Books, Tents, Tables

The past two times my city has had a book festival it’s been pretty crummy rainy weather, but people still turn out. The festivals have been anchored by a couple of bookstores which have space for authors to speak, and tents were set up as well.

One bookstore is a worker owned anarchist collective which also runs a coffee shop. Despite being run by a bunch of anti-capitalists (or maybe because of it), they do good business. I’m going to make a completely wild guess that they have expanded without going into serious debt, which probably helps keep them sustainable.

At last year’s festival I caught this appearance by Osita Nwanevu, who writes for The Guardian and The New Republic.

There were other writers speaking this year, although none that I recognized. For example, there was a talk by this author who writes romance novels aimed at an older demographic. I listened for a while as she talked about how she deals with input from her editor, and how she’s always open to suggestions for change, but will draw the line at things like turning a major character into a child.

The other bookstore is an old institution which sells used books, records and games.

On the side of the store is this mural which is a reference to… um… maybe the Sherwin Williams logo?

Outside the stores people were braving the rain to visit the tents of small vendors. It’s not hard to imagine a lot of vendors pack up the back of their hatchback or SUV and drive to a different city every weekend they can find an opportunity, more out of the love for what they create than any big dreams of getting rich.