Books

NEW YORK – What you'll read next year is being decided right now in Manhattan.

In excess of 30,000 people have packed the sprawling, steamy Jacob Javits Convention Center for BookExpo America, where they are meeting authors, grabbing galleys, cutting deals and basically determining what America will be talking and thinking about.

"You could call it a trade show," says Amy Salit, a producer for public radio's Fresh Air who is scouting for potential guests on the influential program "But it's about authors, and books! And books are about all different kinds of people and all kinds of things. So you walk around, and you don't know who you're going to run into. You could run into anyone."

For example, people standing at an information booth trying to navigate the 2,000 exhibitors might find themselves standing next to Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She was preparing for a signing and promising each attendee a lucky keychain that would give them "great sex for life."

("I like you Dallas people," she says as she shuffles away. So we have that going for us.)

Or attendees at the after-hours charity concert by the all-star author band the Rock Bottom Remainders might find themselves rubbing elbows with Khaled Hosseini while he politely watches Stephen King sing a terrifying "Don't Fear the Reaper."

At other venues, says Mr. Hosseini – the author of the The Kite Runner and the newly released A Thousand Splendid Suns – he can usually blend into the crowd. No such luck here, as several fans come forth to greet him.

The passion for books here is serious – serious enough to turn even Stephen Colbert earnest.

Backstage, after keeping the crowd in stitches while emceeing a star-filled author breakfast, he gives a heartfelt response when asked his feelings about the state of the world of books.

"I love books so much. Next to my family, books are my best friends. If I hadn't had them when I was younger, I don't know how I would have survived from age 10 to age 21," he says. "They're always there for you, you know?"

Not every moment was so sanguine the expo, which opened Wednesday and ends today. Worries about everything from newspaper book-review sections to the plight of independent booksellers came up in panel sessions with titles such as "The Future of Book Culture."

But many others emphasized excitement in the endless quest for crucial "buzz."

Carolyn Bess, producer of Arts & Letters Live, was at one closely watched presentation. She has spent her time meeting publishers and building relationships that might determine which authors come to Dallas for the lecture series next year – or maybe several years from now. It was in an autograph line at a previous expo, for example, that she met Wicked author Gregory Maguire, who took part in the series this year.

On this panel, publishers pitch their personal favorites. Which will actually catch on with the readers – Foreskin's Lament, a memoir by Shalom Auslander, who is being billed as the next David Sedaris? Loving Frank, Nancy Horan's heavily researched novel about Frank Lloyd Wright's scandalous love affair? The M.J. Rose thriller about vestal virgins and reincarnation? The new collection of poems from Robert Hass?

Who knows. But the people who can make it happen were listening.{WebBlog} Blog: Follow books editor Michael Merschel as he follows authors through BookExpo America in New York.

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