BookFest: February 2008

Sunday, February 10, 2008

2007 BookFest list

2007 Bookfest 6/10/07

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Lost Girls
Ten We Came to the End
What You Have Left
Dream When You're Feeling Blue
Falling Man
Sirens of Baghdad
Last Summer (of You and Me)
Diary of a Young Girl
102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers
Measure of a Man
Between, Georgia
High Fidelity
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
About a Boy

Saturday, February 9, 2008

BookFest

I was talking with Kevin today at Chinese New Year and I decided to make a blog about Bookfest. The weird part is that there is already a blog called BookFest, so I'm gonna check it out.

I will be back.

BookFest Beginnings

BookFest began in the Fall of 1994 when I was planning on going back to school. Kevin and I went to Powell's City of Books. We were complaining about our financial situation and wished that we could just live in Powell's or buy all their books. In those few moments, our grand plan was born.

The first year, we saved $10 a month from September to September with the goal of spending it all GUILT-FREE, in one fell swoop.

The following September, we went to Powell's and spend HOURS searching for the perfect BookFest books. We closed the place down and began our ritual of going to Kevin's house to unveil our books to the other.

It didn't take long for us to move the spending from September to June to give us the summer to read our books.

Our ritual always includes planning the date, going to Powell's. We set up meeting times in the Annie Hughes coffee shop to determine how much time we need. We are NOT ALLOWED TO LOOK AT THE OTHER PERSON'S BOOKS...although we sometimes get a peek. The first trip was around 6 hours long, but we don't need that long anymore. When we are done, we go to Hunan in Morgan's Alley (unless they are closed...they are closed on Sundays) and have dinner. After that, we go to Kevin's for the unveiling.

We have little contests: Most Attractive Book Cover, Closest to the Dollar Amount without Going Over, Most Unlikely Purchase, Highest Volume for the Dollar Amount...

We tried going to the West Side Powell's and we tried going to Coastal Bookstores, but it just didn't work for us, so we decided that BookFest was really a Powell's adventure.

People always want to come with us on our annual adventure. This is not allowed. This is the one day every year that Kevin and I devote to each other. But don't despair - this does not mean that you can't do a BookFest of your own.