As a librarian for Pima County Public Library, the part of my job I enjoy most is readers advisory – talking books with patrons, finding out their interests and suggesting other books they might enjoy.
That’s why I’ve found it so exciting and fulfilling to chair the Tucson Festival of Books Author Committee for the past five years. I’ve come to know a lot about what people like to read, so it doesn’t surprise me that mystery panels are plentiful at the festival. This year there are 36 of them, not including nonfiction “true crime” panels. Tucson readers love mysteries almost as much as they love the Tucson Festival of Books.
This year I co-chair the Mystery Author Committee with Christine Burke, owner of Clues Unlimited, Tucson’s mystery bookstore.
It takes an enormous amount of work to organize and stage a major book event like this, but the payoff comes in seeing how people have embraced the festival, and how they look forward to it avidly every year. I feel it demonstrates that Tucson is a town that cares about books and reading, and that’s the best kind of reputation to have; that’s the face that you want the world to see. The festival is a gift to literacy in Tucson, and as a librarian I’m thrilled to be a part of it.
