There really is an event on the Mall almost every weekend and when the subject is Books, it seems obvious I should head down. It is one of those, "...well I like books" moments that drove me. I took some books for which the authors would be present. I got in line for Orphan Pamuk only to be told the session was over after waiting about 15 minutes. OK, well I had only gotten in line towards the end, so I was not terribly disappointed, plus I did not really like his book. So the next session was for Elizabeth Kostova who wrote one of my favorite books, The Historian. I waited in line for an hour and a half and did get a signature, but when all is said and done, what was the point really. I mean if I had known it wold take that long I certainly would not have bothered, but once I was in for a half hour and realized how long it would take, I just sucked it up and waited it out.
After the book signing, I decided I should listen to some authors speak about stuff. So I heard on mystery writer begin a talk and a non fiction writer end one on engineering risks, but walked away unfulfilled. The format was not terribly different than that at Politics and Prose which I love, the difference being that I get to choose the authors I go to see. Maybe if I could have planned out my day better to see the fiction authors I liked (Julia Glass, Diana Gabaldon, and Isabelle Allende were there too), I perhaps would have appreciated this more. Maybe next year I will do that.
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I find planning out the event can make all the difference. I attended the Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey several times. Once I received the lists of events I would carefully plot out the day. Rob also attended these events with me so I carefully balanced his student interest, with appropriate food breaks, walks etc. Also all day conferences with multiple events required careful planning to maximize the experience.
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