Miami Book Fair, now in progress

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Oh, to be in Miami. The sun, the sand, the hundreds of authors and readers at the Miami Book Fair, which is happening this weekend.

The thing is, you don’t have to be in Miami to experience the Book Fair; you just need C-SPAN2, the home of Book TV. It’s broadcasting live most of the day today. Book TV focuses on nonfiction, as evidenced by this afternoon’s featured authors: Vernon Jordan (‘Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out’), Sen. Mel Martinez (‘A Sense of Belonging: From Castro’s Cuba to the U.S. Senate, One Man’s Pursuit of the American Dream’), Dexter Filkins (‘The Forever War’), Max Kennedy (‘Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her’) and Hooman Majd (‘The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran’).

They’ll also have a flash of fiction; at 6 p.m., Salman Rushdie, will be in conversation with Nathan Englander. With the festival going on all weekend, more authors are bound to appear in repeat broadcasts, which begin at midnight Monday.

Sadly, I’ll miss all of them; my minimal cable coverage doesn’t even include C-SPAN2. But it brings me the Internet, so I can watch the Miami Herald’s cute video of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the band-of-authors. Band member Dave Barry warns, ‘have your airsickness bag at the ready.’ They’re not that bad. It’s kind of like Rock Band, but a step up -- they’re actually playing their instruments, not just hitting plastic buttons.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo credit: Doolittle1989 via Flickr