Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Summertime Reading

For all the hype about Kindles and iPads, for all the electronic capacity to hold thousands of books in a small device, there's nothing like real books.

Try to build an impressive library in your stately home without bookshelves and books to put on them. You'd hardly consider it attractive to have one iPad on a shelf and then row upon row of empty shelves, even though the iPad contains the same number of words as all the books that would fill those shelves.

So you'll want to take a long weekend in Chicago from June 12 through 13. Book sellers will be out en masse, their display tables covered with books you won't know you need until you see them.

The Printer's Row Lit Fest is an annual event that has drawn crowds since its inception. It's mainly about book selling, but there's plenty of action for writers as well.

Free seminars will cover topics ranging from the music of Peter, Paul and Mary to kid lit events for the small set.

Cooking demonstrations will be found, and where's there cooking, there are cook books.

Panel discussions on fiction, poetry readings...there's something for all the literati out there.

The weather is expected to be decent with a chance of rain, so bring an umbrella and your credit card and your reading glasses.

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