Book Festival 2013

 Oh! The Library of Congress National Book Festival was better than ever! Despite the afternoon rain, it was a wonderful day.

 So many people who love reading, all in one place!
So many fascinating authors and their stories!

The mall (the center green in DC) in DC was a wash of orange between free tote bags and Volunteer shirts, it was so colorful.

 This is an exhibit in the L of Congress tent, and we could write names of books that we feel changed the world. The fact is, books CAN change the world, and I just had to write in one, even though I agreed with the others. Gotta play along in life!

 This is a bit of the free treasure we took away. Thanks to LA for the mardi gras beads.  The real treasure was the incredible words and concepts offered in free talks by the authors.  I learned so much, and laughed much more than I expected.

The dessert for the day.
Hoda Kotb was charming, funny, entertaining, informative and most of all Real.

Authors take questions after their speeches, and Hoda had to contend with someone who appeared to be functioning in an alternate universe... and she did it with grace. We all realized early on that here was trouble, and it took security a long time to decide to approach the man.
I took many pictures, and would love to share them all but you get the idea.
One common theme among the enlightened speakers was the one dearest to my heart. "Connections"
Brad Meltzer, who was hysterically funny, shared some of his connection stories, as did Thomas Keneally.
It's about time to open my conncection project page. When the first quilt goes out, I will open the page to your connection stories, and we can all start to form a universal connection to each other.
Til, then, keep reading. LeeAnna