The good life: some folks in this town must be living it. I can't believe I spent four years in England and never went to Hay-on-Wye. Maybe it's because most of the bookstores there have put their inventories on-line. At any rate, I'm planning to correct my mistake next week. I'm hoping to be in Hay for the last day of its literature festival. The sheer amount of programming for the week-long festival is incredible. (Does anyone know of anything like this is the U.S.?) Of particular interest to political theorists are talks by John Gray, Michael Lind, A.C. Grayling, Mary Warnock, and Richard Sennett, among others. If anyone's been to Hay and has a favorite book store, let me know.

Update: maybe next year in California for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Or maybe I'll just stay right here in Charlottesville.