Why don't you just start your own book festival?

Even Louisiana managed a book festival for the last 15 years, although it was cancelled this year because they lost all of their government funding, and the private sector in this state just isn't interested in something so intellectual that it can only be a commie pinko liberal plot.

I'm sure the answer will present itself if we just keep asking.

yay book thing! those marvelous people are responsible for increasing my library by at least 200%. seattle needs a book thing. i've got donations if someone's got the space.

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Books are so passe'

That said, check out Ars Technica on capitol hill.

Geek paradise.

@6, what in the hell does "Ars Technica on capitol hill" mean, and what does it, whatever it is, have to do with books or book fairs?

I can think of half a dozen cities that, in fact, love books more than Seattle. Portland, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco...

When you say "Nobody else in America loves books the way we love books", either your denial or your ignorance of the rest of the country shows. No book festival, no book culture, non-local authors rarely come by, Bailey-Coy and most of the other good independents closed...

"Nobody else in America loves books the way we love books. Seattle really ought to have a book festival that shows off our commitment to the printed word."

Well, Baltimore is "The City That Reads."

http://www.utne.com/Media/Baltimore-The-…

@8, what are you talking about? There are SIX non-local authors reading in Seattle JUST TONIGHT: Tamam Kahn, Justin Somper, Mae Ngai, Susan Casey, and Judith Simon Prager. And, while Seattle doesn't have that one blockbuster bookstore like Portland does, it's got a very fine range of stores all over town.

If such a thing as a "book culture" exists, outside of London and New York, which I kind of doubt, Seattle's as good a candidate as any. Maybe we've got TOO MUCH book culture, and so don't need a festival? What do festivals have to do with books, anyways?

The Book Thing is wonderful. I have given and received many, many books over the years.

And hey, Paul said no one loves books *the way* Seattle loves books, not no one loves books *as much as* Seattle loves books. Maybe the way Seattle loves books is antithetical to holding a successful book festival.

I lived in Baltimore, and the Book Festival was just not all that impressive. Lots of crappy books and crappy publishers, and lots of people there to eat crappy fried food who really weren't interested in books. It was much more festival than literary. Which I guess is fine, but it's the kind of event that if we had it here in Seattle I'd be bitching about what a waste it was with the rest of you.

Surprised nobody's made a reference yet to Baltimore's former slogan (emblazoned on the bus stop benches) as "The City that Reads" -- or the wag's version, "The City that Bleeds," which unfortunately was true, too.

What's that? Oh, it's the sound of us rocking. Rocking so hard.

Though too be fair, J. Lasser is right; our book fair could be better. But the Book Thing rules, and we don't bleed nearly so much anymore.