This weekend, Tom, his brother Chris & I had the distinct pleasure of spending two full days discussing books, listening to authors discuss their books, buying books, and considering writing books at the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  Though it was Tom’s 7th time at the Festival, it was my first; I have no way of comparing but the event seemed quite a success particularly considering the notorious lack of culture for which LA is famous (a topic which was broached in several of the panels we attended.)  The festival is free, a rare find these days, although as always parking cost money. Still, there are tickets to the panels because classroom seating is limited and a first-come-first-served policy would be far too harried, the discussions barely start on time as it is! We attended panels on an assortment of topics although one of my original choices, Words & Pictures: How a Children’s Book Gets Made, was booked to capacity within three hours of tickets going "on sale," by the thousands who presumably believe they will write the next Harry Potter and make a fortune since clearly writing for children is so terribly easy.

Our first morning included a slight (personally fortuitous as I was able to take an otherwise unavailable moment out of a hectic schedule to speak with my loving family) mishap in timing (surprising considering how notoriously punctual Tom & I each are) that resulted from a pitstop to test drive my possible next coach & four leaving us stranded in a student coffee shop rather than being regaled with tales of how exactly to recognize James Bond in your midst followed by a rather fascinating exploration of the difference between historical fiction, fiction from the past and fiction set in the past with a brief nod to History. This was followed by a dazzling stroll through a promendade of booksellers and food stands each beckoning the simple wayfarer to sample some wares.

In addition to the panel discussions we also had the good fortune to catch a couple of people reading excerpts from their books including Laurie Notaro reading from "We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive" which was quite good and Kevin Smith who actively avoided reading from his book, "Silent Bob Speaks." He was hysterical. Totally offensive and inappropriate for the young ears listening but funny. In many ways he may even have overshadowed the highlight speaker on our own greedy bastard tour: 

Eric Idle.

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