Reading in the Time of Corona...

                In light of the Corona Virus scare, I am hearing about a lot of literary events being cancelled or that the Loft’s Word Play is going to be an online event.  The wave of the future is to bring more communities and events online.  I’ve benefited from all kinds of ways that the internet can enhance the reading experience:  such as watching university lectures for free on Edex, making connections with other people that like to read and write horror on Twitter and the ease of purchasing books by authors I love as I clicking “buy.”  However as I am hearing about different events getting cancelled or moved online, it makes me realize how important attending book events have been to me in my reading life.

1)      I meet authors that I really admire. Stoker Con played an important role for me in meeting a lot of authors that I love and making more connections in the horror community…and hanging out with Josh Malerman was so cool.  I had the chance to meet Tayari Jones at a library in Minneapolis and she blew me away with how she was graceful and feisty in addition to being an exquisite writer.  At the Royal Readers event at the Mall of America last year, I met my favorite series romance writer Cat Schield who asked me to review some of her books for her. These experiences have not only been a great way to collect autographs for beloved books but they also make reading books by these writers more meaningful after having a chance to meet them.

2)      If I buy a book more of the money goes directly into the writer’s pocket.  I was going to purchase The Science of Women in Horror no matter what but at the Haunted Basement at the Rosedale Mall I had the benefit of being able to purchase the book directly from the authors.  Ratings on amazon are important for authors and pre-ordering books on amazon is a great way for an avid reader like myself to stay on top of favorite writers at an affordable price. HOWEVER less money goes directly into the writer’s pocket when books are purchased online. I am not worried about purchasing a book that is a national bestseller or featured by Reese Witherspoon on Amazon but there is something about buying books from lesser known writers or released by independent presses directly from the source whenever possible. Literary events are a really great time to support and discover local writers.

3)      I’ve discovered authors that I may not have considered reading if I had not met them at an event. While collecting horror novels has become a huge passion of mine, I do like reading other things too and my favorite way to do this is by meeting local authors firsthand.  At an event a few months ago in St Paul, MN I found myself really enjoying a conversation with an author of a YA fantasy which is why I bought The Book of Imagination and really enjoyed the display for  a romance novel A Slice of Christmas Magic. These are not genres that I tend to seek out when I am simply browsing through a bookstore. So going to literary events help me in expanding my scope for reading beyond where I might normally hang out in a bookstore.

4)      In my large, ongoing TBR pile I often ask myself why I am often collecting more books when I have a lot of books I haven’t read yet. I love reading because it is a solitary activity that I can do anywhere that I go….but there is something about having the opportunity to talk face to face with other people who love books that really is not replicated online. Sure, you can have some really good thoughtful conversations online and make connections from people from a variety of geographical locations online which is cool…but you can miss reading a person’s body language and tone of voice when you are communicating online. Also there is something comforting about the physical presence of another person that just can’t be replicated by any computer at all.

Yet as I think of why having these events cancelled makes me feel sad, the quiet isolation seems bittersweet as I reflect on writing projects I am working on and my large TBR pile. For today,  One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera are books that seem to beckon to me....