National Book Festival 2014 - August 30

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Wow. Can't believe we're only a little over 3 months from National Book Festival.

Yup, they changed dates AND VENUE this year. We're not going to have the extensive fun on the mal this year.

In fact, lots of changes to the festival this year:
- Back to 1 day event
- Moved from late September to Late August
- Runs 10 am to 10 pm
- Moved to the DC Convention Center (But still Metro Accessable!)

So with the new locale, we need talk about meet up possibilities!

I'm much less familiar with that area than other places we go, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.

There's a Nando's a couple of blocks south. Just sayin'... :)

*looks stupid* What's Nando's?

Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken... Really good roast chicken joint, would make a great lunch or dinner spot!

We have a poster!

And authors:

Bob Adelman
Jonathan Allen
Cathal Armstrong
Paul Auster
Andrew Aydin
Kyle Baker
Peter Baker
Patrik Henry Bass
Ishmael Beah
Andrea Beaty
Kai Bird
Eula Biss
Kendare Blake
Paul Bogard
Jeffrey Brown
Peter Brown
Eric H. Cline
Rep. James Clyburn
Bryan Collier
Billy Collins
Raúl Colón
James Conaway
Ilene Cooper
Jerry Craft
H. Alan Day
Kate DiCamillo
E.L. Doctorow
Liza Donnelly
Margaret Engel
Percival Everett
Jules Feiffer
Jack Gantos
David Theodore George
Francisco Goldman
Carla Hall
Tanuja Desai Hidier
Anne Hillerman
Henry Hodges
Sara Sue Hoklotubbe
Siri Hustvedt
Molly Idle
Peniel E. Joseph
Cynthia Kadohata
Sheilah Kaufman
Nina Khrushcheva
Nick Kotz
Rep. John Lewis
Brian Lies
limlouisa::Louisa Lim
Eric Litwin
Francesco Marciuliano
Adrienne Mayor
Elizabeth McCracken
Alice McDermott
Meg Medina
Claire Messud
Adrian Miller
Anchee Min
Elizabeth Mitchell
Richard Moe
John Moeller
Ian Morris
Sandra Day O'Connor
Bryan Lee O'Malley
Alicia Ostriker
Laura Overdeck
George Packer
Amie Parnes
Dav Pilkey
Paisley Rekdal
Amy Riolo
Alberto Rios
Amanda Ripley
Clay Risen
Cokie Roberts
Lisa See
Ilyasah Shabazz
Lynn Sherr
Mona Simpson
Brando Skyhorse
Jeff Smith
Lynn Wiese Sneyd
Bob Staake
Susan Stockdale
Tim TIngle
Theodore Taylor
Raina Telgemeier
Daniel W. Thomas
Vivek Tiwary
David Treuer
Ann Ursu
Maria Venegas
Judith Viorst
Rita Williams-Garcia
Natasha Wimmer
Jacqueline Woodson
Gene Luen Yang
Tiphanie Yanique
Laura Zeranski & Peter Zeranski

This festival looks great! Should we get together for lunch or dinner, or do you guys want to meet up at the event itself?

>8 Allama: Hi Alana! In the past we have met up at some point in the afternoon to chat, and then gotten dinner together later. However, since the festival is so different this year we might have to play it by ear!

Once an official schedule is released we should have a better idea of what will work.

It turns out that whoever is in charge of keeping the turf on the National Mall in good shape got tired of all the damage done by tents and displays and enacted new rules for having events on the National Mall. The National Book Festival couldn't afford to meet the requirements and moved. Fortunately, it looks like the National Folk Life Festival was able to come up with the money to meet the requirements.

>10 MDGentleReader: The National Park Service are the ones who manage the turf on the Mall. They're in the process of remodeling the entire Mall to widen the walkways and improve the drainage in the grassy areas. This year's Folklife Festival is being held on the part of the Mall that has not been refurbished yet; construction on that section will begin in early August, which is why the National Book Festival can't be held in that spot at the end of August.

The Park Service seems to be close to signing a contract with the Folklife Festival to ensure they can stay on the Mall for at least the next 5 years, which might involve closing the streets around the Mall so that the heavy tents (that stay up for over a week) can be anchored on the asphalt instead of in the grass. Maybe once that is finalized the National Book Festival can get a contract to return to the Mall as well.

More details here.

The future of the Book Festival is definitely something I'm interested in learning more about. I hope someone is around at this year's festival to talk about it.

This whole thing makes me so angry. I listened to the broadcast you posted (Thanks!). One event is moving from DC to California. Another event is being relocated. A third event is being moved indoors.

Someone wrote an editorial in The Washington Post last year stating that the mall was for public use and not meant as as "National Shrine to Grass". I don't agree that so much money and time needs to be spent for restoration of grass.

In the pictures of the "pure grass" shown on the broadcast, you cannot even see one person on it. What is this American obsession with perfect grass turf?

I want all festivals outside on the Mall.

~ end of rant ~

I'm trying not to be too much of a pessimist, but my concerns about this year's festival are the following:

1) I don't want to be indoors for 12 hours. One of my favorite things about the Festival is just hanging around outside. Sitting on the grass. Eating lunch under an oak tree. Soaking up some vitamin-D-filtered-through-SPF40

2) I'm not sure I can stay attentive for 12 hours. That's a REALLY long time. Even the previous years' 7-hour schedule felt exhausting by the end.

3) If the festival goes straight through the dinner hours, are we all going to be able to meet up for dinner at the same time?

4) They've gotten rid of the Science Fiction tent. There's a new tent called "Science", which I suppose could include science fiction, but it would be nice if it were more clear on that subject.

Things about this year's festival that look promising:

1) there's a new tent called "Picture Books", which is nice because for the past few years the "children" tent has ranged from picture books to teen/YA, which is a VERY wide range.

>12 SqueakyChu: Well, currently after any festival occurs on the Mall, most of the turf has to be replaced at the cost of the Park Service (unless the festival chooses to pay for it - which some do). So these updates and new rules will cost less money for the Park Service in the long run. I've seen what the Mall looks like when the grass is not maintained and it is really unpleasant and dirty. The grass is dead and dust blows everywhere. I also think it's a good idea to widen and upgrade the walkways.

Hopefully this year will be a one-off, and a compromise can be reached in the future. For example, there is currently a change.org petition to create a permanent event space on part of the Mall, which sounds like a good solution to me.

I think the results of this year's book festival will show what the people want for the coming years.

Because it's moved, not just indoors but away from a good many metro stops, I suspect the number of people attending will go WAY down. Partly because it's indoors. Partly because they don't want to stand in line for the metro AND in line to get a book signed. Partly because they moved it UP a month. Partly because the day is too fricking long. And partly because they can't seem to maintain enough consistancy within the tents outside of the known LoC tent to have people know what they want.

For years, the tents didn't change that much from event to event. I always found a Science Fiction/Fantasy tent. (Didn't mind the mix, because that's how they sold.) The past few years, it was either relegated to a portion of another tent, or gone entirely. Like we readers of those genres are lesser book lovers. (Okay, Let me go away from that soap box.)

This is a very large paradigm shift for the festival. From the day, to the location, to the length. Just too much change.

But like with other recent DC happenings... I'm in a wait and see mode.

Politics & Prose bookstore has won the contract to sell books at this year's National Book Festival, marking the first time that the bookseller's tent will be run by an independent bookstore!

Also, the schedule is posted here:
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/schedule/

Oh, excellent!

Yay, Politics & Prose!

Since the book festival is just one day this year, is anyone planning to stick around on Sunday? I have a volunteer shift at the zoo at 1pm on the 31st, but I can easily switch it to a different day if anyone wants to do things that day. Or we could all go to the zoo.

I've not been to the Zoo in YEARS. I think that would be a fun adventure... especially with no chaperones. :)

If we go to the zoo on Sunday, we should think about doing a themed BookCrossing book release (i.e. Books with animals in the title) that day.

>19 norabelle414: I haven't decided what I'm doing yet, but train schedules are such that Saturday is too short if I don't stay until Sunday, and I'd definitely be up for a trip to the zoo.

Mark and I are definitely staying until Sunday, but Mark's parents are also going to come up from Richmond that day, so we'll have to coordinate activities with them. I'm not sure what time they'll get in, but I think it's a two-hour drive, so we could at least do breakfast/brunch beforehand.

Ok. Unless anyone has objections or better ideas I suggest for Sunday, 31 August:

Whoever is still around -
- breakfast/brunch in Cleveland Park (neighborhood on the red line Metro, just north of the zoo)
- National Zoo (free, 5-10 minute walk from Cleveland Park or Woodley Park Metro stops on the red line)
- I will be volunteering at the zoo from 1pm to 4pm

It also just occurred to me that Monday Sept 1 is a holiday. If anyone is planning to stay for the whole long weekend I can probably come up with some entertainment for Monday.

>24 norabelle414: My current plan is to arrive early afternoon Friday and leave late afternoon Sunday. I like your Sunday plan. My niece lives near Woodley Park Metro station so this makes arranging a visit simple.

Back to the important day, Saturday, 30 August:

The complete schedule for the festival has been posted here: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/schedule/
It looks like general author talks are from 10am to 6pm, and special presentations are from 6pm to 9:45pm.

In the past we have met up at the festival around 1pm or 2pm, and then met up again for dinner at 6pm. Does anyone have objections to doing that again? Do we want to eat a little earlier so we don't miss as much of the special presentations?

Unfortunately there is no map posted (yet?) and I have never been to the convention center before so I have NO idea what the setup is going to be like.

>25 qebo: Oh yes, very easy! It's lovely when things work out like that.

>26 norabelle414: I'm interested in the Contemporary Life schedule from 11:50-1:30, and the Science schedule from 2:35-4:15, don't offhand see anything between, so a loose meetup time around 1-2 would be fine.

I've got no preferences this year as I'm going to meet you guys. :) Unfortunately, I'm registered for a 5K that morning (HOW did I miss the conflict?!?) so I'm not sure how early I'll get to the festival or if I will make it...

Heh, I'm interested in seeing Eric Cline from 1:40-2:25, but I'm sure we'll all be hanging around together in general so I don't mind missing the "official" meetup.

Are there any plans for food (breakfast or lunch) earlier in the day as well?

I think a breakfast/brunch meetup beforehand would be awesome.

>31 drneutron: Agree. Gives people a chance to compare schedules.

Brunch would be great. It'll give me a chance to test our my new hearing aids...to see if I can hear all of you better! :)

I'm mostly up for meet-up activities as no author really stands out for me this year. I'll try to coordinate the LT meet-up with the Bookcrossers meet-up as soon as I know for sure what your LT schedule looks like.

So we could do a breakfast/brunch meetup instead of a mid-day meetup?

I'd love that.

>34 norabelle414: I'd vote for that. Looks like midday will be difficult to coordinate (based on a sample of two). Though morning is a problem for gilroy.

I'm really up for any time of the day. I can eat any time! I can also talk any time! :D

>37 SqueakyChu: Hehe :D

I would like to meet for breakfast. Will most likely leave downtown mid-afternoon to make my fencing class later in the afternoon. I have competitions the next 2 weekends and don't want to miss training that week.

Personally I find less and less pleasure in visiting the zoo, knowing more and more that the animals people come to look at don't want to be there. That "ambassadors for their species" rational used to work for me but I find it less and less convincing as I learn more and get older.

For all LTers who want to meet up with the local BCinDC Bookcrossers, here's their meet-up plans for the National Book Festival. Do stop by to say hi!

------------------------------

Bookcrossers will be meeting around 1PM this Saturday for our annual BC in DC National Book Festival meetup! See you near the Poetry and Pose area, across the sky bridge!

The Washington Post published a map of the festival in yesterday's paper. I'm trying to find it online so I can link it here.

They also published no less than TWO full-page articles trying to get people excited about having the festival indoors this year. Neither of them are at all convincing.

Here is the map: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/images/NBF14-FestivalMap.jpg

I think we can either do a real sit-down brunch at Busboys and Poets (2 blocks away) or find someplace like Panera or Au Bon Pain to have a take-away breakfast. Unfortunately I'm almost never actually at the Convention Center so I don't really know what's around there. Is anyone familiar with the Convention Center or the area around it? If we want to do the take-away route we could also meet somewhere (outside a metro station?) and then find breakfast together.

Wait. Does that read right? There's the Primary book sales and a LoC book sales section?

>43 gilroy: I think the LOC sales shop is probably more like a gift shop.

>42 norabelle414: A sit-down brunch seems a bit more appealing, but I'd expect it to need a resvervation, so maybe too much trouble? Otherwise, I'd think better to meet outside a take-away place with the hope of finding a place to sit nearby, so breakfast doesn't depend on precise timing; earlier people can get coffee and wait, later people know where to go.

Just looking at the map, there's First Cup Cafe, which looks small, across the street from the convention center. Also Cafe Phillips. Never been to either...

>46 drneutron: Cafe Phillips is not open on weekends. First Cup Cafe looks good to me. Does anyone have any objections? What time should we meet? 9am?

I've been to the Convention Center a couple of times but always just ate the food from the event I was attending. Does the Festival allow you to bring food in? Maybe pick up breakfast and eat in the Convention Center?

>48 WildMaggie: There are several place to eat inside the convention center, so that is an option as well. I can't find anything on their website about policy on outside food.

I think I'd still prefer an outside venue, especially a small business like First Cup. 9 am sounds good to me - mrsdrneutron and I will be coming wherever we wind up.

I doubt if you'll get me there that early...but we'll see what happens. :D

I have no particular input, but the plan sounds good. I'll be arriving at the same time as Madeline ;)

And I'll be arriving at the same time as Madeline and Zoe. :-)

It'll be a shorter commute for all you red-liners this year.

Don't we have to change lines to the green or yellow?

>55 SqueakyChu: Gallery Place is three blocks from the Convention Center. Or you can switch to the green/yellow and go one stop to the Convention Center stop which I think is right in the building.

Hey. That means no train change for me! Green all the way in.

Attention, western Red-Liners (that means you, everyone staying at Madeline's house)
The bad news is that the Bethesda and Medical Center metro stops will be closed all weekend (12:01am Saturday through 11:59pm Monday). That means you'll have to get off the Metro at Grosvenor and get on a shuttle bus which will drop you off at Friendship Heights. I've had to do this several times (they close the Zoo stop for maintenance all the time) and it's really not as bad as it sounds. The Metro employees are very friendly and will show you where to go, and the buses are comfortable, leave frequently, and drive fast.

The good news is that red line trains will be departing every 10 minutes throughout the whole line all weekend long.

The orange, silver, and green lines will be running slow, with trains departing every 15/16 minutes.

The yellow and blue lines will have normal service.

58. Or western red-liners can just drive over to the eastern end of the red-line at Glenmont and take the train from there. A bit farther drive but shorter (by far) overall travel with those shuttles. Thanks for the heads up on the red-line track work.

And 9am would be ok, if others want to meet that early. A bit later wouldn't be bad, either. Have we settled on First Cup?

I'll be either walking my 5K or showering just after at 9 am, so I'll catch up with people at the festival proper. Probably at the 1 PM meet.

Does anyone have an author they want to see at 10? (schedule) If not we could meet later. I have no authors of particular interest, so it's up to the rest of you.

Here's our plan so far:

9am(?): brunch at First Cup Cafe
1pm: book-crossing meetup, across the sky bridge (I don't know what that means so correct me if I'm wrong ;-)

When do we want to go to dinner? Do we want to eat in the convention center or go outside somewhere?

>62 norabelle414: A couple of 10am authors I'd like to see if I happened to be there, but 11:50am is the earliest I'm actively interested in.

I have no author I'm particularly interested in seeing this year (for the first time!). My reading buddies take precedence this year. I'll fit the authors in between my friends and my meals. :)

More details about the BookCrossing meetup can be found here.

Did we ever come up with any dinner plans for tomorrow?

I think we need to decide if we want to eat at the Convention Center or at a restaurant.

>67 norabelle414: That question is too hard. I'll trust the judgement of people who have actually been to the convention center and the surrounding area before.

I'm using undecided the same as don't care. I'll probably be drinking water. :(

Ok. I'm going to be decisive since there is so little time left. But please let me know if anyone has any conflicts and we can move things around.

For dinner let's meet right outside the Convention Center doors on L Street (map) at 5:30pm and we will decide what to do about dinner at that point.

We're also going to split the difference for breakfast and meet at First Cup Cafe at 9:30am.

If anyone is attending the meetup and does not already have my cell phone number, you're welcome to PM me and I will give it to you so you can keep up to date on the meet-up details. Since I am terrible at planning.

I'm not even going, but I think your planning skills are awesome :) If I were going, I'd know exactly where to meet everyone!

(Also, I recommend the bar at the Renaissance hotel across from the convention center - they have fun cocktails, a decent wine list, and good service. Also, homemade potato chips and a yummy hot dip that I want to say is crab and artichoke or something like that....)

(Also also, there is a Starbucks in the convention center, but it's usually all sorts of crowded, so I go to the one at the Renaissance when I need my mid-afternoon chai.)

Back to lurking....

>72 katiekrug: Duh, I should have known you would know where all the good stuff is around the Convention Center! Thanks Katie!

Sounds like a plan. Mrsdrneutron and I will be here about 9:30 with bells on!

For anyone else still planning to join, we're now meeting for dinner at 6 pm instead of 5:30. Still on L street under the sky bridge.

So not liking the indoor festival. The rooms are too stuffy. No breeze.

Thanks, Nora, for your excellent organizing skills in making this LT meet-up weekend so much fun...and for the personalized Zoo Walk you provided to Katherine and me today!

I was disappointed in the indoor book festival due to difficulty hearing (the acoustics of large rooms are not hearing aid friendly), overcrowding (when I opened the door to the Sibley talk, I backed out after seeing wall-to-wall people), and the massive crowd packed into the Pavilion of the States exhibit (where I usually pick up colorful bookmarks and pencils).

However, it was great fun to meet up both with my LibraryThing and BookCrossing friends this weekend.

To Zoe, Mark, and Katherine, have a safe trip home. It was great having you here at our home again. Hope to see you soon.

My favorite presenters were:
1. Peniel E. Joseph who provided a stirring summary of the life of Stokely Carmichael which brought my throughts back to the turbulent 60's.
2. Alberto Rios whose poetry and short prose were alternately poignant, mystical, and funny.
I will look for the books of these two authors in the future.

Yes, definitely thank you to norabelle414 for a great meet up!

I didn't care for the fact that they had the WHOLE convention center, yet chose to compress it into that narrow section. They could have done so much more. It didn't help that it felt more like a convention than a festival.

Only two presenters I saw:
1. David Sibley - Interesting. I learned a lot about how the drawings happen.
2) Adrienne Mayor - I actually found this talk fascinating, though didn't expect to.

Sorry if I was a little rude to people Saturday night. I was tired and my brain had already gotten on the train when we parted. :( Also sorry I missed the zoo tour yesterday.

A lazy morning here, because for the first time in several weeks I don’t have to feed caterpillars before I’m allowed to have coffee, and I don’t have to catch a train for an LT meetup. There will be photos, probably later today. Thanks to Nora for organizing, and for the personal zoo tour. Thanks to Madeline for taking in house guests for the weekend.

Thank you all for a great meetup!

>78 gilroy: If you were rude, I was too tired to notice it. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep during the longest dinner ever.

A big change due to the indoor venue (and maybe also the lack of popular authors): I didn't take a single picture. The conference center just isn't as photogenic.

Yeah, I was less impressed with the author list this year than in previous. Although we did have some good talks:

Eric H. Cline - author of 1177 BC, now high on my get-it-from-the -library list.

Adrienne Mayor - author of The Amazons, which I bought.

Anne Hillerman - discussed her dad and writing her first novel with his characters in Spider Woman's Daughter, which I also bought.

Jacqueline Woodson - author of Brown Girl Dreaming, who we stumbled across while waiting for another author. Her readings from her memoir of growing up in the late 60s and early 70s were great!

Kendare Blake - author of Anna Dressed in Blood and Antigoddess seriously got my attention (and mrsdrneutron too). She was weird but interesting to watch!

Lisa See - author of a number of books dealing with Chinese women in the early 20yh century - including some mysteries I want to dig up.

I was somewhat ambivalent about the venue. I didn't miss the heat, but it *was* crowded and somewhat difficult to navigate. I was surprised that the science track was packed, but the teen track was half full in a bigger room. They could easily have reversed them and made things more comfortable. Plus, I'm really disappointed that they didn't have the SF & Fantasy session this year, and the graphic novel session was, *um*, weak.

Indeed, the indoor venue was not as photogenic as the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, which has been the site of previous LibraryThing / BookCrossing meetups.

L-R: gilroy (Brett), _Zoe_ (Zoë), (Mark), norabelle414 (Nora), SqueakyChu (Madeline).

Festival events continued well into the evening, but we left after the author talks for dinner at Baby Wale. These photos look bleak and foodless, which was in fact our condition for quite some time. By the time food arrived, it was too dark for photos. (The food was good though.) We were given a candle as we were paying the bill.

L-R: drneutron (Jim), (Danita), SqueakyChu (Madeline), gilroy (Brett), (friend of Zoë), _Zoe_ (Zoë), (Mark), norabelle414 (Nora).

We sat below a door to nowhere, watched by... whatever it is.

I'll post zoo photos tomorrow.

>82 qebo:

the indoor venue was not as photogenic

We were seated on the floor next to the trash can (behind the photographer)

By the time food arrived

Two hours later...

We were given a candle as we were paying the bill.

LOL! ...so the waiter could see if our money was good!

whatever it is.

What was it?

The pictures are great, Katherine. Thanks for posting them!

We heard Sally Satel in Science on the mis-use of brain scans. Pretty good. Jeffrey stayed in Science for Paul Bogard on dark skies (a topic I already knew a lot about) and he found it very interesting. Meanwhile, I sent to hear the Day's (Allan and his sister Sandra Day O'Connor) with Allan's co-author talk about wild mustangs, a topic close to my heart. The room was large and packed, probably mostly coming for Sandra although she didn't do much of the talking. Allan told some good stories and his love of the horses came through.

>85 WildMaggie: I went to the wild mustang talk too. I couldn't see the speakers.

>85 WildMaggie:

I also saw Paul Bogard. The irony of his presentation was that there was a glare on the video screen so I couldn't see all of the pictures that he was showing. I sat at the extreme (and I do mean *extreme*) left of the speaker. One of his points was that too much light actually decreases vision because of glare. There you go! A perfect example. :(

Gebo, I listened to the mustang talk from the balcony and only came downstairs to ask a question. They didn't use visual aids and I don't feel I missed anything not being up close.

>88 WildMaggie:

My issue is, if we can't even see the speakers, why go to a live presentation at all? For the information alone, we could simply listen to it on a podcast at home. Unfortunately, that's what I'll have to do for the Sibley presentation because I couldn't even get through the doors due to so many people.

I really do think the exciting part of a live presentation is at least be able to see the speaker from a comfortable distance. Being so far back (I had to sit near a speaker due to echos in the hall that made understanding the speech difficult for me) that I couldn't even see author Peniel E. Joseph was disheartening, to say the least. His talk was impressive. Too bad I could see none of his facial expressions nor body language.

>83 qebo: So “tomorrow” somehow became “in a month”...

Nora, Zoe, Mark, Madeline, and I met for brunch on Sunday. Zoe and Mark departed, and Madeline and I continued to the zoo with Nora, who gave us a personal tour before her afternoon shift.

We walked along the Asia Trail.







And through the birds, where we saw the Kori Bustards that Nora observes.



The new bison.


Nora describing the new elephant habitat.

We walked...and walked...and walked...and walked...and (well, you get the picture!). It was really fun!

I was especially impressed with the seeing the kori bustards just because Nora is observing them.

Hi everyone!

I'm an Australian university student and I'm doing a project on book & literary festivals. As part of my project, I really want to get to know the reasons why people attend, and what they like and don't like about these festivals, and so I've made an online survey.

If any of you have fifteen or twenty minutes to spare, I would really appreciate it if you would take the survey. It's available here: http://monasheducation.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eS5yuFzISslKPTT

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask here or shoot me an email at maweb5 at student dot monash dot edu

Thanks :-)