The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.
-Dr. Seuss

For book lovers of all ages admission is free and worth every penny. Attendees will enjoy
panel discussions with award-winning authors, activities, live entertainment, and exhibitors,
including local authors and independent booksellers.
For Festival details about authors, exhibitors, book stores, panels, children’s activities,
music, and food, visit https://sdbookfestival.eventbrite.com.

While many fabrics are colored or printed after they are woven, wool is sometimes dyed
before it’s woven into cloth. The color of that wool is through-and-through and impossible to
remove completely. So when we say someone is a “dyed-in-the-wool” conservative, liberal, law-
and-order defender, environmentalist, animal-rights supporter, Padres fan, etc., we mean that
their beliefs are steadfast and permanent.

You know you’re a dyed-in-the-wool book lover if you were that kid who got excited
when your teacher asked the class to read silently for a half hour. At home, if you got sent to
your room as punishment, you snickered to yourself because that meant an opportunity to be
alone, in peace, with a book in your hands and a smile on your face.

When you were little, books were your best friends in the world—and they still are. You
know the characters in novels better than you know real people. You yearn to live in the books
you read, and you wish you could go on adventures with the people in them. You dream about
attending Hogwarts, and you wish you could leap inside your wardrobe and travel to Narnia.
When you grow up, you name your children and pets after fictional people. On Halloween you
dress up as a book character.

You adore the feel and the smell of books. You love the sound of pages turning. You’ve
wept real tears onto the pages of a tearjerking book. When you’re between books, you feel lost —
until you open the next one. You know that reading a new book is like life renewing itself.
You experience distress when you are somewhere without a book, a magazine, a
newspaper, or at least a scrap of paper to read. You’ve read more books than you’ve seen movies
— and, of course, the book is always better than the movie.

The stack of books on your night table resembles the beginning of a Jenga game. When
you are reading a good book, you sometimes forget to eat or sleep. On a “must-finish” night, you
fall asleep with a book still in your hands. The bags under your eyes aren’t emblems of a kinetic
social life but from staying up reading into the wee hours.

When you work out, you choose only the machines that let you read while you sweat.
Most of your vacation packing anxiety comes from deciding which books to bring. You can’t
figure out what people who go to the beach without a book do there. You spend the majority of
your vacation time reading, and that includes your honeymoon.

Half your moving bill comes from the books that move with you. Your bookcase shelves
are starting to bow and creak, but you still want to add more books. After reading, your second
favorite activity is rearranging your library, which you do at least once a month.

The plastic window in your wallet displays your bookstore credit card and library card
rather than your driver’s license. You’ve read so many books that people don’t dare buy them for
you anymore. Instead, they give you book-related gift cards. One of your rapturous joys is when
a friend actually reads a book you have recommended—and loves it

Bookstores are your favorite places. No matter where you are or what you’re there for, if
you come upon a bookstore, you have to go in and buy at least one book. You can’t buy
happiness but you can buy books, and that’s pretty much the same thing.
In addition to frequenting bookstores, you attend book festivals (hint, hint), where you
hope to meet your favorite author (hint. hint).

*****

Next Saturday, August 23, 10 am-4 pm, the inaugural KPBS San Diego Book Festival
will take place at the University of San Diego. I’ll be signing and inscribing my books and would
love to meet you there.

For book lovers of all ages admission is free and worth every penny. Attendees will enjoy
panel discussions with award-winning authors, activities, live entertainment, and exhibitors,
including local authors and independent booksellers.
For Festival details about authors, exhibitors, book stores, panels, children’s activities,
music, and food, visit https://sdbookfestival.eventbrite.com.