Summer reads are one thing, but the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival is quite another. In its fifth year, the festival occurs the first weekend in August every other year and highlights the Island’s rich literary history while bringing some of the best known authors to the Vineyard. The weekend features some of the country’s leading authors and includes readings, panel discussions, author interviews and book signings.

W e keep reading. When the writing is bad, it’s a fleeting disappointment but when it’s good, there’s nothing better. When it’s good, it matters in the moment and in our memory; nothing matters more.

Few words are new, but lately they come at us in torrents. Words, words, words career toward us, screaming, tweeting, each true enough but incomplete. Words alone are isolating; writing, telling stories, that’s what takes the isolation away.

It’s official: Kindle and e-books may flourish, but real books with pages you can turn are here to stay. Just as television thrived without disposing of movies, books and book lovers will never go away. Last Sunday’s Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival proved it.