Saturday was my third time attending the National Book Festival. This time, I remembered my regular camera and I attempted a live tweeted commentary from my cell phone as I watched. I began with this tweet:
- Books, books, books, no rain!
(I forgot the National Book Festival identifying hashtag, #nbf, but later on, I remembered it. Mostly.)
By the end of the day, it was "books, books, books and rain," but no matter. The crowds were larger than the year before, the tents were packed with wow-worthy authors, and I arrived early enough to get both a free bag and a free, gloriously image-jammed poster. And to my amusement, I looked semi-official, because the Festival's go-to color was purple, and I had (because of the threatened rain) worn my royal purple trench coat.
Here's a partial record of my day, in both pictures and tweets. (I'm saving my time in the Poetry Tent for Poetry Friday.) You can find more tweets from other bloggers by searching the hashtag, #nbf. And of course, visit the Library of Congress site for web videos of all the presentations as soon as they are posted.
A NOTE FROM YOUR SPONSOR: Would this be a good time to remind you about the TwitterChat Cheryl Klein and I are having this Wednesday, Sept. 30 at noon EST? All you have to do is sign up for an account at www.twitter.com, then go to www.tweetchat.com on Wednesday. Enter the hashtag you wish to follow: #YESchat, and you're good to go. You don't have to tweet a twit, if you don't want to. You can simply eavesdrop.
Thank you. We now return to the main event:
(with a kid who looks as mischievous as Jon himself)
The poster is for The Exquisite Corpse,
the new continuing story project
one of The Exquisite Corpse co-conspirators
TWEETS:
- Exquisite corpse authors: Katherine Paterson made us do it
- Jon Scieszka says to go to www.read.gov to read about roller skating babies
(three more below)
Festival sponsor, Target, brought in
the cutest, most patient dog
to pose with readers, young and old
TWEETS: (after my Poetry Tent interlude)
- Then i have to choose: lois lowry or jane hirshfield impossible
- Standing in the aisles for lois lowry
Looking over the shoulder of a mom who was wise enough
The author spoke about writing it, and her re-acquaintance
with her father, a stranger to her because of World War II
Crowds for Lois Lowry
TWEETS:
- Eating popcorn for lunch
- Listening to sharon creech's hypnotic voice
(glimpsed through umbrellas at the edge of a packed tent)
TWEETS:
- Bring on Mo!
- Mo: knuffle bunny the musical! at kennedy ctr in may
TWEETS:
- Patrick Carman: new vest, stretch armstrong & reading
- Next 39 Clues: Australia!
Jeff Kinney reveals new sketches for his next Wimpy Kid book.
This one is of Greg's ideal summer vacation: inside!!!!
TWEETS:
- Bringing in the easel for Jeff Kinney
- Jeff Kinney: I decided to draw as 7 Year old boy so no one would question my ability
- J Kinney: On set of wimpy kid movie watched apple fight
- J Kinney: failure influenced me
- Kid offering two ideas to J Kinney "if you need them"!
I stayed all the way until the last presentation of the Festival
TWEETS:
- Up next: judy freakin blume!
- judy blume: i was a shy kid afraid of dogs swimming everything!
- judy blume: i made up all my book reports
- judy blume: i knew i was 70 when i heard it on NPR
- judy blume: Next book set in 1950s
- i want to ask judy blume: how did a shy kid get so brave?
FINAL TWEET OF THE DAY:
- 7 hours of bookfesting I'm beat!
