National Book Festival - Washington, D.C., - September 22-23, 2012

Okay, we're a little under three months til the great festival on the mall. (Hopefully all power will be restored and the temperature will have dropped by then...)

So let's start talking meet up!

I might be in the area on the 22nd, so it's a possibility for me!

:)

Planning this far in advance helps. I'll pencil in and see how things develop closer to the dates. Thanks for starting the thread, Gil.

I'm in I'm in I'm in

:(

Probably...

I'll be there...both days, hopefully.

Since I missed the June DC meet up, I'm going to try and make it for this one. I'll know what my final September schedule is going to look like later on in the month.

As usual, we'll be there on Saturday!

Okay, so since we are planning, let's talk location, since I assume will be aiming for the same "book time" (wanted to use "bat time" but didn't feel it right. :) ) as usual, which I believe was 2 PM...

Do we wanna go to the gardens again? Steps of Air and Space?

Somewhere in the shade!

We might want to wait a little longer before we make decisions. Last year they moved the festival to the other end of the Mall at the last minute, and who knows what they might do this year.

Okay, fair enough.

I'm horrible at making wikis. Anyone interested in creating one for this? I can add the link to the first post once we have it.

You can do it! I believe in you!

Okay, we're a month out now. The website is still listing between 9th and 14th street... So we can review options and make sure we have to chosen, in case they move things again.

Yep, let's go for it! Have they announced a schedule yet? Do we want to meet in the same place we met last time? I liked meeting there, as long as we are specific about meeting on the Mall-side of the garden!

Schedule is up. Looks like Charlaine Harris opens the festival Sunday. Sci Fi tent is only on Sunday (I gotta go both days this year. EW!)

Here's the schedule: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/schedule/

Sunday works better than Saturday for me. Has a meet-up day and time been set?

I'll be in town on vacation from Saudi and would love to join in as well!

Do you guys here at LT want to meet up with the BC in DC Bookcrossers again? If so, we can meet the same place we met last year at 2pm on Saturday. They are planning their meet-up now.

Last year, LT & BC members met in the Hirschorn Gardens where it was shady and had places to sit along a wall. Let me know, Nora, so I can coordinate with them.

> 19

Maggie, we can meet up both Saturday and Sunday as we don't stay together all that long.

>21 SqueakyChu: 2pm Saturday is fine with me!

I'll let the BookCrossers know.

Since Bookcrossers will be at the LT meet-up, feel free to register books you'd like to give away at BookCrossing before you come to the festival. You can wild release books there or simply give them to other BC or LT members. It's all part of the fun of the day.

For more information about BookCrossing, feel free to contact me by private message.

Nora, for the sake of Maggie and others who can't come on Saturday, are you planning a meet-up at the NBF for Sunday? If so, will it be at the same place and time?

I'm actually looking closer at the schedule and may attend Sunday but not Saturday...
All because they put Sci Fi on the second day!

Sunday festivities don't start until 1pm, so I propose that we meet for lunch at 11ish on Sunday.

28. Great idea, works for me. Others?

ETA. Looks like Sunday events start at 12, rather than 1, based on the info at the link provided above.

>29 WildMaggie: Whoops, you're right! I was looking at the wrong column. Do we want to meet at 10 instead? I am not particularly attached to any authors this year, so I am very flexible.

29. 10 is a good time for brunch.

The author I'm going to see on Sunday isn't until 1ish anyway, so 10 is good.

10 on Sunday sounds good to me as well.

Hey! I did it. I managed to create a wikipage!

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/National_Book_Festival_-_September_20...

Of course, we need to fill in more details. :>

Hooray!

I am uncertain. Want to be there, but a bunch of stuff is piling up here.

I forgot to mention, I have a spare air mattress if anyone needs a place to stay Friday or Saturday night.

Have we got a place to meet for brunch on Sunday yet?

Unless someone can come up with a better idea, I guess we could go with our usual Sunday brunch place: the Au Bon Pain on the corner of 6th and Indiana, NW. But again, if anyone has a different idea, that's fine with me.

I've decided against this one. :-( Too much to juggle here.

Not going to work for me, too far to travel with being sick this week. Maybe next time?

It's sad, but I'm not as psyched for this festival as I have been in years past.
Don't know why...

The fact that it's two days rather than one has something to do with it, I think. In addition, I don't have any favorite authors this year.

One of the problems with the festival in recent years, for me anyway, was that the crowds were so large, I often had a hard time getting good seats for the authors I most wanted to hear.

I love seeing my Bookcrossing and LT buddies, though. I'm looking forward to that.

Bring some Bookcrossing-registered books to exchange or wild release! That's always fun.

I'm going to miss having Zoe and qebo here during the festival. Maybe they'll be back for next year.

Whoa! I just looked at the wiki. There are only 3-4 of us going to be there both days. :(

Well, let's just team up with the Bookcrossing group who will also meet there with us (and perhaps invite them to brunch on Sunday).

Whatcha think, Nora?

I'm certainly hoping to be back next year, though I can already see that there's a potential conflict. But anyway, what about the spring meetup?

Have a great time, guys!

Yes, I expect to return! This time, too many other things are conspiring against even a day trip.

I'm not terribly excited for this year's either. It might also be due to the fact that we don't miss each other as much as usual, having just seen everyone in June ;-)
The only one of my favorite authors that is going to be there is in the very last timeslot on Sunday, of course. But last year I really enjoyed some of the authors that I just randomly wandered into, so I will plan to do that again.

>44 SqueakyChu: Jim just mentioned on my thread that he and his wife will not be attending either.
Teaming up with the Bookcrossers is totally fine with me. I like our usual method of meeting up at 2 and then meeting up later if people happen to be at the same booth. I'll probably be bringing Soraya71 with me again this year.

>45 _Zoe_: Spring meetup will definitely happen. Are you spending one or two semesters in CA? Now that I have my own apartment, between Madeline and I we should be able to house even MORE out-of-towners for free!

>46 qebo: Darn that Library of Congress. Don't they know they need to check with you before planning these things??

Didn't we have a May meetup the year before, or am I imagining that?

I'm only spending one semester here, so I'll be back pretty soon (although not in time for November in Boston, if Jeremy's planning to do that again). When I return, maybe I'll have to make multiple trips to DC to take advantage of all the accommodation options ;)

I also have room for one person on my couch in New York, but for some reason no one ever wants to have LibraryThing meetups there. I think it would be amazing if we could all manage to go to BEA, for example--which requires being a friend/family member of a book industry person, but surely we know enough of those?

I sent an invitation to BookCrossing members to join us for our LT brunch at Au Bon Pain on Sunday morning. Hope some BookCrossers will come to join us there. The more, the merrier!

Yeah, unfortunately we're doing house stuff this weekend so we can go to Italy next weekend! I'm sure we'll be up for next year's fest.

>49 _Zoe_: We did! We went to Dupont Circle and had hamburgers. And that's where the group image for this group came from!

I can probably do one trip this fall/winter, but not both Boston and NYC. I totally would have gone to the New York meetup had I not been so busy that month.

Personally, though I do enjoy them, I think the fairs and festivals are my least favorite part of the meet-ups. I like our spring DC meetups a lot because we can just do whatever we feel like, and we can wiggle the dates around to accomodate people's schedules if we need to.

> 49

Didn't we have a May meetup the year before, or am I imagining that?

You mean this meetup in May, 2011? That was at Soho (where we BookCrossers have an Official Bookcrossing Zone!).



Well...drneutron got what he wanted! Heh!

Me? I'm still grumbling about the lack of wishlists on work pages. Blah!!

I got what I wanted..... kinda.....

kinda.....

"Kinda" is right...

By the way, I don't remember how to access lists. Is that even a feature of the "real LT"?

Yeah, I agree that the fairs are generally my least favourite part. But I would make an exception for one where there were huge quantities of ARCs being handed out. And I did enjoy the speakers I saw at the National Book Festival last year, and then enjoyed reading their books afterwards as well.

Definitely a big "kinda" for Lists. They're not included in the site navigation at all; you have to go directly to librarything.com/lists. Which means that there's hardly anyone participating.

>56 _Zoe_: Mmmm yeah, free stuff is good. I still love that huge fat notepad we got from the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers at the fair in Boston.

> 56

Which means that there's hardly anyone participating.

...so what was the point? :/

>58 SqueakyChu: To get us to shut up, most likely.

Yup. And then the feature can be called a "failure" not worthy of future development.

like OPD at the top of the work page . . . *grumble*

I was trying just this morning to get him to look at the overwhelming poll results about that. Sigh.

Lists are still on our radar, along with a whole bunch of other things. Too much to do, too little time!

Thanks, Jeremy. Any little updates are always very much appreciated, even when there's no progress to report :)

>63 jbd1: Don't you dare roll something out while we're at the meetup like you did in June with the Abouts on work pages!

Ha!

No, no, she didn't mean it! We'll take the features whenever they come!

That's true. I can get the West Coast Office to email me if something important comes up ;-)

#47

Would that be Chris Paolini?

I think I always get frustrated with these festivals because they place so few seats compared to the attendees. I can't count the number of times I've gone into Standing Room Only tents for midlist authors, because people just stay put. I hoped two days would mean more space to sit, but it didn't.

And I really don't want to haul camp chairs on the Metro, ya know?

(I'd offer space for crashing, but I'm so far from the nearest metro station, it almost isn't worth it. :>)

Heh :).

I didn't actually notice a problem with seating last time. I wasn't at the festival on the Saturday, but on the Sunday at least I seem to recall sitting close to the front for both Sherman Alexie and Joshua Foer, in two different tents.

Must be cause it was Sunday. :>

>69 gilroy: Last year I got really lucky and got decent seats for most things. The year before, nada. The trick is to show up a few minutes early and snag the seats of people who leave at the end of the previous speaker.

>70 _Zoe_: You got the Foer seats because I was there for the last 5 minutes of the previous speaker and saved them for you.

So, the trick is to go on the less popular day and coordinate with others to save seats. Works for me! :D

But I got good seats on Saturday, too! I think the trick is to get there before the previous speaker is done. (Or go to multiples in the same tent, obviously)

Sorry I had to leave before you got to our meeting place today, gilroy. Hope to see you and wildmaggie tomorrow morning.

Left to right: Soraya71 - norabelle414 - SqueakyChu

P.S. I got some compliments on my tee shirt, Donna828!

This is Donna Britt (Washington Post columnist) speaking. Don't you just love the giraffe nuzzling her? :)

Donna Britt talked about the death of her brother when she was a child in Louisiana. She also talked about how women always seem to be the giving parter in a male-female relationship. Think about that.

(77) Scorecard! Who is who?

Yay, meetup photos!

Indeed. Being Dutch I haven't seen anything around I could attend easily, but I love "lurking" you guys all the same.

I didn't get to this morning's brunch in time. The red Metro line really messed me up. Better luck next meet-up. In the meantime, here are some photos...

Sandra Cisneros

The friend who went with me to the NBF said she was surprised at Sandra Cisneros' personality. She thought that Cisneros would have turned out to be one of those militant Chicano types. She comes across as being very sweet.

Maria Duenas - author of The Time in Between

This author from Spain has written a new novel that is only available in Spanish on Amazon. She was distressed to learn that Amazon said it would take two months to send her novel to the U.S. to anyone who orders it!

Craig Thompson - author of Habibi

I was interested to learn that Craig Thompson comes from a devout Christian family and does not know Arabic, other than to write its alphabet.

Thomas Mallon - author of Watergate

I loved what he had to say about the process of writing historical fiction and about the characters that are part of his novel, Watergate.

Love the tiger on that last pic!

This is the crowd for Mario Vargas Llosa. I never even got close to where he was so I couldn't get a good picture, but I did listen to most of his inteview. After a while, I got tired of standing on the periphery and moved on.

Vargas Llosa gave a hilarious recounting of the time he received the call that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He told his wife not to tell their three kids right away lest it was a joke! :)

Junot Diaz

and...

Junot Diaz out loud

He was my favorite presenter of the weekend. Go listen to his presentation on the LOC website (when it gets posted)! He gave some excellent advice to wannabe writers.

> 87

Yeah. The animals made for a really cute background.

Great pictures! Especially #77.

It was great having breakfast with you this morning. Apparently my account either lapsed or I deleted it, but you inspired me to join back up. Might be a while before I get myself set up, I have a busy week ahead. BTW, that pic from Saturday came out great! Hope you guys had fun. I liked the Charlaine Harris talk, she was better than I expected.

I'm now Ixion here as I am on Bookcrossing. Feel free to add me and once I figure out how the site works, I'll be adding you too. :)

--- Cathy - that weird bookcrossing chick.

Hehe! Cathy and I are out to make as many LTers into Bookcrossers as we can. So far, we seem to be doing fine! :)

Did anyone take any pictures of the group at brunch today? If so, I hope you'll post them. I opted out of the Charlaine Harris talk as I don't know her, and I really wanted to see Craig Thompson who was speaking at the same time. I did check back with Nora later in the day, but she was already heading home.

Did anyone else in our group get to see Junot Diaz?

If anyone saw Lois McMaster Bujold, can you give me a quick summary of what she had to say? Hope someone did--she's an entertaining speaker.

>92 Ixion: Hi Cathy! I sent you a friend request.

>93 SqueakyChu: Nope, you know how bad I am at taking pictures. Soraya71 did get some pictures of the Latin-American festival that was going on, though.

>94 ronincats: Later today I'll do a quick recap of everyone I saw (including Bujold). I'll cross-post here and on my thread.

> 95

Nope, you know how bad I am at taking pictures.

Well, if Metro service remains bad, Zoe hangs out in Berkeley, and Soraya71 takes pictures of other festivals. someone is going to have to train *you* how to take pictures. :)

So wanted to see Bujold yesterday, but I just couldn't get the energy together to go to DC again...

My thoughts on the authors I saw:

Jerry Spinelli: Really cute. Spinelli is clearly very comfortable talking with children, and had a lot of great things to say about not being afraid of failure. He was very interactive to keep the kids interested. Most of his books were never the right age for me (I went from learning my ABCs to reading classics in about a week) but I do remember reading and enjoying Maniac Magee. I love going to the children's authors because, well, kids say the darndest things. Highlights included a little girl who got up to the microphone to ask a question and burst into tears, and a boy who asked "Did you write Holes, and if so, what inspired you?" (Spinelli did not write Holes)

David Levithan: I have not read anything by him but after seeing him speak I really want to. He was fun and interesting. He read a chapter from his new book Every Day (which was already sold out when he was speaking at 2pm), and then had some great things to say about the YA genre, especially in relation to LGBT issues. The audience questions were really spectacular (I wish I could remember any of them particularly).

Lisa Scottoline: I was completely unfamiliar with her, and I'm not a fan of her genre, but she was HILARIOUS and that made up for it. She talked about her life and her family.

Charlaine Harris: She was very funny and eloquent. A lot of the people there were fans of her non-Sookie Stackhouse books, which was nice for her.

Lois McMaster Bujold: She gave a very insightful speech about what the world might be like if speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction did not exist. She then read from a book of hers that is coming out in November, and took questions from the audience. Most of the questions were specifics about her books, which I am not at all familiar with, so I left a bit early to get good seats for the next program.

Michael Dirda: He discussed his new book, On Conan Doyle; or the Art of Storytelling, and talked about Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and The Baker Street Irregulars, which is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.

Hope Larson, Anita Silvey, and Leonard Marcus: A panel discussing A Wrinkle in Time, in honor of its 50th birthday. Larson wrote and illustrated a graphic novel version of AWIT, and both Silvey and Marcus write books about children's books. They discussed the first time they read AWIT, how they feel about it as adults, etc, and also took questions and comments about the book.

My SO took photos on Sunday BUT on his antique Leica on black & white film. Goodness know when we will ever see them.

Thanks to all who came and especially to those who organized. Sorry I missed you, Gliroy.

Nora, so glad you suggested we hear Harris. Her books aren't my cup of tea but she's a wonderful speaker. I wonder if I would like her purer mysteries?

McMaster Bujold impressed me enough that I want to read some of her work. Can anyone suggest a good place to start? There are a lot of titles, and many are parts of series.

Also loved that Dirda talked a bit about Conan Doyle's non-Holmes works. I never knew he wrote anything else.

Bujold probably works best reading from the beginning. Shards of Honor I've not read it in years, so I'm looking to go back and start again.

Of the others, I've not got any other list in front of me to look. (Darn work computer not allowing tabs)

Do you prefer fantasy or SF? Bujold has three series. Her standalones tend to end up at least semi-integrated into one or another series - not all, but most.

Miles Vorkosigan - a long SF one, starting with Shards of Honor (book 15/16 (depending on what you count as part of the series) is due out in November). Politics, action, a mildly insane protagonist - nice guy, for limited definitions of nice. Several pretty much standalone books in the same universe - Falling Free was standalone, but the last book out linked it in; Ethan of Athos has a major secondary character who's also a major character in the main Miles story. I find Miles a bit hard to take - I stalled out on the series on the third or fourth book, then ended up reading it backward (wanted to see the Quaddies (from Falling Free) again so read Diplomatic Immunity, had to read A Civil Campaign to find out how Miles got there, had to read...).

The Sharing Knife - four-book fantasy series, starting with Beguilement. Two mildly insane protagonists - in totally different ways (from each other, and from Miles). Nice people, interesting arc, very interesting world.

Chalion - fantasy, two related books and another in the same universe but not directly linked (I've never figured out the timeline). Curse of Chalion is the first one, and Bujold's first fantasy (that I'm aware of). The hero reminded me a _lot_ of Miles, when I read it right after reading a bunch of Miles books; a later reread showed up more differences. But he has the same ridiculously intense idea of duty. The third book published is the standalone - The Hallowed Hunt. Again - very interesting universe, neat characters (when I say 'nice', I mean people I'm interested in, whether or not they behave 'nicely'), a lot of politics and plotting - oh yes, and direct intervention by gods. Just that minor difference from the SF series...

Gee, you think I like her stuff?

BTW, what you heard her reading was probably the newest (not yet out) Miles book - which actually has a different hero, who's been a major secondary character in half a dozen other books. Miles' cousin Ivan. I haven't seen any snippets of it (let alone heard Lois read it!), but I expect to like it when I get it...

All of the presentations at the festival were filmed and should eventually be posted on the Library of Congress website (they are not yet)

oooh...

That's great to know, Nora! I'll check for it later.

I'm also a big Bujold fan, Maggie. If you start with the space opera thread, the Vorkosigan saga, commit to reading Barrayar right after Shards of Honor. SOH was Bujold's first book, while Barrayar, although in story chronology right after SOH, was the 5th or 6th book written and is much more mature in charaterization and plotting, although I love them both.

If you like fantasy at all, you cannot do better than starting with The Curse of Chalion, which is simply outstanding.

Jennifer, the eARC of Captain Vorpatril's Alliance has been out for a couple of months, and the new book is definitely a lot of fun, a fitting finale to the Vorkosigan series.

Thanks all for the Bujold recommendations! I read both sci-fi and fantasy. I don't care so much whether the fantastical elements comes from science/technology or from magic, as long as it make sense within the fictional world and the work is well written. I really like the more inclusive label "speculative fiction" where we don't have to parse it out.