The New York Times' Beth Greenfield highlights some of the country's best known (and best attended) book fairs, taking place in Miami, Las Vegas, Chicago...and Storrs, Connecticut? Hey, you never know where the best places to talk books up are, especially as more of them keep popping up. "There are now 35 statewide celebrations, and that has gone up tremendously in recent years," said John Y. Cole, director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Mr. Cole arranges for authors to appear at the annual National Book Festival, which drew 100,000 literature lovers to the National Mall in Washington last month. The center also helps organizers put together local book fairs.

So why do smaller, more localized fairs work? "State festivals tend to focus, rightly, on local writers," said Cole, who is happy for any excitement about reading that these events create. "In the electronic age, books and reading and authors really need promotion more than ever. The real competition now is not the computer per se, but for a reader's time."