to check out.
I happen to also be an avid volunteer, as usually it gets you into paid events for free. So I got a chance to volunteer for the Book Fest and it was quite cool. The people running it are super enthusiastic, gave us a tour of the library and set all the volunteers up with a job and location.
To my surprise, (but certainly not the organizers) this thing was packed. Though they have plenty of adequate stations for children and lots of things geared towards kids I was surprised to see how many adults came, sans kids to the event. A few of the book talks, like the author writing about the life of Bulger was packed. The library halls where they have lectures are pretty big but this room and others just had a massive pile of folks hanging along the walls and outside the doorway just to listen to this author talk about the case and his book.
They also spread out the locations of the talks and events so crowds aren’t concentrated in just the library or Copley Square. Giving you ample room to breath, enjoy yourself, and discover some great authors and books.

Reading is always in style in Boston and it’s extra exciting to celebrate books with music, food, and fun in Copley Square. I participated in a poetry workshop, sat in the audience for engaging discussions, and got a book signed by an amazing author, Julia Alvarez!
The outdoor book market had some awesome deals and finds from independent publishers and bookstores from all over the New England region. There were also booths from organizations doing great work to celebrate literacy and writing among children and teens. I saw a few children book characters hanging around to greet kids too.
There are plenty of volunteers with bright orange shirts passing out the BBF guide and can direct you to the various events. I’ll be back next year!
Read local!

The 2011 version of the Boston Book Festival continues to impress! The organizers did a great job of logistics, despite the threat of rain. The panels were engaging, the volunteers in each auditorium or speaking venue were extremely helpful, and the stalls along Copley Square, representing anything from prison literacy projects to independent publishers, provided a festive atmosphere as well as much conversational fodder about anything related to books and literature. Bravo again!

This event was phenomenal. I had the opportunity to meet Ken Burns & David Pogue in the flesh. And, being the dork that I am, I was waaaay more excited to see David Pogue.
There were book signings, lectures, and tents set up outside. Even Brighams was there giving out free samples of Paul Revere’s Rocky Ride (btw, delicious).
Putting volunteers in bright orange shirts with giant question marks on them was sheer brilliance. There was no way to get lost, and no way to leave with an unanswered question.
Can’t wait for next year’s festival.

Great event. Thanks to State Street and all the sponsors and volunteers. Despite the rain, very good turn-​out, and it was worth it. It was cool to meet Ken Burns, and the Open Mic with Hank Phillippi Ryan was a lot of fun. I hope this becomes an annual event.

Book lovers rejoice, our time is now!
Despite near biblical rains today, people swarmed Copley today and were not dissapointed in their search for all things literary.
There were several events going on all over the place but I had no problems finding what I was looking for thanks to an army of volunteer staff wearing parkas to answer people questions
My reason for being there? To see John Hodgman from Daily Show/​I’m a PC fame. The highlight of the interview about his new book of made up trivia was when he said in a world where any question can be googled, it’s important to still have facts no one else could possibly know.
Hodgman then challanged the audience to use their Internet ready phones to prove him wrong.
That got huge laughs from everyone.
Between events, there were several vendors in attendence selling book related items. Brookline Booksmith was there was a large selection of books, including some from new authors that were already pre-​signed and ready for sale. Although, shame on them for having a large section for the «Twilight» books.
But I forgive you for it simple becase I saw a group of adults flipping through «Where the Wild Things Are.». I had to smile at that.