Mental pyjamas - the writer's day, and other insights from AWRF

Oh the joys of reading and listening to a reader and writer who 'looks at the world through an acute pair of eyes' - read Bookman Beattie on one of the highlights of the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival: an interview with Rick Gekoski who has been dubbed 'the Bill Bryson of the Book world'. And then there's the gorgeous Irish author Colm Toibin (Brooklyn, The Master etc) whom I've heard read before (unforgettable) and whom - according to one of the comments on Beattie's report - likened the passing of the writer's day to being in 'mental pyjamas'. Yes!

It's those sort of sessions which make me feel deprived for not having gone to the Festival, but how lucky we are to have Bookman Graham Beattie who not only goes but writes it all up with such insight and verve. Amazing man. He also writes about sessions with Jill Dawson, David Levithan, Marti Friedlander, Paula Morris and Rachael King, Lionel Shriver, Alison Wong, CK Stead, and Elizabeth Smither. Whew! I hope I got everyone - you can always search an author name on his blog to see. To supplement the Beattie roving reports, drop into the Christchurch City Libraries blog.