The Ramble: National Book Festival

What a great two days full of bookish things!  Located on the National Mall with great views of the Washington Monument and the Capital - our nation's iconic buildings surrounded by tents with bookish events, LOVED IT!!

Mom came with me to the first day (Saturday) and we booked ourselves with author readings and signings with lunch and shopping on the side. 

We started out in the Teen tent to see Sarah Dessen - what a fun event to see young readers so excited about meeting the author that they fall in love with book after book.  I enjoyed hearing the more YA centric questions from her young readers, but after a bit, the mom and I decided that we would venture to see what else we could see.

Where did we find ourselves? We happened across Hoda Kotb's talk.  Really, we didn't put this on our must list and after attending we should have!  She was gosh darn hilarious.  Her talk was motiviating and enlightening, she shared her pursuit of her first job out of college (VA Tech) and how she drove across the east coast to find what became the perfect first job.  It was exciting to hear all her connections to DC and that her mom used to live in Alexandria.  A perfect surprise treat for the day!

After leaving Hoda, we grabbed lunch at a refreshment stand - a hotdog and fries were split.  But as mom and I reflected on the first day, we weren't so fond of the lack of food options.  We couldn't find anything else to complain about!

Our tummies were full, so we headed to the signing for Laura Lippman.  I had brought two of her previous books and she was a delight.  Before heading to hear Laura Lippman talk - we stopped by the Digital BookMobile and the Pavilion of the States, both were great stops to learn about digitally downloading books from the library and then the history of reading and writing in states.  Then it was off to hear Laura Lippman.

Lippman's talk was different from most that I have heard.  She talked highly of readers, but continued to talk over our heads to writers in the audience.  We didn't hate it, but we didn't love it.

We ended our day listening to Amy Chua author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.  This also wasn't on our list of musts, but we were sure glad we sat down and listened to her take on her own book.  She defeneded herself, while dispelling rumors from all the media that her and her book received.  After listening to her speak, mom and I agreed that we should definitely check her book out from the library and see where we stand on it all. 

The second day Sunday, I went into the city by myself for a super secret Christmas surprise - can't spoil the fun, so will have to share this one at a later date.  It was fun to metro in by myself and walk around the mall, take care of my Christmas surprise and then metro back.