With around 15 events a day for five days, the 2004 Wisconsin Book Festival — which ran October 6-10 — sounded like heaven to me. I looked forward to it like … well, like an English major looking forward to a book festival! And although I wasn’t able to make it to very many events, I did manage to go to a handful that seemed particularly interesting.

The first of these was a lecture by Maureen McLane — a junior member of the Society of Fellows of Harvard University — titled “Literate Species, or, The Limits of the Human: Frankenstein and the End of the Humanities,” presented by the Center for the Humanities.

McLane began with some rhyming haikus about the book and what her lecture would cover. They were creative and concise (as haikus tend to be) and many were humorous as well.

The main emphasis of the lecture was on the idea of the “human being” in “Frankenstein.” What marks the line between a human and an animal? What is proper to humanity? McLane spoke on how Frankenstein’s monster saw education as the way to become a human.

The conflict between Frankenstein and his monster, McLane stated, serves as an allegory for the conflict between science and the humanities, as the sciences were thought more important at this time than the “apparent useless humanities.”

These emerging sciences — the increased interest in the power of electricity, of resuscitation, etc. — can been seen in many of the books currently on display at the Memorial Library. They are part of an exhibition, “Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature,” which is traveling to 80 libraries throughout the United States. It will be in the Memorial Library (Special Collections, room 976) until Oct. 15.

Also showing on the first floor of the library is the first monster/horror film on video: Thomas Edison’s 1910 “Frankenstein” (around 15 minutes long), which is incredibly interesting to watch. It is amazing to think that in 1910 people found this film horrifying!

The next event I attended, “Ask a Literary Agent,” a Q&A with Betsy Amster, was held Friday in the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium. Before the event began, Heather Lee Schroeder, the host and moderator, invited the audience to move closer to the stage. The man in front of me asked his friend if they should move closer. His friend replied, “Are you planning on asking questions?” They stayed where they were. That’s a chance you take with a Q&A event. But thankfully, numerous people had questions for Amster, such as: what should one look for in a literary agent and how does one go about submitting manuscripts? With her previous experience as an editor and over 10 years experience as an agent, Amster provided a lot of useful and knowledgeable information for those hoping to get their manuscripts published and also for those who hope to work in publishing.

Saturday promised the event I was looking forward to the most, the “Graywolf Press 30th Anniversary Event.” Although I had never heard of Graywolf before — an independent publishing company located in Minnesota — it was going to be exciting to hear about “the role of small presses in today’s publishing marketplace,” which is what the book festival’s events’ schedule promised.

The event was held in the Stage Door at the Orpheum — a dark theater with no house lights. After an introduction of the event, Fiona McCrae, director and publisher of Graywolf Press, spoke a bit about herself and then introduced three of Graywolf’s authors who would be reading for 15 minutes each.

Although Martha Bergland’s reading from “A Farm Under a Lake” was mesmerizing (it was as though she were reading a poem), another author read his book like he was teaching a lecture rather than reading from a book he had written. After the readings McCrae again spoke, but instead of talking about the role of small presses, she merely invited those with questions to come mill around at the front of the theater with the authors.

Although not specifically a part of the Book Fest, the 13th Annual Canterbury Run/Walk for Literacy, which benefited the Madison Area Literacy Council (www.madisonarealiteracy.org), was held the last day of the festival, Sunday, Oct. 10. This year the event was sponsored by the Canterbury Inn, Avol’s Books, Mimosa Books, Rainbow Book Cooperative, A Room of One’s Own, Starr Books and the University Bookstore.

Melinda Slingsby from Middleton took first place in the 5k for women with a time of 19:41, and Ryan Paavola placed first for the men with a time of 15:54. In the 10k run, Abigail Watras came in first for the women with 37:20, and for the men, Tony Bone took first with a time of 33:55.