Back from Readercon in Massachusetts. My first time there, and I’m going back, definitely. Met a great bunch of readers, made lists of books I-must-read-immediately, or at least before I die, gave presentations, did panels, saw some good friends, made some new ones, signed books there and at local bookstores, and of course, bought too many books. In the thick of all the programming, managed to carve out some time to chat with Maureen McHugh, and fellow-Pyr author David Edelman, also Elizabeth Hand, Scott Edelman, Sharyn November and briefly, the Pacific Northwest contingent of Ted Chiang, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, not to mention Louise Marley who traveled with me and sings loudly in the shower early in the morning. Met John Clute and Tom Easton, critics and thought-provoking panelists, and George Mann and Christian Dunn of Solaris (UK sf/f publisher) and Jeffrey Ford, John Crowley, and James Morrow.
I liked this con a lot. They were kind enough to list Bright of the Sky as one of the four books to read before the con, and seems lots did. Beyond that, it had no gaming, no anime, no media at all, and the vendor’s room was instead called The Bookstore. The atmosphere was very welcoming; also a bit proselytizing for the con itself–for example, anytime someone said it was the first time they’d come to Readercon, the whole audience would erupt into gleeful applause. The con is a tad self-consciously intellectual–oddly, when a roomful of people were mentioning favorite sf/f books, no one mentioned Dune or George RR Martin. (But I’ll bet they wanted to.) My favorite? Left Hand of Darkness… and, to be arty, M. John Harrison’s first book of Virconium. So there.
Comments