…and I’m exhausted. I worked my butt off from 6:3oPM to after midnight, and let me tell you – as much as I love books [and you all know I do], they’re HEAVY. Needing to arrange huge shrink-wrapped packs of ten copies of The Master and Margarita is no picnic, let me tell you.
Still, it’s worth it. I got moved to the classics table – I’d been at the contemporary fiction before – and I’m so much more acquainted with the older classics, mostly because they’re translated, while the contemporary fiction includes a lot of Hebrew books I haven’t read yet [although I’d like to.] So I got to spend the evening talking about Virginia Woolf and Melville and Hemingway, as well as the Israeli Yoram Kaniuk. I got to see people’s eyes light up when they saw that The Nick Adams Stories were finally translated into Hebrew, as well as Wolff’s Flush. I got to see the people who want more than airplane books, people who want to have the copy of a book they read years ago on their shelves and people who were just discovering the wonders of the classics.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t sneer at airplane books. I’ve read two Dan Browns, so I can’t claim to be a snob. If someone loves to read, then I don’t think there’s any reason to fuss about what he or she is reading, just so long as they’re spending that much time away in someone else’s world. But still, there was something about the people I sold books to tonight that made me feel like they were kindred spirits, excited that there was a world of books out there, old as well as new, that they could discover.
Slightly Ignorant 
I do hope you’re able to get some rest. But to be surrounded by books for ten whole days? Heaven! Sleep or no sleep!
Hee, just reading about books makes me excited. XD
I hope you get lots of rest and keep having tonnes of fun!
Your passion here really comes through in your writing – and I agree that it doesn’t really matter what someone reads so long as they;re enjoying
I hope you manage to get some well-deserved rest (and maybe with a good book to boot!)
Of course I’ve read everything that I know of that was written by Hemingway and The Nick Adams Stories was one of them. You’re doing good work. You’ve earned a good night’s rest.
There is something about working with books, isn’t there? 🙂 Yes, they are heavy and your arms might feel like they’re about to fall off but the people you meet, fellow book lovers and spending all that time around classics… That must be like heaven!
I’m envious. I would’ve loved to have been there!
I know this gig is exhausting, but I’ll bet it feels like a little slice of heaven being surrounded by books and book lovers. Enjoy…hope you get to take home some great reads and blog fodder.
I love the feeling of having something in common with someone, too. 🙂