Is Reading Dead? Not for 150,000 Who Thronged the L.A. Times Festival of Books!

Just when one questions how many people read anything but TV listings for so-called “reality shows” or local “newscasts” (30% commercials, 65% trivia, gore, sports or weather reports, only about 5% hard news), along comes something to remind you that there are still pockets of human intelligence out there.

For me, that is the annual Los Angeles Festival of Books, held every spring on the beautiful University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Some 150,000 book lovers swarmed over the sprawling UCLA campus on the last weekend of April this year in a powerful testimonial to the power of the printed page.

They ranged in age from toddlers and tots in prams and strollers to teens, twenty-somethings, plus middle-age boomers and gray-haired seniors, some obviously in their 70s or even 80s. There were scholarly types, but many more who didn’t fit the stereotype of “book people.” Some wore heavy metal T-shirts, others clung to styles reminiscent of the ’60s and 70s. Footwear ranged from cowboy boots and Doc Martens to sandals, sneakers and suede Hush Puppies.

In short, it was a diverse crowd, but with one over-riding thing in common: a genuine love of books and reading.

Saturday’s featured authors included Daniel Ellsberg, Mark Bowden, Po Bronson, Pete Hamill, Richard Rodriguez, Joyce Appleby, Philip Dray, Mary Norton, Samantha Power, Timothy Ferris, and others.

Many other distinguished names dotted the lists of panelists and authors who signed books for long lines of faithful readers. Among them were:

Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Peter Bart, A. Scott Berg, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Sandra Cisneros, Mary Higgins Clark, Frank Deford, Michael Eric Dyson, Stuart Eizenstat, Lillian Faderman, David Halberstam, Christopher Hitchens, Arianna Huffington, James Ivory, Brian Jacques, Maxine Hong Kingston, Elmore Leonard, Alice McDermott, Terry McMillan, Greg Palast, T. Jefferson Parker, George Plimpton, Carl Reiner, Jane Smiley, Aaron Sorkin, Scott Turow and Stuart Woods.

In short, there was something, or somebody, for every reader present. And that’s without even considering the winners and finalists for the L.A. Times Book Prizes, which are a centerpiece of the Festival of Books every year.

The Los Angeles Times honors the printed word in books with an extensive set of formal awards. Presented annually since 1980, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes now have nine subject categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. In addition to these nine prizes for single titles, the Robert Kirsch Award recognizes the body of work by a meritorious writer living in and/or writing on the American West.

The 23rd Book Prize Awards Ceremony featured A. Scott Berg as Master of Ceremonies and a distinguished list of Book Prize Presenters: Gayle Anderson (Young Adult Fiction), Jonathan Kirsch (Robert Kirsch Award), Eric Lax (Biography), T. Jefferson Parker (Mystery/Thriller), George Plimpton (Current Interest), John Rechy (Fiction), Dava Sobel (Science and Technology), Ronald Steel (History), Susan Straight (Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction), and Quincy Troupe (Poetry).

BIOGRAPHY

Winner: Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3 (Alfred A. Knopf)

Finalists: Gioconda Belli, The Country under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War (Alfred A. Knopf)

Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (Viking)

T.J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf)

Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self (Alfred A. Knopf) CURRENT INTEREST

Winner: Judith Levine, Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex (University of Minnesota Press)

Finalists: Timothy Ferris, Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril (Simon & Schuster)

Nicolaus Mills and Kira Brunner (editors), The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention (Basic Books)

Kevin Phillips, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (Broadway Books)

Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books)

FICTION

Winner; Ian McEwan, Atonement: A Novel (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

Finalists: Peter Cameron, The City of Your Final Destination (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Aleksandar Hemon, Nowhere Man (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

Kate Jennings, Moral Hazard: A Novel (Fourth Estate/HarperCollins)

Joanna Scott, Tourmaline: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company)

HISTORY

Winner: Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East (Oxford University Press)

Finalists: Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America (Random House)

Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade (Basic Books)

Gregg Herken, Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller (A John Macrae Book/Henry Holt)

Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (Alfred A. Knopf)

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Winner: George P. Pelecanos, Hell to Pay: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company)

Finalists: Stephen L. Carter, The Emperor of Ocean Park (Alfred A. Knopf)

Tod Goldberg, Living Dead Girl: A Novel (Soho Press)

Henning Mankell, One Step Behind [translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg] (The New Press)

Scott Turow, Reversible Errors (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

POETRY

Winner: Cynthia Zarin, The Watercourse: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf)

Finalists: Terrance Hayes, Hip Logic (Penguin Books)

John Koethe, North Point North: New and Selected Poems (HarperCollins Publishers)

J.D. McClatchy, Hazmat: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf)

Harryette Mullen, Sleeping with the Dictionary (University of California Press)

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Winner: Brenda Maddox, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (HarperCollins Publishers)

Finalists: Deborah Blum, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (Perseus Publishing)

Judith Hooper, Of Moths and Men: An Evolutionary Tale, the Untold Story of Science and the Peppered Moth (W.W. Norton)

Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (Walker and Company)

Richard Preston, The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story (Random House)

YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Winner: M.T. Anderson, Feed (Candlewick Press)

Finalists: Kate Banks, Dillon Dillon (Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby: A Novel (Viking/Penguin Young Readers Group)

E.R. Frank, America: A Novel (A Richard Jackson Book/Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Joyce Carol Oates, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl (HarperTempest/HarperCollins)

THE ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION

Winner: Arthur Phillips, Prague: A Novel (Random House)

Finalists:

Jay Basu, The Stars Can Wait: A Novel (Henry Holt and Company)

Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel (Houghton Mifflin Company)

Nicole Krauss, Man Walks into a Room (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

Hari Kunzru, The Impressionist (Dutton/Penguin Group (USA))

Out-of-Print & Antiquarian Book Market Seminar

Dear Fellow Booksellers,

The Out-of-Print & Antiquarian Book Market Seminar—the intensive one-week program for booksellers and collectors at all levels of experience—is accepting registrants for this year’s session, which will be held August 3 through 8 at Colorado College in beautiful Colorado Springs.  Now in its 25th year, the seminar has graduated more than 2,000 participants, many of whom have become prominent figures in the antiquarian book world.

Graduates have described the seminar experience as one of the most important professional career steps they could have taken.  The curriculum has been constantly updated to reflect the important changes that have taken place in the antiquarian and out-of-print world in the past decade.

An all-star faculty with a combined experience of many years in all phases of book selling will preside over sessions covering such topics as pricing and description of antiquarian books and manuscripts, the auction process, Internet book selling, book scouting, ethics of the book trade, book repairs and restoration, operating a used book store, book fairs, the economics of the book trade, and more.  This year’s keynote speaker will be Daniel De Simone, Curator for the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress.  With over 25 years in the book trade he has significant experience in building rare book collections for private collectors and libraries.

For more information, please contact Kathy Lindeman, Coordinator, at (719) 473-6634, or visit the seminar’s web site at http://www.bookseminars.com where on-line applications can be quickly completed.  Don’t be shut out—-enrollment is limited to ensure a strong faculty to student ratio.

Regards, The Faculty of Book Seminars

Jack Jacobs and the Doomsday Time Machine

I started writing this book in the early part of January 2002 and finished it about 10 weeks later. I wanted to make it an educational book that everyone could enjoy, having no violence or swearing, yet intense enough to intrigue one’s mind. In addition to it being educational, I also wanted the story to have a lot of science in it, something I feel that I did accomplish while also having a lot of fun in the process. During the completion phase of the book, I found that the hardest part of all was keeping my elapsed times correct in relation to midnight, as time kept getting reset for Jack Jacobs while inside his time tunnel, essentially keeping him in the year 2199. Since the cosmological time in the universe was going backwards 100 years every 24 hours, I actually had to create a table to keep track of the time and year of the universe in relation to different events that were happening for Jack throughout the book. Figuring up the actual times for traveling from galaxy to galaxy, for instance, was easy.

As far as picking the title, well, the words “Doomsday Time Machine” came to mind. After having picked this to be in the title, I then brainstormed for the perfect male character’s name to go along with it. I thought of the children’s story Jack and Jill, a book everyone should know about, and the name Jack jumped out. Jack is also a name that both children and grownups alike can relate to. As far as a female organic supercomputer name, no, “Jill” was never considered. You’d have to admit, it would have been a little corny with Jack and his computer Jill. I always knew I wanted a female’s name that started with a J, and Jennifer was the name that came to mind. Jack’s last name, Jacobs, was used because it had a ring to it when used with the first name. Jack Jacobs is also a science fiction character’s name that has never been used before, as well as the words “Doomsday Time Machine” in any published literary work. At least I didn’t find any during my research prior to writing my book.

I do have to mention Larry Fredrick who played a part of my book. I met him for the first time in Charlottesville, Virginia at Virginia University two summers ago. I actually traveled to Charlottesville while doing historical research on my large novel. He was extremely nice and showed me around the McCormick Observatory near the Virginia University campus. He took me down to the basement and showed me all the old equipment, while also giving me a little history about the observatory. He even showed me the optical telescope and the hand-built wooden platform used for looking through the telescope. I had an enjoyable time then and also just last summer, when I met him again. He read the galley proofs of my book late in 2002, and gave me some great comments, not to mention some editing. His review and what he said about my book, is of course, shown on the back cover.

Anyway, I submitted my manuscript to Rutledge in March of 2002 and it was accepted a few weeks later. About ten days later I received a contract in the mail and was surprised that it was about $5000 higher than what I was verbally told over the phone to have it published. Well, knowing what I’ve written and “revealed” in my book, I decided to go ahead and have it self-published. This was also due in part to many literary agents and a small number of publishers not showing any interest in my large novel, a book that is currently finished, I might add. So, I paid the money and had a signed contract in my hands in the later part of May 2002. My Jack Jacobs novel was finally on its way to becoming a reality.

That summer that I had much anticipation waiting for the first editing of my manuscript from Rutledge and to seeing the first galley proof. I was surprised that it took Rutledge almost four months just to get me the first edited draft of my novel, a novel that was only about 25,000 words in length, and given to them in Word document format on a floppy disk. I did finally receive the first draft and upon reading their edited version, realized they didn’t understand Jennifer’s character much at all, as I had a high amount of re-editing on the first go-around. It appeared that no one with any technical background actually had a go at any editing. I actually had to go back and add words back into the galley proof to retain meaning in the book. When I sent the galleys back to the publisher by overnight UPS, it took them over three weeks to get my changes back to me for the second draft. Not only that but they started sending them back to me by UPS ground track, taking five to seven working days. The galleys went back and forth a few more times with additional changes each time. By this time I was sending all my changes to them by UPS next day air and enclosing a pre-paid pre-addressed UPS second day air envelope inside the next day air UPS package, to save time. Had I not done this, I’m sure my hardback books would not have been printed. I figured it up and found that I saved almost three to four weeks off the flow time for my hardback book, hardback copies that I also finally received from the publisher on January 23rd of 2003.

I could tell Rutledge Books was dragging their feet from about November 2002 on, but didn’t know the reason. Well, that reason was answered in February 2003 when they closed their doors and went out of business. They also closed their doors before accomplishing any news releases on my book, something that is now my responsibility.

Now that I’ve seen the full process of having a book printed from beginning to end, I’ve learned a lot. I have to take everything that has happened with a grain of salt and keep a positive attitude, as I know the book is a fun book to read if you like science. There is one positive thing I can say about Rutledge, and that is the excellent job they did with the cover on my book. Thomas Morlock, the cover illustrator, was very professional and was prompt in all my contacts with him. He also did an excellent job on the changes to the front cover, just as I had requested, changes such as the elliptical shape of the ship, for one.

Something that isn’t common knowledge to most people is that I mailed almost 200 signed copies of my first edition hardback book to university astronomy departments all over the United States and to the world on February 01, 2003. The reasons for me doing this everyone will, in time, find out. Out of all of the universities that were sent a copy, I received only one acknowledgement and a thank you for the book, an acknowledgement that was sent back through the defunct publisher, Rutledge, who forwarded it to me. I have the utmost respect for Cornell University for taking the time to send that “thank you.”

I did have a lot of fun taking pictures with my digital camera at the Post Office that Saturday when I mailed off the almost 200 copies. Guess the name of the lady at the Post Office counter who accepted all of my priority and airmail packages? It was Jennifer, coincidentally, the same as my organic supercomputer character. I got a kick out of that. The day of February 01, 2003 will always be a day to be remembered for me and turned out truly to be a day to be remembered by everyone, as this was also the same day that the space shuttle Columbia and her crew were lost. As a result, I signed a book to NASA in memory of the seven astronauts who lost their lives. It was inscribed: “February 01, 2003, A Memory and Reflection”, followed by many words of encouragement and wisdom to the families and friends of the astronauts who lost their lives. This copy is safely put away until it is finally presented to NASA.

Anyway, as far as finding one of the 1000 first edition hardback copies that were printed, they may eventually be hard to find, because in addition to all the extra copies I purchased at a discount, I liquidated the entire inventory as soon as I found out Rutledge was closing their doors. Very few copies made it to the open retail market. Nowadays I occasionally sign one of my first editions of my book over to someone I meet on the street, someone of my choosing, and I’m having much fun in the process. At some point that will stop though, as the number of copies I have dwindle down.

Science is a fascinating world and there is much to be discovered, but we must all start with our young kids and their imaginations. Just as Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Well, how very true and correct he was…but to understand your imagination, well, that is another story yet to be revealed.

Albert S. Abraham, Author

Editor’s Note: I was one of the people Albert very kindly sent a couple of signed 1st editions to. Thank you, Albert—I enjoyed the book! :>)