I'm back from a very cool long weekend in Shanghai. I stayed with my awesome writer friend and went to the Shanghai Literary Festival. Needless to say, I spotted lots of books. I'll do longer write-ups of a few of the events this week, but I'll just tell you that I spotted American Wheels, Chinese Roads by Michael Dunne, Otherland by Maria Tumarkin, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, and The Beautiful and the Damned by Siddhartha Deb at the authors' events.
The Literary Festival took place in the Glamour Bar at M on the Bund. The literary crowd spent the time leading up to the events reading Kindles and newspapers and chatting about the other events they had seen. I spotted two women reading Kindles in the airport on my way home. I also spotted a man reading Alan Sugar's What You See Is What You Get. Earlier in the week in Hong Kong I spotted a girl reading Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire and three people reading Chinese books.
What are people reading in your town? Have you met any cool authors lately?
Sounds like you had a fantastic time in Shanghai. I can't wait to read more about it! The last author I met was Xu Xi (last month) and I believe you probably saw her in Shanghai since she was going there after Chicago.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see Xu Xi in Shanghai, but I've been to several of her talks in Hong Kong. She's very cool.
DeleteGlad you enjoyed Shanghai, bet the Lit Fest was great. The only author I have met in HK is Diana Wu who wrote a kids board book which she signed for my 2 grandchildren.When I was working,I met loads of authors including JK Rowling.As for bookspotting this week, I saw a Chinese girl in Shatin reading Romeo and Juliet in English and a Western man in a cafe reading a green coloured paperback which looked vaguely familiar, maybe a Jo Nesbo? Couldn't really see clearly.
ReplyDeleteJoyce, you have such great stories about your librarian days. I'm glad you are still able to meet the occasional author in HK.
DeleteWelcome back, Shannon, to Hong Kong. It's so nice to see the Bar of M on the Bund in the second picture. I assume that the first picture was taken from the terrace of M on the Bund. In my novel,the heroine goes for a date to the M on the Bund restaurant ... and their manager was kind enough to go over the 2 pages and make corrections. Shanghai Literary Festival hasa page on Facebook, where they show many pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks Giora. I just snapped this picture out the window. It was a really special venue for the literary festival.
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