I made no secret about my excitement regarding this year’s National Book Festival, and I’m happy to say that not only did it live up to all my brain-generated hype — it exceeded it!
Not even the ominous-looking storm clouds could keep Dad and me from schlepping through Washington, D.C. in search of prominent authors. Being the incredibly organized, borderline obsessive-compulsive that I am, I’d created a schedule of where we should be to see which author — and even scheduled in some breaks! Each author spoke for thirty minutes at a clip, mostly discussing the research that had gone into their most recent book — like Jodi Picoult’s Handle With Care — or their process of writing.
Among the talented folks we heard speak were James L. Swanson (Manhunt: The Search For Lincoln’s Killer), famed Southern cook and Food Network personality Paula Deen, W. Ralph Eubanks (Ever Is A Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi’s Dark Past), novelist Shannon Hale, poet Patricia Smith, Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita In Tehran: A Memoir In Books), novelist Judy Blume and famed historian Ken Burns.
I really enjoyed hearing each of them speak — especially Eubanks, who chatted about his family’s history in the South, losing his Southern accent and then read from his memoir (which sounds amazing)! Paula Deen was as delightful and adorable as she is on TV, and definitely had the most audience participation! People were cheering for her like she was a rock star. And, in a way, I guess she is!
Dad made it to a few other talks while I popped over to the Library of Congress’s TweetUp where I met Jen of Biblio File, who was crazy nice and interesting! I’m pretty sure I acted like a fangirl, because I absolutely love her blog and didn’t expect to meet her! Not even the mud, my frizzing hair or lack of jacket could dampen my mood!
A definite highlight of the day was our book blogger dinner at Elephant & Castle that evening! It’s so funny to sit down at a table with a group of “strangers” you actually know. Any feeling of uneasiness or discomfort melted away the second we all started talking — because it was like we’d known each other for years! I guess in many cases, folks have known each for a while. I had such a great time chatting with the likes of Jill from Rhapsodyinbooks, Teresa from Shelf Love, My Friend Amy, Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog, Michelle from Galleysmith, Nicole of Linus’s Blanket, Deborah of Books, Movies & Chinese Food and Trish from Hey Lady, Whatcha Readin’?, as well as many other excellent ladies (and a gentleman!). I don’t think I could have spent an evening with a finer group of people, and I’m only sorry I had to leave as soon as I did. And that I didn’t get more pictures, but — you know.
I did snap a few . . . and I’m hoping more will surface! Because I realized I don’t have a single one of me from the entire day. I would have done my quintessential THUMBS UP! picture, but I was distracted all day. All glorious, bookish and fabulous day!
Want another take? Check out my dad’s tale.
And are you ready for photo overload? ‘Cause I am!
Tents on the mall
It's Paula Deen! WOO!
Shannon Hale speaks about her many fine books for middle-grade readers -- and the older crowd, too!
Sea of umbrellas in the book signing line
More waiting...
Trish tells us how it is!
Book bloggers chatting it up!
write meg! 
The book blogger dinner sounds awesome. I recognize a few faces in there. I wish I could have joined y’all.
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I’m so glad to hear you had a great time, despite the awful weather! My childhood nostalgia has totally kicked in because I loved reading Judy Blume books when I was wee!
Your meet-up sounds like it was all kinds of fun too. I love the sound of the Elephant and Castle 😀
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Shannon Hale and Paula Deen? I’m horribly jealous.
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ooooh! i totally would have been there if not for the minor fact that i’m leaving for a mini-road trip this thursday. i couldn’t justify driving down to DC on the weekend and then driving to savannah, ga and florida four days later–too much driving! 🙂
it looks like you had a grand ol’ time. and, hello? your dad is a blogger and newspaper writer? LOVE IT.
i’ll see you all in may in NYC. 🙂
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Pictures! Hooray! It was so cool to meet you. It’s amazing how easy it was for us all to feel connected almost immediately.
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Great fun! Looks like you had a lovely day!
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I’m so thrilled that you and your Dad had such a great time. This is a slice of heaven for readers!!
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I watched some of it on CSPAN, but they really needed to include the blogger dinner!
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It sounds like so much fun…both the festival and the dinner! I’m living vicariously through everyone’s posts.
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Oh my stars that looks like fun! Rain and all! Thanks so much for sharing, Lurve it.
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I’m insanely jealous…that looks like a seriously awesome event!
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Wow! I would love to hear Shannon Hale talk about books. And I just added Eubanks’ memoir to my “to read” list—it looks really interesting.
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Sounds like so much fun. I have to admit I’m jealous.
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Great write-up! It was great to meet you, I just wish we’d been able to chat a bit more!
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Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I did spend a large amount of time standing in Judy Blume’s books signing line 🙂 But I did manage to see a few authors speak which was great.
The tweet up sounds great fun.
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Sounds like a fabulous time! 😀
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What a wonderful time you had!
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I’m so glad we finally got a chance to meet and gab. I hope we get a chance to do it again soon. We need to make plans for it. 🙂
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