The Miami Book Fair – Were you there?

November 16, 2009 at 5:00 am

A good time was had by all at the Miami Book Fair this past weekend. And, from what I heard, the stellar lineup of authors during the weekday events wasn’t too shabby either. Anyone for Margaret Atwood, Isabella Rossellini, Jeanette Walls, or Al Gore? And, those names constitute but a sliver of talent presenting at this year’s fair.

Tom Wilson with Sam Barry

I made the hour long trek to tony downtown Miami to meet up with HCI author, Tom Wilson, Jr., of Ziggy fame. He was paired with a very funny Sam Barry (brother of very funny Dave) who did a multi-media presentation of his book, How to Play the Harmonica and Other Life Lessons. He touted it as the most important book ever written and the multi-media part of his bit was done via the harmonica. He spoke, he read, and he sang the blues to the fair audience. When they weren’t rollicking with laughter, they were rocking in their seats.

I didn’t envy Tom having to follow Sam, who would could easily moonlight as a stand-up comic, but he made a seamless and equally entertaining segue to his own book, Zig-zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly…How Ziggy Saved My Life. The authors were perfectly paired as Sam focused on the playful side of life while Tom’s book was directly inspired by personal tragedy.

Yin and yang. Not sure which was which, though.

When Tom autographs your book, you almost always get a Ziggy!

We stood on a line to see the legendary political rebel, Tom Hayden, but were turned away due to an overcrowded room. Who knew that this leftie from the sixties would gather a crowd. (Even though I didn’t get in to see him, I was secretly glad for the response).

We moseyed on over to the poetry pavilion and strained hard to hear the faint words of poet Marie Ponsot over what sounded like a jet airplane fan. Not that you especially need to hear every word of a poem, or anything.

We delighted in the perfect weather of sunny South Florida and the hustle and bustle going on all around us. We traipsed through the aisles and aisles of booths and picked out our half and full price books to bring home with us. Mine was a book called Cat Magic and the new novel by one of my favorite authors, The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.

And, it was autographed!

The fair through the people-mover window

Sun-baked and a little brain-fried, we took our leave via the nifty new people mover, monorail system thingee that hovers about downtown. It was very Jetson-like and a great fun way to travel back to my friend’s home. We disembarked near Bayfront Park and fell into a car show. Not an ordinary car show, mind you, but a calvacade of Porsches, Bentley’s, Ferrari’s, Bugatti’s, numerous other luxury autos including one gem I never heard of, a Stryker. (Wow, someone just told me it’s a Spyker, sorry!)

It cost over a quarter million dollars.

I’ll take two, please.

Joan Chrissos from the Miami Herald with Tom

That’s pretty much the scoop of my Saturday at the fair. There’s lots that has been written about it on blogs and other media. I highly recommend having a gander at some of them and looking at some of the recorded live footage shown on C-Span’s wonderful “Book TV’ programming.

I suggest you book a flight to next year’s fair. They say it’s the best one in the country.

And, I agree.

You heard it from me. Come on down!

p.s. If you were at the fair, let us know how it was for you!