Book Festivals

Ten years ago, Laura Bush, in conjunction with the Library of Congress, started the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.  As I learned in her book, "Spoken from the Heart," it was something she also started in Texas while that state's First Lady.  I first became aware of it in 2005.  I like to watch Book TV on C-Span during the weekends, and every year they feature the authors from the History and Biography Tent.  In 2005, David McCullough, my favorite author, did a presenation on his book "1776."  I spent a good portion of that weekend watching the other history and biography authors, and now every year I look to see who will be presenting.  Some day, I want to actually go myself rather than rely on C-Span.  If McCullough is ever there again, I'm there as well.  I figure he's due to publish another book sometime soon!

There are state and regional book festivals all over the country.  The Wisconsin Book Festival takes place in October, although I've never had the opportunity to go.  I have been to the Fox Cities Book Festival though, and really enjoyed it.  I saw a panel of speakers talk about reading classics, and I talked to a few authors who were there promoting their work.  A regional festival doesn't always have the caliber of authors the National Book Festival does, of course.  I bought one book that sounded really interesting, but turned out to be absolutely horrible and poorly written.  But I also found a cute children's book that I gave to my godson that year.  It's fun to have a book autographed by the author!

There are book festivals everywhere -- find one near you in the next year!  You might have a chance to see your favorite author or discover a new one!