The Melbourne Writers' Festival got off to a very successful start over the weekend, with many sell-out sessions and crowds buying books and lining up to get them signed at Readings bookshop in the Atrium at Federation Square.

Festival Director Rosemary Cameron told WBN it had been ‘a wildly successful opening weekend.'

‘It seems Melbourne just can't get enough of the festival in its new home at Federation Square,' she said. ‘We had strong sales across the opening weekend with big crowds and many sold out sessions on everything from Georgette Heyer to David Sedaris. Our second week is also proving very popular and I expect to see strong crowds across the entire four-day weekend.'

The Festival kicked off with a keynote address from Germaine Greer and the announcement of the Age Book of the Year Awards, and afterwards an alternate keynote address with memoirist Augusten Burroughs. The ‘2000 people packed into the Melbourne Town Hall to hear [Greer] speak on rage with great verve, intelligence and eloquence' was a definite highlight according to Cameron.

Sold out sessions on the first weekend included ‘Philosophers on Love' with Jeanette Kennett; ‘Getting Personal' with Judith Lucy, David Sedaris and Nam Le; ‘Nothing But the Man' with Paul Keating; ‘On Ecstasy' with Barrie Kosky; ‘Spare Room' with Helen Garner; ‘Down to Earth' with Alex Miller; ‘Engulfed' with David Sedaris, and all five of the ‘Arcade History of Literary Melbourne' walk tours.

The satellite exchange with UNESCO's other city of literature Edinburgh went without a hitch. After Nam Le and Sophie Cunningham got used to the ear plugs and time delay for the welcome, an informative session was enjoyed by a large crowd both in Melbourne and Edinburgh. The importing--via satellite--of Salman Rushdie later in the evening was also popular, with both sessions close to selling out.

The Schools program commenced on Monday and runs until the end of today also, featuring such authors as Robert Muchamore, Alice Pung, Alexandra Adornetto, Lili Wilkinson, Margo Lanagan, John Marsden and Penni Russon. Children's activities continue next weekend with WordPlay @ ArtPlay.

The Top 10 selling books for the first weekend as reported by Readings were:

1. The Boat (Nam Le, Viking)
2. On Rage (Germaine Greer, MUP)
3. American Journeys (Don Watson, Knopf)
4. When You Are Engulfed in Flames (David Sedaris, Little, Brown)
5. Stray Dog Winter (David Francis, A&U)
6. On Ecstasy (Barrie Kosky, MUP)
7. Making Modern Melbourne (Jenny Lee, Arcade)
8. The Rug-Maker of Mazar-e-Sharif (Najaf Mazari, Insight Publications)
9. Don't Get Too Comfortable (David Rakoff, Scribe)
10. Life in Seven Mistakes (Susan Johnston, William Heinemann).

http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/08/09299/ 

This article from Thorpe Bowker's Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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