texas DOOK Testival terest in reading and books isn’t dwindling ly Todd Glasscock Three yeurs ago, the National =ndowment for the Arts put eading on life support, According o the N.E.A.'s report Reading at Risk, Americans had essentially plugged the machine on novel: slays, short stories and poetry. If accept N.E.A. Chairman Dana Sioia’s comment that “America can 10 longer take active and engaged iteracy for granted”, then essays, journalism and other printed matter will follow their cousins and gasp, O Jack Kevorkian, where art hou?” fin sure, however, that reading isn’t awaiting its plunge into darkness visible. Not yet. Those who made the pilgrimage to ast month’s Texas Book Festival in Austin could see that interest in reading and books isn’t dwindling. Bibliophiles mingled with the mercly curious, and they investigated ihe Cupitol’s grounds together, discovering jents walled with books and tables filled with freebies. They wandered into the pink sranite buildiny’s chambers to hear writers alk about reading, writing and books. " Clearly, some came for the big draws jenna Bush, Lynne Cheney, Kristin Gore, Kay Bailey lutchison. These celebrities mikod shout their books, wail tases seeking aut sphs got them penned inside the covers of hose hooks: and even if the books people had bought sted in writers, were simply truptues books, and were inte And writers were interested in readers Waiters share one firin’ bond wath readers writers relish books, and they seem to like talking about reading, at least autbors Jane Hamilton and Valerie Martin did. They spoke as part of the panel “Vintage/Anchor Books Presents: Writers on Reading” Writers read in order to lear, to engage with characters and story, to understand and to find pleasure, just ay a reader would They leam how to tell stories, dissecting books from the inside out. Martin said that books pique writers to write, moving them to respond to a particular book. Ter novel Trespass is a response, in part, (0 Jan McEwan’s novel Saturday. Both books weave the Iraq war into the narrative, bul Martin felt dissatisfied with McEwan’s characters; they didn’t, to her mind, teact strongly enough to the approaching war. So she wrote, Reading matters to Martin enough for her to write her own hooks. Reading seems to matter less and less, though, in one medium, ironically newspapers. One lively panel —“Lit Crit: The State of Book Criticism” — addressed this issue. Moderating the panel was Jerome Weeks, former full time book eritic for the Dallas Morning News. Until last September, when he accepted a buyout offer from the paper rather than work in a reduced arts section, es es er Texas. Daily papers, he said, have slashec arts and culture sections under faulty assumptions, in particular the commor exense heard st uewspapers: net cuougi advertising. In books and arts sections of newspapers, usually prestigious secons Wvertising never said, “There's a general dectine of advertising, nt just m arts sections, he added. Despite the decline in arts coverage, | don’ think reading is dectining: I don’t think the valne of hooks is deel culture, like the rest of the culture, b mixed in new media to the conversation and that mix includes book blogs. Blogs ad¢ community to what panelist Steven Kellman alled a literary ecology of media outlets. It's a lively community, one willing to ge beyond the mainstream, as Jessa Crispin, founder and editor of webvine Bookslut com, said during the panel discussion. Blog: ‘and webzines caver mainstream news abou books, but also cover genres rarcly covered graphic novels, for instance - and tak those genres seriously To me, blogs have two essential features comments and links. Comments allow interaction between wnter and reader keeping the conversation about books ant writing Howing, Links take readers to othe sources, whether to books on Amazon o to other blogs and webzines. Each featur continues the conversation, makes reading valuable, and assures us that others in th worldare like us~ literate, active, engaged none of us gasping for breath. Still, nothin demoustrates the value of reading so clearh as actually reading a book, engaging wit another mind, another imagination, wit ‘one-on-one intimacy. AAs critic and schola Harold Bloom once put it, reading is “t transcend the limits of self.