Chestertown’s First Annual Book Festival Pulls Them Downtown

What a wonderful idea the businesspeople, the Kent County Library, and others looking out for a jewel of a downtown had when they created a weekend book festival for Chestertown.

This event,  the first book festival on the Eastern Shore, celebrated authors, books, and literary traditions of the region east of the Chesapeake Bay.  For the inaugural event, the shops, restaurants, and other gathering places offered special activities.

There were some excellent progams.   “Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading,” was the subject of an engaging talk by Maureen Corrigan at the Bookplate, a quality rare and used bookstore on Cross Street.   Kent County News Journalist, Peter Heck gave an engaging talk, “Mucking Around with Mark Twain.”

I did a program at the Kent County Library, “The Mason-Dixon Line, the Stories Behind a Geographic Boundary.”  The audience shared many wonderful questions and their own stories about the line during the talk.

Congratulations to Chestertown for producing an event that pulled them in to enjoy the ambiance of a fine downtown and its many excellent shops and restuarants.   Chestertown has become a nice book center over the past decade.  Compleat Bookseller has always been a store of choice for regional titles.  But there are also two rare and quality second hand bookstores, the Bookplate and the Old Book Company.