For those summer-reading slackers sneaking around Western New York (okay, I’m guilty too), this event renders your excuses almost inexcusable. Friday offers a day-long catch up: The fourth Buffalo Book Fair presents reading as fun, for free, for locals of all ages. Dubbed “a celebration of reading, literacy and Buffalo’s history,” the event includes celebrity author meet-and-greets, book signings, seminars, children’s activities and more.

Featured speakers include former Buffalonian Beverly Lowry, whose new book is Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life, and Buffalo-born Lawrence Block, the legendary mystery/thriller writer whose latest is titled Hit and Run. Local authors will be on hand as well, both as vendors and readers. Novelist Edwidge Dandicat, former Buffalo Bill Kevin Everett, and Senator Charles Schumer are among the invited authors. WNED ThinkBright will sponsor activities on the main stage.

The event attracted more than 4,000 people last year, and the crowd at this year’s new venue is expected to be just as big and extra-caffeinated, with free Starbucks Coffee samples. Activities and vendors will be spread around Hoyt Lake at lovely Delaware Park and beside the back steps of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The Buffalo Book Fair begins at noon on Friday, July 18, and runs until 10pm. At 7pm there will be the first ever Buffalo Book Fair Awards ceremony, recognizing the city’s local literary lights. The awards ceremony takes place at Clifton Hall, inside the art gallery.

For more information and a complete event schedule, visit buffalobookfair.com.

—mallory passuite