By Alma Kadragic
The Miami Book Fair was started in 1984 by two young men: An independent book seller and the president of a local college. Their dream was to put Miami on the map for something other than sun, sand, and crime.
With the 31st annual Miami Book Fair, Mitchell Kaplan, owner of the Books & Books stores, and Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College serving 175,000 students on eight campuses, could celebrate what has become the largest literary event in the US.
Although one might expect the biggest book fair in the Americas to be in New York, Boston, or Chicago, it is in Miami – and it’s getting bigger every year. Already a week-long event from Sunday to Sunday, it has added a final Monday this 2014 to accommodate the finalists and winners of the National Book Awards that will be announced the day before. Everyone is coming to Miami to celebrate the final gala event of the 2014 Book Fair.
Although reading has been a major part of my life since childhood, I had never been to a book fair before but that changed after I started attending the Emirates Festival of Literature in Dubai four years ago. In elementary school a friend and I took turns winning the award for reading the most books per month, and I am unhappy when I can’t make time to read a book.
I have always had trouble understanding how educated people could live without reading books, but a book fair didn’t seem interesting until I attended the Emirates Festival in Dubai. Listening to authors, selecting books from the displays, and enjoying the atmosphere made me a convert.
Last year when I arrived in Miami, I missed the 2013 Book Fair. This year I was determined to join the thousands of visitors and attend for the first time the final three days of the Book Fair that are being broadcasted live on PBS, the national public broadcasting system. A free app was produced for streaming the event on a mobile phone or tablet.
On the first day of the Book Fair, the main attraction for me and about 500 other people was Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series translated into 45 languages, selling 20 million copies, and dramatized for TV by HBO.
McCall Smith is a witty writer and even wittier in person. Dressed in his trademark plaid kilt, blue jacket, shirt and tie, he told us he would talk for 30-35 minutes and then answer questions, and that’s exactly what he did – entertaining us and himself at the same time.
He riffed for a few minutes on first sentences, recalling a book by a nine year old child that began, “Mr. Eltine was an elderly man of 42.” That cracked up the audience – whose average age was probably around 42!
McCall Smith left us with some serious thoughts. When he began the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, he started with the heroine who would have her own business but didn’t know what that should be. He considered making it a dry cleaning store but instead decided to take her into crime and detection.
Now, he concluded, “we’ve had enough crime; we need a series of novels about dry cleaning.” If he writes it, it will be fun to read.
