Book Festivals

Lory and I have been talking about book festivals recently. Last fall, I went to the Harrisburg Book Festival. https://www.hbgbookfest.com/ Recently, we went to the Annapolis Book Festival https://www.keyschool.org/community/annapolis-book-festival and the Cecil County Children’s Book Festival. https://www.cecilcountylibrary.org/event/childrens-book-festival Next week, June 24, we are going to the Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival in Easton, Maryland. https://chesapeakechildrensbookfestival.com/

I considered going to the Fredericksburg Book Festival, but didn’t get there. It is two hours each way, so I took another look at it. I hadn’t caught that it is a festival of independent writers, graphic novelists, publishers, and book artists. Sounds very interesting, and the Riverfront Park looks nice, but I thought we might want to see how the podcast evolves over the next year, and how this will fit. Maybe next year.

In the beginning, I don’t think we talked much about festivals, but it is becoming a growing part of what we are doing. Interesting things keep happening to us and that has been true of the festivals too. Visiting the Annapolis Festival led to plans for us to do an episode from the Festival next year. In Cecil, we got an interesting tour of the relatively new North East Branch, and we met two people who are deeply involved in the Chesapeake Festival. We’ve been promised a tour of the Easton Branch Library.

It just keeps getting better and better!

Maybe we will see you at a festival. Do you know one that hasn’t caught our attention? Send us an email or let us know on Instagram or Facebook.

A Reading Place

Lory and I went to the Cecil County Public Library’s Children’s Book Festival. Read about the Festival here. https://www.cecilcountylibrary.org/events/book-festival We had company. Also on the trip were our friends from Carroll County Public Library, Executive Director, Andrea Berstler, and Director of Communications, Lisa Picker. Listeners have heard us talk of Lisa more than once.

More about this trip on an upcoming podcast episode, but for today I want to mention one specific thing from our visit.

The Festival was at the North East Branch, a wonderful new addition to the Cecil County Public Library. Check it out here. https://www.cecilcountylibrary.org/about/hours-locations/north-east

There was a lot to like, but my favorite thing was a second floor porch/deck that looks out over the library lawn and waterfall. What a great reading spot! It is a quiet spot with a nice breeze and big rocking chairs. Definitely a place for me if it wasn’t an hour and a half away. If you are closer, I highly recommend it.

Magical

“It was just magical.” My daughter, Monica’s, words in Episode #27 https://www.twosides2thestory.com/podcast/episode-27-the-two-sides-fathers-day-episode about the now closed store, Daedalus books in Columbia, Maryland. It was an amazing store, but I had no idea that she remembered it that way. It makes me very happy to think that we went there and that she thought of it that way.

Daedalus is still an online store. You can visit them at https://www.daedalusbooks.com/

Kingsolver Pulitzer

Barbara Kingsolver is a writer who has long been on my mind to read, but I’ve never read a book of hers. I love her name – Kingsolver. Doesn’t it sound a name to build a story on? The Kingsolver! The ideas! I’ll add it to the list.

I know her new book, Demon Copperhead, has been getting a lot of attention, but it recently caught my eye anew for winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

It occurred to me that I had no idea what it took to win a Pulitzer. A minute of deep research revealed that there isn’t much of an answer. The people who get to pick have a great deal of freedom to choose Pulitzer winners. I was a little surprised.

I was even more surprised at the award - $15,000. Clearly, the prestige is greater than the monetary reward, but if I write something Pulitzer-worthy, I promise not to complain about the $15,000.

Looking into the Pulitzer led me to a list of winners. You could do worse than to build a reading plan based on Pulitzer winners.

Stuck in the Past

I ran across an interesting book – But Have You Read the Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films by Kristen Lopez. The book is a collaboration with the television channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

The book is what it sounds like. You know the movie, but do you know the book? I love the idea, especially that it is a television channel focused on classic movies saying, “Let’s look at the books.”

I’ve always liked watching movies, but my movie watching has changed. There was a time when I had opinions on the Academy Awards. I have no idea now and really don’t pay much attention. I don’t know much about current movies. Pretty much true for music too. Fortunately, not at all true for books.

Being stuck in the past is why I like TCM and AMC (formerly American Movie Classics). I’ve said before that the book is always better. Gone With the Wind is my exception, but often the book and the movie are both good.

I think But Have You is looking at some of those books/movies. I haven’t read it, but I’ll probably try to get to it sometime. If your thinking is anything like mine, you might want to check it out too.

People are Listening

I was at a work-related social event. I ended up in several conversations about Two Sides, all initiated by others.

I continue to be pleased and surprised at the growing awareness of our podcast. There are people who I know are aware of us, but more than just being aware they have become regular listeners. And, there are people who have found us without me knowing about it until it comes up. I am surprised every time. “You’ve listened to us?!”

At this event I got some good comments. People are enjoying us. They are enjoying listening to Lory and me talk. It isn’t just what we say, but how we say it. People enjoy us! It is so fun to know that we are doing something that people like listening to.

I’m not going to suggest that we know exactly what we are doing (We don’t!), but we are going to try to keep doing it. We want Two Sides to be a place where readers and booklovers like spending their time. We want to be fun and interesting.

I also got comments about our support for independent bookstores. This is very important to us and will continue to be part of what we are doing.

I’ve said it before, but it is still true, Two Sides has been so much more than I ever imagined.

We’d love to hear from more of you. What are we doing that you like? What would you like to see more of? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Thirty Years Ago

I found myself in a conversation about reading. Imagine that!

I was asked how my reading today compares with my reading thirty years ago. A very interesting question. I have book lists that could show exactly what I read thirty years ago but I need to find them. Pending that, I think I have some ideas.

In one episode, probably the one when Lory interviewed me, I said that now I probably read 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction. Thirty years ago, those percentages might have been reversed. On the fiction side, I read a lot of science fiction when I was younger, but I think it is also true that I read more nonfiction than I do today.

I’ve got to round up all of my reading lists and put them together. I am interested to see how my reading has changed over time, assuming that it has. Sometimes, often, I wish that I was more organized. This has really got me wondering now. What did I read in 1994? Stay tuned. I’m going to find all of my reading lists!

Too Big for the Bookshelf

I love doing author interviews! They are on a very short list of things I most enjoy doing.

Lory and I have done two interviews together – Patti Callahan and Ira Marcks. I think that is it. I hope I’m not forgetting something.

Before Two Sides to the Story though, I was already doing interviews, and I recently did a solo interview with S.C. Gwynn on His Majesty’s Airship. After the interview, I went to put my working copy with my other interview books. I have a shelf in a set of living room bookshelves where I keep all of my interview books.

Airship didn’t fit. My interview books are now too big for their shelf.

I’ve done interviews on more than thirty books. When it started, sometime in 2016, I don’t think it would have occurred to me that I would ever have so many interviews. They have piled up quickly.

My first interview is a story I’ve told before. I was at an author event. I don’t remember the book or author, but afterwards I was talking with Lynn Wheeler, the Library Director at the time, and told her if there was ever an opportunity that I would like to do an interview. Soon after, I was on a stage in front of 250 people interviewing perennial best-seller, Daniel Silva.

Lory has asked about the difference between my solo interviews and doing interviews together. They are definitely different; especially the preparation, but I enjoy it both ways. When it is just me I can focus on the things on my mind and plan out a conversation with the author. When we interview together, it is more complicated, but Lory takes us places that I wouldn’t have gone on my own. Lots of fun both ways.

I have had so many good interview moments. They aren’t directly Two Sides, but maybe it is an episode someday. We’ll see.

But before we get to my interviews, we have a lot of episodes we are trying to find time for. Stay tuned. Check us out and share our information with others who might be interested in what we are doing. Our audience is growing and we are enjoying it so much! Thank you to all of our listeners.

The Human Comedy

I recently happened on the movie The Human Comedy. In college, there were a couple of guys I used to, old school style, binge watch movies with. Ron Doub, I still remember staying up all night with you watching a string of Fred McMurray movies.

I watched The Human Comedy back in those days. I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched it between then and now. It is a WWII movie not about soldiers in war so much as the people they left behind. It is a bit on the sentimental side, but I enjoyed it.

What does this have to do with Two Sides you might ask? Book or movie? An ongoing question. Admittedly, I am one of those, maybe annoying, people who say the book is always better. My exception is Gone With the Wind.

Sometime after watching the movie in college, I bought a used copy of The Human Comedy by William Saroyan, the book the movie is based on. I wonder where it is. I remember it had no dust jacket. Maybe a Smith College book sale purchase? I’m pretty sure I read it, but I can’t say for sure. Watching the movie got me thinking about it and wanting to read it.

Which is better aside; I enjoy reading the book and watching the movie. I also enjoy books about the making of movies. I recently watched High Noon. There is a great book by Glenn Frankel, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist And The Making Of An American Classic. Well worth reading to learn about the movie and to learn about McCarthyism and the film industry.

I’m all for watching movies, but if forced to pick between the movie and the book, I’m going with the book.

Books you like better than the movie? Movies you like better than the book? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Quiet in the Library

Nancy Pearl, America’s Librarian, has an action figure. When you push a button, her arm, with an extended finger, comes to her mouth in a ‘shushing’ motion.

I suspect that Nancy wishes her action figure did something else. Shushing is old school for librarians. Librarians today promote activity that make libraries noisier places than they once were. I’m not suggesting that librarians promote bad behavior; rather they promote using and enjoying libraries in a different way.

“These days, however, libraries are more like bustling community centers, where being at least somewhat noisy is the new normal, especially when kids are involved.” That is from an essay in the Washington Post Book World by Karen MacPherson.

I do tend to be a little old school on this. There is a part of me that misses old libraries with their high shelves and dark quiet spots. I liked the feeling of being tucked away; hidden from the world.

But, I wholeheartedly, support library activities that bring people, especially children, into contact with books. This is kind of a core idea of Two Sides to the Story. Lory and I come at some things differently, but I’m pretty sure we are together on this; kids in libraries is a good thing. If making that happen means that libraries aren’t as quiet as they once were, then so be it.

How about you? Do you like the new lower shelves, lighter, higher energy libraries, or do you long for dark and quiet? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Six Months

Wow! Who saw this coming?

It is a bit more than six months since we started Two Sides to the Story; six months since we did our first episode in front of a live audience at Exploration Commons. We had so much fun that day. I don’t want to speak for Lory, but I know that night exceeded my expectations. We didn’t really know what we were doing; we just jumped in and started swimming. Credit to Lory – She jumped in and I followed along.

We had hope. We had ideas, but we didn’t know where we were going. We didn’t know what was ahead. How could we have known? Who could have known?

Behind us – Twenty-five episodes and a pile of blog posts. Patti Callahan and John Waters. I love Patti Callahan. John Waters! I won’t even pretend that I thought Lory and I would interview John Waters. Yet, there we were.

Behind us – Fun talks with library branch manager Heather Owings and Tech Angel Joe Dimaggio. Getting to know the owners of our three bookstores in Carroll County. Touring Penguin Random House with our friend Annette Danek. Lory’s trip to Virginia and her adventure. Our bookstore trips.

Behind us – Growing technical proficiency, mostly Lory.

Behind us – Book adventures; one after another.

The first six months of Two Sides has been so much more than I imagined. Ahead? Good things, I think. I know that I am looking forward to it. Excited to see what is coming our way!

For listeners – Lots more coming; stay tuned for our first anniversary episode coming in October.

Annapolis Book Festival 2023

Lory and I went to the 20th Annapolis Book Festival at the Key School.

First time for both of us and we had a good time. We bought some books (Well, Lory bought some books), we met some book people, and we got some new ideas.

I don’t want to say too much. We probably will do a podcast episode; watch for it.

We are thinking there might be a role for us at the next Festival. Stay tuned.

Goodnight Moon

How many of you know the picture books The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon? I do. How many of you know the writer? I didn’t.

Margaret Wise Brown.

I read a fascinating New Yorker article, “The Fairy-Tale War: How Margaret Wise Brown revolutionized picture books”. What a story! Brown was a picture book rebel.

“She rejected the orthodoxy in favor of stories that reflected the preoccupations of young children…When boys and girls are first exposed to reading, Brown argued, they are most engaged by stories about ‘tables and chairs, plates and telephones, animals they know’.”

Brown was more interested in words and rhythm and colors than she was in plot. She looked at kids and kid’s books differently. A one-woman wrecking crew, she changed picture books.

There is so much more I want to say. I think there is a podcast episode here (Not that we need more ideas). I’ll need to talk with Lory and see if she shares my thinking. Maybe we will do something. Goodnight moon.

North Carroll Battle

Lory and I went to one of the three Battle of the Books events that were happening this evening. So much fun!

Twenty-eight teams from four schools were competing to win the North Carroll area Battle of the Books. Almost two hundred elementary school students on teams like The Neverending Stories and Reading Cheetahs, along with their families and friends, filled the Winters Mill High School gym with noise and excitement. It was something to see.

Before Lory got there, I checked in with the G.O.A.T. Readers, a team that we had already run into. We met the team coach and one of the team members at a couple of book events.

I won’t say more. We might want to talk some on a podcast episode.

Lory and I will be emceeing the last Battle event for this year on April 28th. We will be looking for another team we know, The Grim Readers.

Return to the Scene of our Victory

Lory and I had an interesting evening. Followers of Two Sides might remember that we were part of a team, along with Annette Danek, Lynn Wheeler and Chris Winebrenner, that won the first Battle of the Books: After Hours, the adult competition.

We didn’t compete this year, but we attended as the reigning champs to give out awards to the winners. A very different experience attending as a spectator instead of as a competitor.

We will be posting a podcast episode soon, including our interview with the winning team. I don’t want to give away too much, but we already had a bit of a relationship with the winning team.

We had dinner with Andrea Berstler, the Director of the Carroll County Public Library and talked over some possible collaboration between Two Sides and the Library. We also spent some time with Debbie Scheller, the owner of A Likely Story Bookstore in Sykesville, and our CCPL friend Lisa Picker.

Watch for the After Hours episode – coming soon!

Connections

It has been just over four months since Ted and I launched this website and began our Two Sides to the Story podcast. So much has happened in that short period of time. We have written blogs, recorded episodes, visited bookstores, and interviewed some amazing book people. We have also bought, borrowed and traded a surprisingly high number of books and have photographed little free libraries we’ve spotted along the way.

As if all that wasn’t enough to leave us both smiling, Ted and I are also happily processing and planning the Two Sides activities that are ahead of us in the next several months. More interviews are scheduled and there are close to a dozen that we will be adding to the calendar this year. We will be visiting more bookstores, some book festivals, and participating in several community events sponsored by and supporting book lovers and book sellers in our area.

We are hearing from listeners and readers from our home county, as well as neighboring counties, and even neighboring states. Ted and I are both grateful for the interactions we have had so far and looking forward to more connections like this. Thank you for telling us what you like, what you want to hear from us, and where you go in your hunt for good books. Keep it coming!

With the show and website, we set out to promote literacy and support local independent bookstores. We now find ourselves enjoying the success of that, as we also realize the connections we are making for ourselves, for readers, for writers, and for other book lovers is equally as satisfying.

Thank you for listening, enjoy your reading, and keep telling us what you would like to see us do this year at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Finishing no matter what

Lory and I have talked about finishing books…or not.

Lory often chooses not to finish books. Her not finishing isn’t necessarily a comment on the book. She samples and tastes books. My inclination is to finish what I start.

This is an idea I’ve been giving more thought to and thinking about it has led me to choose to not finish a couple of books. Intellectually, it feels right, but in my gut, I still struggle.

Recently, I had an interesting time with a book my son bought me. He’s pretty good at picking books I’m going to want to read. On the surface, this one looked good. It was Arthurian legend. I like that. It was an interesting idea; what happens in Camelot after Arthur dies? A solid pick.

But, the book is terrible. Really bad. I read the whole thing because it was a present, but it was one I could have set aside with no feelings of regret.

I’m not going to name it. I would rather promote books I like that trash books I don’t like. This brings us back to the question – does it make sense to read a book you aren’t enjoying? I still struggle with it, but I am moving toward the camp that says if you aren’t enjoying it, move on to something you will enjoy.

I find myself more and more driven by the question – If you are reading the last book you are ever going to read, is this the book?

Sad to think, but we are all going to have a last book.

Lory and I would be interested to hear – If you knew you were reading your last book, what it be? Would you reread a favorite? Get in the book you always meant to read but never got to? Read something new?

Let us know what you think at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Connecting With Readers

Lory and I have gone through starting to think about doing a podcast, talking about what the podcast might be, settling (Sort of; things are still evolving.) on what we were going to do, actually making it happen, and then living our first three months of podcast episodes and blog posts.

There have been so many ideas. How would we even guess how many? Through all of it, one idea was always floating around. We wanted to connect with people; we wanted to touch readers. We’ve tried to be clear; we aren’t setting ourselves up as experts. We aren’t going to tell anyone what they should read or how to read.

We might sometimes talk enthusiastically about books we like, but always in the spirit of sharing not pontificating. Our hope, it might not be too big to say, our dream, was to find ways to connect with readers; to somehow touch reading lives with our podcast and website.

It is exciting. We are starting to hear from people. We are starting to hear about connections that we have made. We are touching people!

We have a friend whose reading was limited to his college required reading. Reading for pleasure had become a foreign idea to him. We had talked with him a couple of times about reading for pleasure. He agreed that he should, but didn’t seem moved to action. Recently, Lory put a favorite book, The Boy, the mole, the fox, and the Horse, in his hands. “Read it. You’ll love it.” He admired the handwriting and the drawings, and said maybe he would read it.

We saw him again and he told us that he had read half of it and was enjoying it. He was enjoying reading as a direct result of Lory finding the right book for him.

Another friend, after listening to some of our podcast episodes and watching our interview with Patti Callahan, said she was going to read more in 2023, and that she had started a 2023 reading list.

Speculating on the impact of the Internet on attention spans, another friend suggested that we do an episode on attention spans and reading, and another on listening to audio books and is that reading?

So much fun! We are looking forward to hearing more of your stories and suggestions.

Email us at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com

Two Sides: Origin Story

Two Sides to the Story has quickly become more, much more, than I expected (I think Lory would say the same). I can’t tell you exactly what I expected, but I know it wasn’t all that we have experienced in the last two and half months. We did a live audience interview, we are adding podcast episodes and blog posts regularly. Our data shows that the number of views on the podcast and website are growing nicely. We have followers that have found us without us having any idea how. We have a core group of support that has been nothing short of amazing and is greatly appreciated. Never saw it coming.

When I wonder about all of this and think back on how Two Sides happened, I identify three moments of beginning. 

The first, long before there was any thought of a podcast, was a comment from Lory. I think I was standing in her office doorway and she said, “You and I are going to write something together. I don’t know what it is, but we are going to write something.” The idea that we would write drove us to find out what that might be. 

Though Lory was reading much more nonfiction than fiction, we eventually settled on the idea of a novel. I wish I had kept notes. So hard remembering timelines now; I can’t remember if we settled on writing a novel and then came up with the opening line, or if the opening line settled us on writing a novel. Either way, that leads to our second beginning. I think this was the very first version of the opening line – “A girl stands outside a bookstore trying to figure out how to break in.” 

Still feels good to me. The words might change a little, but that is still likely to be our opening line. That line was inspired in some unknowable way by a bookstore we both knew, but had gotten to know independently. The Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, Maryland wormed its way into our minds and into the story’s opening line even though, in the book, the store is probably in an urban setting. 

So, I said I was going to talk about the origins of Two Sides, but so far I’ve only talked about writing a still unwritten book. The book is now on hold because our time and effort were diverted by the podcast. Again, it is hard to remember how things evolved, but I don’t believe the podcast would have happened without us starting the book.

As we write and talked, the idea of a podcast emerged. Originally, the podcast was a solo project of mine that happened as a result of author interviews I had been doing for the Carroll County Public Library. When I discussed the podcast concept with Lory, she shared her ideas for what I could do with the show. Over time, the ideas grew as did the realization that doing the podcast together would be a fun project. We played with lots of ideas before settling into an intentionally broad theme of a podcast about books and readers, writers and writing, and libraries and bookstores. We had a concept. With more ideas than we knew what to do with, but we weren’t leaping into action. Until…

The third beginning arose as Lory and I were walking out of Exploration Commons, kind of our Two Sides headquarters, and just by chance, we walked by a room where people we knew were holding a book event. Lory said, “What if we did our first podcast episode in front of a live audience?”

Almost like magic it happened. We found ourselves in that same room at Exploration Commons a short time later doing our first Two Sides to the Story episode. We had a great time and that episode remains our most watched. Lory’s ‘what if’ pushed us to take our first big step. All that has happened since can be traced back to that moment. 

It has been so much fun, but we are both feeling like the best is still ahead. The ideas are piling up more quickly than we can use them. Opportunities seem to keep finding us. We’ve started making trips to find good books and interesting book people. The possibilities seem endless.

Of course, we need an audience to share this with us. We are so grateful to those of you who have listened to our podcast episodes and read our blog posts. We would love it if you would introduce us to readers who might like what we are doing. And as always, send an email to let us know what you think, what you would like us to do, and to tell us your stories. 

The Velveteen Rabbit: One-Hundred Years

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco and illustrated by William Nicholson was written in 1922, one-hundred years ago. How many of you read it or had it read to you? I’m betting it was many of you.

More than once, in our podcast episodes and blog posts, Lory has talked about children’s books. She’s talked about their importance to her as a young reader, their importance to her as a reading mother, and the importance they continue to have for her even today. Some children’s books endure; The Velveteen Rabbit is one of them. Lory and I will talk about lots of different books, but children’s books will always have a special place for both of us.

The Velveteen Rabbit, best I can recall, has never come up in conversation with Lory. I don’t know that she ever read it; I’m kind of hoping that she did. I know I read it, but until I recently saw a newspaper article about the book turning one-hundred, I’m sure it had been a very long time since I thought about it.

Before writing this, I found the book (complete with the illustrations) online and read it. It was familiar, but there was much more that I didn’t remember than I did. The Velveteen Rabbit is simple story with familiar ideas; it is a fairy tale, it is a story about toys becoming real (I thought of Pinocchio), it is a story about kids and the relationships they have with toys, and a story about growing up (I thought of the song Puff the Magic Dragon).

I’m glad that the hundredth anniversary brought The Velveteen Rabbit back to my attention. No sign of grandchildren in my future, but if that changes, I think I might share the story of The Velveteen Rabbit.