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Off to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC.
Margaret Atwood is in the house!
Once a year Los Angelenos prove they have a bookish bent at the L.A. Times Festival of Books - a large and amazing gathering of authors and readers that always surprises with its large attendance.
"You live in Los Angeles and you read? Wow. Shocker"
Anyway, I'm so looking forward to seeing Margaret Atwood today; it's a gorgeous spring day and I'm happy to be sharing some bookish fun with an old, old friend. Ms Atwood is first up on the schedule; I have to sign off so I can get going!
Atwood has just received the Innovators Award from the L.A. Times. There's a wonderful piece on Atwood in the Times; here's the link to the whole piece but here's a couple of quotes I found interesting.
"I was an early website putter-upper," she jokes, "going back to the 1990's" — a decision inspired by the realization that she could connect with readers more directly by offering a virtual clearinghouse of information about her work.
A different set of issues led to her invention, in 2006, of the Long Pen, an electronic device that allows users to sign books or documents remotely and in real time, "a one-time unique signature," she says. Atwood was looking for a way to cut down on travel, and her carbon footprint, while still being able to interact with distant bookstores — and their customers.
What connects these endeavors is a sense of technology as practical, not theoretical, as a strategy rather than an end."
AND
"I'm encouraged by all this online activity," Atwood says, calling it an incubator in which writers and readers can find new pathways to each other. "Writing and reading are learned skills, and they have to be taught. You can write a wonderful masterpiece, but if no one reads it, it's an unplayed score."