The rain will not stop them. There are lines around every corner & block at Wordstock. #WordstockPDX @literaryarts pic.twitter.com/ib7DUGBTHq
— Scott Cheshire (@ScottCheshire) November 7, 2015
I went to Wordstock last Saturday with my mom. Wordstock is a annual book festival here in Portland, Ore. where a multitude of different authors and those with literary jobs come and speak about their projects.
If I could only explain it in one word, that word would be packed. Now, I've been to crowded events before, but I honestly don't know if I've ever been to something that busy. The One Direction concert in Seattle perhaps, but that was at a stadium, which was designed to be able to fit that many people. This was at an art museum, that usually has about 30 people there at once, and never any more. Packed might be on odd word to use to describe the entire event, but it affected everything. Even with the church across the street opened up to the public, everything was over mass capacity. Every food place was sold out by 2, and the even lasted until 6. Toilet paper was in the midst of being used up every time I went to the bathroom, and my mom kept complaining about the rain lingering on other people's jackets getting on her. The line for a show I saw, 6 female authors speaking about their horror novels, went up three flights of stairs. My mom's not very good at walking or standing for a long time, so this was a bit of a toil for her.
I had originally gone to see John Krakauer, author of Into The Wild, but his event was at max capacity. My mom grumbled quite a bit about having to walk all the way to the church and back in the rain, and then suggested getting coffee, but I was honestly smiling the whole way through. The rain usually puts me in a good mood, and the coffee was a quite nice added bonus. We then got through the wet, crowded, mixed up line and into the up the stairs line. The talk about the writing of the horror novels was actually pretty good. The 6 authors, Paige Mckenzie, Virginia Boeker, April G. Tucholke, Cat Winters, McCormick Templman, and Kendare Blake were all very nice, very smart, and very humorous. Also they all seemed surprisingly normal for horror authors, except for maybe Kendare Blake, who had some interesting lines, such as "I just want a girl to stab stab stab," and spoke of her neurotic tendencies in keeping her house safe. I liked them all though. Nothing was too mind boggling, but it was nice to hear about the writing process of a novel, especially less cookie cutter ones. After that we left the crowded room, and shuffled into a much larger one to see an OPB presentation. Unfortunately, I was hungry and tired, and didn't pay much attention here.
Anyways, it's really nice to see how many people are so interested in the literary arts. Of course, this is Portland, so it could be expected, but it was still surprising. Books are great, they teach us to think things over in multiple ways, they teach us empathy, and they teach us creativity. They teach us to be critical, and they even entertain. I must admit, I don't read nearly as much as I should, but I'm glad so much of Portland does.
