Saturday afternoon book fair blogging

I spent a few hours this afternoon browsing around the San Diego City Book Fair. Believe it or not, I only bought ONE book. I don't know if that fact amazes you, but it amazed me and my husband was shocked to his core. I touched a whole bunch of them though, and added about a dozen to my mental book list, including Paul Krugman's The Conscience of A Liberal, and Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat.

The only book I purchased was The Best American Essays of 2007, edited by David Foster Wallace. I'm a sucker for a good essay, plus they're perfect reading for the bus ride between home and work.

Photojournalist David Bacon who's books include The Children of NAFTA, and Communities without Borders, spoke this afternoon at the book fair on the interrelatedness of labor, migration and trade. Excellent and interesting. I've read some of his essays at Alternet and The Nation, but now I really want to read his books, and his photos of migrant workers across Mexico and the US are fascinating.

I love to hear it when someone expresses the links between complicated issues in ways I've never really considered, and Bacon does exactly that by speaking about the connection between government clampdowns on migrant workers, in the wake of increased union and social justice organizing. In fact, that Nation article contains the jist of today's talk. It's good stuff...give it a read.