Festival of Books

We had a wonderful time at the Festival of Books on Saturday. It's a huge event sponsored by UCLA and the LA Times, and we'll definitely go back next year. There were several different stages, where authors do readings from their books or performers do different things, and of course all kinds of book signings all over the place. There's a culinary stage, where chefs do demonstrations. When we were there, they had a big Weber grilling demonstration going and Giada De Laurentiis was there later that afternoon. Of course, there are hundreds and hundreds of booths from all different kinds of publishing companies, book stores, educational toy stores, and other random things. There is no group too obscure to have its own publishing company apparently. And of course, there were all kinds of freebies being given out. Want a free copy of the Qu'ran? You could get one there! Reusable grocery bags? You know it! Pencils, pens, clips, and magnets by the truckload. We skipped the poetry reading stage and didn't even stop to see Bob Barker who was there talking about his autobiography.

This is a shot overlooking just the culinary stage area!



Of course, of greatest interest to our little group (and to thousands of other people apparently!) was the Children's stage. Like I said, any remote subject or group you could be interested in had a booth. There were several places that had Filipino books for children, but most were in Tagalog. Ramy's family spoke Visayan, and Ramy knows only a bit of it and none at all of Tagalog, so those weren't too useful for us. However, we found a Filipino book publishing company that had books in English about the Philippines for children, and we got a really cute book about a half Filipino girl who learns how to cook Filipino food. So cute!

We also got to talk to Fancy Nancy, and the author signed a book for us. We also got to see a reading of Llama Llama Mad at Mama. We got the book, but we weren't willing to stand in line just to have it autographed by the author.

Eric Carle was there signing the Very Hungry Caterpillar books and stuff. Ramy and Rebecca took a picture with the "patter-tidder" [caterpillar].

Yo Gabba Gabba was performing while we were there, and Rebecca loved dancing to their music. I thought it was funny that Brobee had his own security there with him.


Of course, we also took the opportunity to stroll down Memory Lane with Ramy and check out some of his college haunts. Here's a picture of him in front of Campbell Hall, the bastion of liberality that practically made him a Marxist while he was there. Funny how quickly he moved back to the right after graduating and then how he has become more liberal again since marrying me. Rebecca thought she was a college student too.