Are you a local literature lover? Is your ideal day rummaging through book sales and attending talks from the high brow to the nonsensical? Do you fancy each tome whispering to you in a rather saucy French accent, “read me, read me my love?” No, this isn’t some sort of warped personal ad, the likes of which you will see in the back pages of The New York Review of Books, but rather an invitation to celebrate the Baltimore Book Festival at the George Peabody Library!
The Peabody Library will be hosting a variety of activities Friday, September 28 through Sunday, September 30 to make your bibliographic hearts aflutter, from collection spotlights to talks by Johns Hopkins University Press authors to fun activities for the entire family. There will even be classical concerts performed by students from the Peabody Institute allowing you, dear bibliophile, to imagine you are a member of Jane’s Austen’s shabby gentility about to dance up a storm!
You can peruse our entire schedule here. Isn’t it awesome? Seriously, we’ve got a bit of everything. Interested in Baltimore’s history? Check out Peabody Library Curator Paul Espinosa’s talk on the history of the Peabody Library, attend a roundtable discussion on the War of 1812, simply groan at the vintage jokes printed by Ottenheimer of Baltimore, and listen in amazement to Hopkins’ own doctoral candidate in history Paige Glotzer discussing her experiences processing The Roland Park Company Records. How about what’s going on in Baltimore today? Well, we’ve got you covered (get it — covered — book puns — ha!). Peter Beilenson and Patrick McGuire will discuss their book Tapping into “The Wire.” Of course, if learning about Baltimore isn’t exactly your thing, you might be enticed by Chella Vaidyanathan’s overview on the Middle Eastern harem in the Western imagination or Steven Gimbel’s book talk on the influence of Judaism on Einstein’s science. And much, much more!
See, there really is something for everyone. Not that you need further incentives to partake in all the Book Festival fun, but if you do, check out our photo album from last year. It was quite the bookish blast!