The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. You can't imagine the pressure to give interviews, to go to book fairs.
I go to a lot of conferences and conventions to meet with readers directly.
I'm a book nerd, and I've seen authors that I love, I've gone and seen them speak or read from a book.
The Festival of Books is indeed a well-oiled machine, one which leaves most of the other literary festivals in America, including vaunted Brooklyn's, in the dust.
There are some writers I think who love to go around and visit bookstores and just interact.
November is Jewish book month, so Jewish Community Centers all around the country have book fairs where they invite authors and sell books in advance of the holidays.
A lot of author events are basically hour-long classes in entropy perched on bad seating under bright, hard lights, with - if you're lucky - bad Chardonnay and cheese on a stick waiting for you at the end of the ride.
I wanted to go to Portland because it's a really good book town.
