WORDSTOCK

The wife and I drove to Portland for a weekend of BOOKS. ART. BEER. And WANDERINGS.

One of our main destinations was Portland's Wordstock Festival. I imagined that it would be very similar to Seattle's long defunct Northwest Bookfest. That is exactly what it was.

It consisted of author readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, and an enormous book fair. I wasn't enthralled by any particular author or panel discussion, so the wife and I wandered the various exhibitor booths of the book fair to see what is new in the world of published words.

The wife purchased a humorous history of U.S. Vice Presidents from the "literary wing" of Top Shelf Comix. Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance by Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger examines "the American Vice Presidential pantheon from Adams to Cheney." The wife keeps throwing tidbits of Vice Presidential trivia and information my way.

Troy's Work Table picked up volume 2:1 of Tuesday; An Art Project. It is a literary journal that focuses on poems, photographs, and prints. They are printed on individual 5 x 7 inch cards that are "bound" within a large 11 x 17 inch piece of cardstock that has been printed and folded to form a cover/container for the series of cards. Each issue is printed, assembled, and bound by hand. Very arty. Very bookish. Very cool.

After a few hours of looking at books, speaking with authors and publishers, collecting magazines and journals and business cards, and writing down titles of potential future additions to the home library, the wife and I walked off into the alternating drizzle and sunshine of early-November Portland for further adventures.