Opening Books, Opening Minds at the Festival
With critics pointing a harsh finger at Muslims and the Arab world, Alia Dada and Shahid Ali could not have been more pleased with the crowds gathered around their little information booth at the 11th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Sunday.
By day's end, they had handed out more than 1,500 free paperback English translations of the Koran and answered hundreds of sometimes tough questions about their faith.
Refilling the diminishing stack of Korans on her display table over the weekend, Ali said a few visitors even "came up to apologize for having said negative things about Islamists in the past."
Theirs was one of 350 booths visited by an estimated 127,500 people during the two-day book festival, a community event designed to celebrate the written word and bring together a critical mass of readers and authors to develop ideas and discuss the hottest topics of the day.
On the sprawling grounds of UCLA, thousands of readers listened in on crowded panel discussions and packed book booths in search of their own special interests.
On a panel titled "Unearthing the Roots of Religion," Dennis MacDonald, director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont School of Theology, presented a riveting account Saturday of how the Gospels were "deeply indebted to Homeric poems," including "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey."
The scholar also lamented that although publication of the blockbuster works of fiction, including "The Da Vinci Code," has revived public interest in the world's enduring traditions, they blur the lines between scholarly investigation and pop culture.
His audience roared with delighted approval when he pointed out that such books "are crossing over into my territory and they are not helping."
At a discussion named "Mystery: Hip Chicks Packing Heat," Patricia Smiley, author of "Cover Your Assets," explained to several hundred people how she develops characters in her books. The topic was particularly relevant to at least a quarter of the audience, who raised their hands when moderator Emily Green asked how many were writing mystery novels.
Smiley's main heroine, Los Angeles financial consultant Tucker Sinclair, for example, may have been "conceived in the back seat of a Corvair," but she is anything but consumed by sexual escapades.
"She's funny and smart" and brave, Smiley told an audience of about 400. "I think of her as more of a female Mighty Mouse."
