New Hampshire Authors Draw Large Crowds at National Book Festival
NH Books
New Hampshire Union Leader
Daisy Hsiang-Ching Tseng
Boston University Washington News Service
Sept. 26, 2009
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall Saturday for a chance to meet their favorite authors, including four from New Hampshire—Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, John Irving and Jodi Picoult.
In its ninth year, the National Book Festival, organized by the Library of Congress, had the best selection of authors it’s ever had, according to Matt Raymond, the Library’s director of communications.
“To see tens of thousands of people with smiles on their face,” Raymond said, “and applauding, and laughing, and being excited about meeting authors, and being excited about books, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
Raymond asked, “How often do you see a hundred thousand of people on the National Mall and it’s not a protest, it’s not political?”
Seventy-eight authors, including John Grisham, Judy Blume, David Baldacci and Lois Lowry, met and talked with their fans and autographed books. Dan Brown was invited but unable to come to the festival because of his schedule, Raymond said.
Jodi Picoult said her road to becoming a writer started with a fourth grade assignment she wrote about a piano she practiced on all summer. She wrote it from the point of view of the piano, and her teacher gave her an F, telling her that she didn’t ask for a creative writing assignment.
John Irving shared with the audience that one of the most important parts of writing is repetition, in terms of the use of the language, the theme of the book, and revision of the writing.
“Repetition is the inevitable concomitant of having something worthwhile to say,” Irving said. “You don’t have the choice. You can choose the names of your characters, you can choose the locations, you may fool yourself into thinking that you’re writing a different novel every time, but characters repeat themselves, situations repeat themselves. You have no choice of what your obsessions are. They obsess you. You don’t pick them.”
The pavilion was packed when Picoult and Irving spoke, with some people fighting for seats and space in the aisles.
“It’s great. They did a wonderful job in organizing and managing the book signing lines,” said David Johnson, who lived in Hollis, N.H., for 13 years but now lives in Virginia. He brought “The Hotel New Hampshire” for Irving to sign, and said he had read almost every book Irving wrote.
Ken Burns read “The Little Engine That Could” to children at the book festival, giving them the value of optimism and hard work.
The objective of the book festival is to get people inspired to read, and to continue reading throughout their lives, according to Raymond.
“It’s not just literacy, not just being able to read, but it’s lifelong literacy,” Raymond said.
“I love this place,” Irving said in an interview after his speech. “It’s a place where you see people of all ages. It gives me encouragement to see that so many people come out and stand around in the rain and read books. It’s a unique kind of book festival. It’s like a fair. It’s like a carnival, and I like that about it.”
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