National Book Festival In DC!!!

NUMBER 88 

First, let me apologize.  I went back to check my blog after I hit the published button and noticed that the National Book Festival and the Baltimore Book Festival flyer's did not post.  Sorry about that, I will try to remember to do it correctly.  There are some days I can run rampant thru computers, programming and such, but I guess I was in a hurry to leave SC for Home and forgot.  Hopefully it won’t happen again, but hey, I’m human.

I left early Friday morning because I heard it was going to rain, so I thought I get a good jump, but Mother Nature had other plans.  It rained from SC to DC and I mean it rained.  Can you imagine what my little car (I have a cube) and yes, it looks like one of those cars in London (a place I love).  But the main reason I own one is that my Durango, which I had for years, finally gave out and too much work had to be done to it and it started to costs too much money.  So, I traded it in and got the cube.  Don’t laugh, that sucker get’s 31 miles per gallon and I can fill it up with $25.00 and drive a week and a half.  

So, you know what my car looks like if you were looking at it from an aerial view.  An ant (my car) between six 8 feet tall rats (18 wheeler trucks) closing in. Oh, I kept up with those drivers.  They were doing 90 to 100 miles a hour and I kept right on rolling with them.  Not to get to my destination in a hurry, but because I was scared as hell and it was raining cats and dog (my dog was with me and he was asleep in the back, smart dog).  Finally got a break in the rain and I pulled off onto a rest stop and breathed.  Man, it was raining like a hurricane.   

Got to DC and it stop raining but was cloudy and I was beginning to think the book festival was going to be rained out.  Made it to Maryland and got me a drink at a friends house and went to bed.  Me and the dog was dead tired.  The next morning drove to Penn Avenue to park and catch the Union Station subway with my daughter and we walked from there to the Mall.  Was no use in driving any further.  There were festivals all throughout DC, MD and VA.  National Book Festival, Latino Festival, Southwest DC Arts Festival, Nickelodeon’s 2011 Worldwide Day of Play and many, many more.  I never saw so many kids on the subway in one day, but they were having fun and I was going to the National Mall to have my own fun.

The National Mall was packed.  The last number I saw was over 200,000 people and I believe it.  I am not going to name all of the authors there.  Let's just say there were over 100. There were tents for Fiction & Mystery - the authors spoke at their assigned time, which if you did not get a seat, you were standing inside and outside of the tent - Toni Morrison, Jennifer Egan, Gregory, Steve Berry, Laura Lippman and on Sunday - Terry McMillian, Margaret George and others, Poetry & Prose - Rita Dove (There was a party the night before in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress with her as well as Toni Morrison and others), Michael Cunningham, Jonathan Yardley, Dave Eggers and Terrance Hayes and Yusef Komunyakaa.   History & Biography - Isabel WIlkerson, Carla L. Peterson, Eugene Robinson.  For Children, Teens and storytelling - Wally Amos, Cedella Marley, Kadir Nelson, Angela Farris Watkins and Rita Williams-Garcia.  This year another day was added to add "Cutting Edge" with Eric Jerome Dickey, Kia Dupree, and Kimberla Lawson Roby, "Graphic Novels" with Rachel Renee Russell and Eric Wight and "State Poets Laureate" Dolores Kendrick, Wesley McNair and Carol Muske-Dukes.  Contemporary Life with Hoda Kotb, Jessica B. Harris and of course, Barnes & Noble had a huge tent selling all of the authors there books.  It was crowded with people and their strollers, kids, dogs, grandma and grandpa.  I also wore my "Got Books!" T-shirt and you know I got lots of attention since I'm well endowed up there, but mostly people told me they liked my shirt.  CNN took a picture too, but I did not see CNN so I don't know if it was shown.  There wer long lines and I mean long lines at the Book Signing tents if you wanted to get your book autographed.   I was in line for 45 minutes, but it was worth it to see - THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICAN’S GREAT MIGRATION - $14.99.  I did also hear a little, but could not see too close Siddharththa Mukherjee - The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer and Eric Foner - The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.  Both of these books I brought because I heard so much about them.  

The honorary co-chairs were President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama with the theme, “Celebrating the Joys of Reading Aloud.”

Can you believe it, Toni Morrison has an iPad and she loves it, but still loves hardcover and paperback books.  I have both the Kindle and iPad and I still love hardcover books.  This year did not start out right with me being broke and a little lonely without my kid, but after I got on track with my budget, continue to volunteer at the library and saved enough to get to the National Black Book Festival in Houston, Texas (I”m still high from Earth, Wind and Fire, God!! I’m still high from seeing them!!!!), then to Atlanta for the National Book Club Conference and now my trip to DC, I finally found “me” and I cannot believe how blessed and happy I am to hang out with so many authors and read so many of their books.  God, I’m happy.  Now to save big moola for the Miami Book Festival in November.  I will try not to take so many pictures of men in their swim suits (Yeah, right!! me not take pictures of that!!).