Why Literature Festivals Are Bad For My Social Life – Miss Write

I had a lovely afternoon last Sunday. I went down to Bookmarks Festival, the small Northants village of Helmdon’s very own offering to the world of writing and book events. It’s in its second year and I can see there will be outcry if this small, friendly, and well-meaning festival doesn’t come back for 2014. 

There are two reasons why I love Bookmarks Festival. 

1. The focus of the festival is on local writers. The speakers this year were Adrian Magsun, Alison McQueen and Garry O’Connor, all who hail from Northamptonshire. Engaging, friendly, and very different from each other, they made for a good panel. 

2. Bookmarks raises money for a global charity. It’s a different charity each year, and 2013 is the year of Hand in Hand for Syria. Very commendable, in my eyes, and the choice of charity could not be more pertinent given the news from Syria in the last week or two.

I want to show you the fantastic fun I had at Bookmarks Festival, but like the pro I am, I managed to take photos with no SD card in the camera.

However, as you can judge from this blog post title, there is a down side to going to all these wonderful, creativity-filled, welcoming, interesting literature festivals. Yes, while I’m there mingling with other readers and writers, I’m having a great time. Events like this often encourage cake eating, and armed with a slice and a cuppa, I make new friends and acquaintances of bloggers, novelists, journalists and wannabes. However, long-term, literature festivals are indeed detrimental to my social life.

Why?!

Because I’ve come away with yet more books to add to my ‘To Read’ list. 

Once again I’ll revert to my teenage bookworm state and become completely absorbed into the wonderful world of reading. I’ll escape any trials and stresses of the day and enrich my writer’s palette. 

I plan to be unapologetically unsociable.

I didn’t really need these new volumes to add to the growing collection of books I want to devour, but look at them – how could you resist?! And they were all at the bargain price of £1 per novel. I already have piles of unread beauties at my pad just waiting to be opened, but being the slow reader that I am, I doubt I’ll get onto many of them this decade. This means I will spend a good portion of my weekend curled up, sprawled out, perched on a chair with a book. I’m currently reading the beast that is Tom Jones ~ Henry Fielding as part of my 30 Before 30 Challenge, and I really want to get it finished. Then I can start on these fab looking titles.

If you need me, you know where to find me. 

Lou x

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