Word on the Street '23

I had a Saturday with nothing planned last weekend, so I decided to check out the Word on the Street festival. I would simply describe it as a big outdoor book fair: there were tents representing publishing houses, editors, independent bookstores; individual authors, poetry collectives, and even the Toronto library's own bookmobile which was my favourite part.

The bookmobile is basically a big bus that's been converted into a library on wheels. You climb inside, and there's enough space for half-a-dozen people to browse books comfortably before it feels a little too crowded. Air-conditioned, too, which was good because it was a rather warm spring day. The books are lined up on shelves attached to the sides of the inside of the bus, and I perused them for a while before deciding to borrow a random mystery book. The bookmobile was parked smack in the middle of the festival, which ran along the east side of Queen's Park, with a couple of streets being closed for pedestrians to wander through the various exhibitions.

I didn't really recognize any of the authors (unlike the last time I went to the festival, pre-pandemic, where I got my copy of Silverwing signed by Kenneth Oppel!), so I didn't attend any of the author readings or panel discussions; rather, I just enjoyed wandering in the crowd and eventually just chilling under a tree in Queen's Park to vape & listen to music.

Not getting a bike flat on my commute there & back was also a positive experience!

Really, the least enjoyable part of the festival was that there were some "F*ck Trudeau, lock Freeland up" wackos on the north-western side of Queen's Park, really, just like... 3 of them... blasting some Neil Young & other ironic music beside a big white van and waving provocative flags. They eventually drove past the festival, honking annoyingly before heading off to wherever else they were planning to "protest".

Anyway, I don't have any pictures to share. I know I keep saying this, but I really want more pictures with my blog posts. Makes them a bit less dull. I'll get around to it... eventually.