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Another week, another book fair
Oct. 25th, 2009 08:56 pmLast Saturday (eight days ago) we went to WORDplay, an event in Whitley Bay organised by Culture Quarter. They'd taken over a church hall, and the church as well, Local publishers had their stalls in the main hall, and there were readings in a marquee outside, in the church itself and in a room upstairs. Not only was there something going on all the time, there were several things going on all the time: which was frustrating if you wanted to hear two things which were programmed against each other (and hard on some of the readers who saw their audience reduced accordingly) but it created a real buzz of excitement. Each time an event finished, there was a flow of people into the publishers' room. And at the central point of the building, which you had to pass wherever you were going to or from, there was a hatch into the kitchen, with tea and coffee and cakes and sandwiches on sale. I heard Peter Mortimer read from his diary of two months at Camp Shatila in Beirut, and Joanna Boulter read some of her poetry, missed hearing Valerie Laws read and photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen talking about her new book; I bought a book (Writers on Islands from Iron Press) and a couple of comics/zines from the Paper Jam comics collective) and chatted to a lot of friends and clients and the occasional total stranger. A good day out.
Yesterday a number of the same people were appearing at a book fair in Durham as part of the Book Festival. We have a long and tangled history with the Festival, but the simple version is that I try to go to as many of its events as I can (books! festival! what's not to like?) but there are usually not many events which I am enthusiastic about, and often as not we have other commitments (we might, for example, have gone to the opening event on Friday had we not been at a poetry launch in Newcastle - and a good one, too). So I decided to drop in on the Book Fair, which was in the cavernous depths of the Students' Union. This promised a book swap, a clothes swap and various readings and workshops. Unlike last week's event, it wasn't free, but my life membership of the Students' Union got me the reduced rate, which I thought was a good enough deal.
I'd been in two minds about whether Culture Quarter had adopted the right strategy of forcing you to make choices about who you wanted to hear: so it was interesting to compare the Durham event, where everything except the workshops happened in the same large room. When I arrived, local DJ Tony Horne was talking about a book he had written about an extended holiday he and his family had taken in Australia. He was amplified, and his voice dominated the hall, most of the centre of which was filled with seating - not all of it full. There were stalls around the room, though not as many, and much of the wall space was devoted to the clothes swap - but there were some tables of books, and since it felt a bit rude to go and chat to stallholders, I browsed the books instead. Tony Horne went on for long enough that eventually I went away, found some coffee, came back, found a book I wanted (Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades: LJ tells me it is time I read some Heyer) and - this was harder - found someone who would take my money for it. And eventually he stopped.
Later on I managed to say hello to Vane Women, and to make contact with Durham City Arts. This time I did hear Valerie Laws read, and heard Peter Mortimer again, too - but there wasn't much time to chat before the next reader was on. It's easy to see how an event ought to have been organised after you've seen what didn't work about how it was organised, but if I had to make suggestions, I'd say reduce the amplification and the space allocated to the readings, and put the organisers' table at the foot of the stairs so that it's there to greet people as they arrive, and to sell them books before they leave. Still, I bought a book and had coffee with someone I rarely get to sit down and talk to, so not a total dead loss.
And we had a lovely evening at a birthday party back in Whitley Bay - but that's another story.
Yesterday a number of the same people were appearing at a book fair in Durham as part of the Book Festival. We have a long and tangled history with the Festival, but the simple version is that I try to go to as many of its events as I can (books! festival! what's not to like?) but there are usually not many events which I am enthusiastic about, and often as not we have other commitments (we might, for example, have gone to the opening event on Friday had we not been at a poetry launch in Newcastle - and a good one, too). So I decided to drop in on the Book Fair, which was in the cavernous depths of the Students' Union. This promised a book swap, a clothes swap and various readings and workshops. Unlike last week's event, it wasn't free, but my life membership of the Students' Union got me the reduced rate, which I thought was a good enough deal.
I'd been in two minds about whether Culture Quarter had adopted the right strategy of forcing you to make choices about who you wanted to hear: so it was interesting to compare the Durham event, where everything except the workshops happened in the same large room. When I arrived, local DJ Tony Horne was talking about a book he had written about an extended holiday he and his family had taken in Australia. He was amplified, and his voice dominated the hall, most of the centre of which was filled with seating - not all of it full. There were stalls around the room, though not as many, and much of the wall space was devoted to the clothes swap - but there were some tables of books, and since it felt a bit rude to go and chat to stallholders, I browsed the books instead. Tony Horne went on for long enough that eventually I went away, found some coffee, came back, found a book I wanted (Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades: LJ tells me it is time I read some Heyer) and - this was harder - found someone who would take my money for it. And eventually he stopped.
Later on I managed to say hello to Vane Women, and to make contact with Durham City Arts. This time I did hear Valerie Laws read, and heard Peter Mortimer again, too - but there wasn't much time to chat before the next reader was on. It's easy to see how an event ought to have been organised after you've seen what didn't work about how it was organised, but if I had to make suggestions, I'd say reduce the amplification and the space allocated to the readings, and put the organisers' table at the foot of the stairs so that it's there to greet people as they arrive, and to sell them books before they leave. Still, I bought a book and had coffee with someone I rarely get to sit down and talk to, so not a total dead loss.
And we had a lovely evening at a birthday party back in Whitley Bay - but that's another story.
