Laurie R. King

My second event for the recent LRK Pacific Northwest Library Extravaganza was even more unusual than in a library built over a river, although this, too, had a watery theme.

Once upon a time (last year) I came across an article about a book group that meets on a ferry. 

These are regular commuters who no doubt noticed what the next person was reading, and got to chatting, and pretty soon the fabulous Audrey Barbakoff of the Kitsap Regional Libraries came along and thought, What if these guys were all discussing the same books?  And with that stroke of genius, Ferry Tales was born. 

I wrote an admiring letter to Audrey (the group’s Ferry Godmother—yeah, sorry) and told her that if ever I was in the Puget Sound area, I’d expect a meet-up with her group.  There things sat until another person in the Kitsap system got in touch, and we started looking at library events for the 20^th anniversary celebration, and Ferry Tales sprang to mind.

I went.  I talked.  I…well, I won’t say I conquered since that sounds a bit militaristic, but a lot of mutual conquest took place during the thirty-five minutes the Tacoma took to churn its way from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. 

All I can say is, If you ride a ferry regularly, you really need to set up a book discussion group.  If for no other reason than so I can come and visit when I’m in your neighborhood.