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Running.  Running is what I love to do.  And Reading.  Running and Reading are what I really love to do.  And I love it when the two comingle.

During the Fall of 2010, one of members of my running group was a young lady who enjoyed reading every bit as much as I do.  We would often find a few minutes to talk about what we were reading during those long Saturday morning runs.

It was during one of these runs that she told me about an organization called BookSmart Tulsa.  This group arranges for authors to visit Tulsa and talk about their books.  My friend, Sarah, had been to several of these and encouraged me to check it out.

And so I did.  It turns out that there was a book that both of us had read & loved.  It was The Passage by Justin Cronin.  It was rated by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Fiction books of 2010 and I have now made my way through most of that list.  This book has been my runaway favorite.

As it turns out, BookSmart Tulsa hosted Justin Cronin at the McBirney Mansion to talk about this book.  I had this on my calendar for months and even convinced my wife to go with me.

I had, of course, never been to anything like this and I didn’t know what to expect.  Even Sarah told me that every one she attended was different.

We arrived early enough to get a couple of seats together.  By the time the event started at 7pm, there were perhaps 25 people in attendance.

Jeff Martin, one of the principles of BookSmart Tulsa, opened the evening for us, giving us some background information on Cronin.  He did a nice job by weaving in a connection between Cronin and Tulsa from many years ago.

It was warmer than a person would like in the room.  Martin quipped that he was sorry about the temperature , but please don’t forget there is a cash bar in the back of the room.

Finally Cronin took to the microphone and talked for about 15 minutes about the book, some of his early writing history, what he’s doing now, etc.  It was all quite interesting.

Although I loved The Passage, I obviously wasn’t fanatical enough to know that the book is actually part 1 of a trilogy.  Cronin is wrapping up book # 2 this summer.

At this point, Cronin reads from the book for about 20 minutes.  One continuous chapter.  He chose to read about the character Anthony Carter, who rises from street peddler to neighborhood handyman to convicted murderer.  Cronin had a great voice for reading and it was easy to visualize the story as it unfolded.

After the reading, he took a handful of questions from the audience.  Somebody asked about his daughter, and it turns out that she collaborated with him on this book.  She is quite young – 14 at this time – but a very advanced reader and writer.

And what may have been the most interesting part of the whole evening was when Cronin talked about his daughter’s abilities for memorization.  He said she has a near-photographic memory, but if she hears it, she can remember it.

Cronin would read at bedtime to his daughter when she was younger.  Before they started reading, he would ask her to recite the last paragraph that he read the night before.  She was always able to recite it from memory perfectly.

No big surprise that at the conclusion of the evening, Cronin sat at a table where he was selling copies of his book and signing them for guests.  I would say that well over half the people in attendance got in line for a book.

The entire event lasted one hour.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Even my wife, who was not overly excited to be there, told me “It was a lot less painful than I thought it would be”.

I’m glad that my friend Sarah told me about BookSmart Tulsa.  She also gave me a lot of information on training for triathlons.  I wonder if I should tell my wife about that?

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