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Entertainment
BOOK NOOK
Convention draws famous, heroic
Hot Topics
By Vick Mickunas,
Contributing Writer
4:40 PM Friday, June 12, 2009
Book Expo America is the mammoth annual conference for the American book publishing industry. Held every year in the spring, BEA is the grand finale to the annual publishing cycle.
How the mighty have fallen. Book publishing was hit by the double whammy that has staggered so many other industries. Book sales are dropping. Jobs lost. Scaling back. Downsizing. I attended BEA in New York to see how bad things have gotten.
Attendance was down. A number of people commented that they were impressed that the Dayton Daily News really cares about books. I assured them — we are still reading them out here — I’m still reviewing them.
That’s the true bottom line — we need books. Books are not a luxury item. They are essential. I had conversations with authors, publishers, librarians, book sellers and journalists. The common thread running through these discussions was that books will always be important.
Even in this down market there were many highlights at BEA. Here were some of mine:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be publishing a book this fall called “Save the Deli — In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of the Jewish Delicatessen” by David Sax.
The publisher celebrated this book by serving a deli lunch in their basement hideaway.
The pastrami sandwiches were to die for. The best I have ever tasted.
Pat Conroy will soon be publishing his first new novel in 15 years. He was supposed to be at BEA to autograph advance copies. Poor health prevented him from appearing. Fortunately, there were plenty of other big names who did show up.
James Patterson was there. So was Jane Smiley. Amy Tan stopped by to chat. Lisa Scottoline demanded a hug. R.L. Stine wandered by. I heard that Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, signed autographs. I missed him, however.
An American hero generated quite the buzz. When US Airways Pilot Sully Sullenberger ditched his Flight 1549 into the Hudson River to avoid hitting populated areas he became an instant hero. He was grinning for his adoring public at the Javits Convention Center, not too far away from the scene of his heroic and steady landing. I snapped his photo with my cell phone.
I spotted an ID badge on the floor. I was thrilled that it belonged to Motoko Rich of the New York Times. There she was conducting an interview. I tried not to swoon as I returned it to her.
That BEA glow carried me all the way back home. I caught a direct flight on US Airways to Dayton. The Dayton-based crew was led by Capt. John Howard. It was his final flight before retirement. During the flight the passengers wrote their congratulations in a special book for Capt. Howard.
As our jet made the final approach to the gate in Dayton there were fire engines parked on either side of the runway. They sprayed their fire hoses on the plane as we passed by in a farewell salute to Capt. Howard.
That was refreshing.
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