A fan sporting a dwarf beard and helmet woven from yarn. Both photos of convention by Flickr user Caliopeva.

My brother Milo and I spent the July 4th long weekend with some family friends in Baltimore, which neither of us had visited before. We were all there primarily for the North American Discworld Convention of 2013, a gathering of fan(atic) readers of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series at the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott, where the Church of God in Christ also had an event over the weekend (Marriott’s booking office has a sense of humor, it seems). We all had a great time attending various interesting panels and amusing activities, and seeing the diverse array of costumes that readers created and brought to display, and look forward to the next convention in 2015! If you haven’t read any of Pratchett’s work, he specializes in British satire and is often compared to P.G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams. I like recommending Men at Arms or Night Watch to those interested in reading any of his Discworld series (soon over 40 books total), but he also wrote a book with Neil Gaiman called Good Omens that is one of my all-time favorites.

Speaking of books, if you’re ever in Baltimore on a weekend, you should most definitely check out the Book Thing and revel in the strange feeling of walking out of a building with bags full of books that you haven’t paid for: this amazing attraction of Charm City is an altruistic treasure trove for thrifty readers. They literally ask you to take as many books as you can (just remember to write down how many on the sign-out sheet so they can update their accounts), and keep their stock filled–to the brim–with donations. Milo somehow found four or five books from the Discworld series, while I walked out with seven miscellaneous books on Saturday, and eleven on Sunday. Packed with cookbooks, how-to’s, sports guides, children’s tales, old classics, penny thrillers, and sometimes the latest in fiction (I counted over twenty copies of The Da Vinci Code), the Book Thing is well worth seeking out.

Hungry after all the “shopping,” Milo and I walked around Fell’s Point, a historic waterfront neighborhood, looking for a place to eat. As we passed a place named Stuggy’s I felt we had hit upon the right spot, because with a name like that it had to be good. A “gourmet hot dog” joint, this was the best fastfood I’ve ever had, from the sauerkraut- and “Stuggy’s sauce”-covered hot dog to the spicy cheese fries–I didn’t even need ketchup! I was so far along in eating my meal that I almost forgot to take a photo with my sad camera-phone, and somehow none of this felt all that unhealthy, either.

With all the pretty little chapels, the nice brick buildings roofed with old copper, and the patches of cobbled roads, and healthy mix of quaint and sketchy neighborhoods, Charm City made a good impression on me and I would be happy to go back, not only for the hot dogs and free books, but also for the sweet sunsets!