national_book_festival

So this bookish event is happening downtown this weekend. You may have heard of this little gathering . . . it’s The National Book Festival! Yes, folks, it’s that time of year again. Last fall I lamented the fact that I’d been living under a rock and had to work the day of the bash, but this year? Not so much! Working just one job has been quite, um, awesome. So there’s no way I’m missing this year’s festivities!

Authors representing all genres will be on the mall in Washington, D.C. from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 — reading, signing novels and, most importantly, talking books! Among many others, slated to appear are James Patterson, Shannon Hale, Paula Deen, Nicholas Sparks, Ken Burns, Julia Glass and George Pelecanos.

My dad and I will be making the trek downtown, where we’ll be dashing from pavilion to pavilion in order to soak up as much literary goodness as possible. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be the one in the blue top with a slightly crazed look in my eye. Look for the curly hair — it’s slightly ridiculous, but comes in handy if you’re searching for me in a crowd! After the event is over, I’ll be heading to dinner with several of the fine book bloggers I’ve gotten to “know” over the past year, and I’m seriously excited.

festival_mapIf you’re coming to the event, The Washington Post has a really helpful special section (see, special sections! I’m a special sections editor, too, so I have to plug them when I can!) on the festival, including times, author bios and a handy map. Said map has already been printed and highlighted by yours truly so we  can make it to each author discussion quickly and efficiently! Yes, I’m a tad OCD. But that’s part of my voracious charm, right?

The Library Of Congress is also integrating some nifty social media tools this year, including the ability to text “BOOK” to 61399 for book news and information while on the mall. For everyone into Twitter, like moi, you can follow the LOC and join in festival-related news with the hashtag #nbf (National Book Festival, kiddos). If I can find a free Wi-Fi hotspot (please, oh please!), you know I’ll be Tweeting it up!

So there you have it! I hope we have a fine bookish Saturday and look forward to meeting many of you at the festival! If you see me, remember — I have blog business cards to hand out! If that doesn’t entice you to approach, well, I don’t know what will.