We are entering week 6 of social distancing, but you might still be adjusting to the new normal. And if you have already exhausted the catalog of your favorite streaming service, you might be looking for differentiated and rejuvenating content to pass the time. Well, you are in luck because this Thursday, April 23rd at 5:30pm ET, the Boston Book Festival presents “There’s a Book for That: A Bibliotherapy Event.”
What is Bibliotherapy, you say?
The premise of bibliotherapy is that reading is a restorative experience. Ella Bertoud is the author of The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You. She is a respected bibliotherapist who will be prescribing books to fit your situation and help you navigate life’s unexpected twists and turns. Register for FREE here, and submit your story in advance to get Ella’s recommendation. Ella will make a dozen or so book prescriptions, and attendees can choose to create groups together to read and discuss the recommendations.
To kick off the event, local Boston bookseller and bartender Nick Petrulakis will facilitate a virtual happy hour with a literary-themed cocktail recipe using common household ingredients.
We spoke with Norah Piehl, Executive Director of the Boston Book Festival, who described the pivot into online Bibliotherapy after realizing that their spring Lit Crawl would be canceled under social distancing.
Keep Lit Crawl Boston on your radar for 2021
The Lit Crawl concept originated in San Francisco and is now hosted in cities around the world. The crawl is held after work and includes pop-up literary programming in a walkable area of the city, akin to a pub crawl but with books.
The 2020 Boston Lit Crawl was scheduled to occur in Cambridge’s Central Square, an area on the cusp of urban revitalization. The event uses secret locations to host authors and poets, i.e. tattoo parlors, cafes, etc and helps drive incremental traffic to these independent businesses. The venue discovery aspect is a significant part of the experience and couldn’t be replicated in an online format. Free beer and wine is also provided at many of the Lit Crawl stops, hence the intent to preserve a happy hour element with the switch to virtual Bibliotherapy.
Looking to Fall with the Boston Book Festival
Public health considerations permitting, the Boston Book Festival team will hold its flagship event on October 24-25th. The festival is the largest of its kind in New England, and activities are FREE and open to the public. It promotes a love of reading and features a few hundred literary presenters covering a wide range of topics. This year marks the festival’s 12th anniversary, and last year’s line-up included notable names like former UN ambassador Samantha Powers and Sex in the City author Candace Bushnell. Check here to stay updated as 2020 details are released.
License to Drift - Why You Trippin? 