I was going to publish an article about writing today, but thought why not be topical and write about the biggest book fair in the country, the Los Angeles Times festival of Books! For those of you that have not yet heard about this wonderful thing (I didn’t hear about it until my second year of living in Los Angeles), it’s a huge festival that takes place at the University of Southern California campus. It’s a weekend full of books, authors, panels, signings, booksellers, and fans!

I would to tell you about all things I saw, but have to be honest and say that I spent the majority of the time looking at the Physical Education building, working at a Special Seller’s booth. Yes, you heard that right. I wasn’t only there. I was working at it, which means I got to lift heavy boxes of books all weekend get there before everyone else. Yay!

In addition to selling some books, I got lost looking getting people food and stumbled upon the John Green line, or should I say the John Green mob. This I found to be a pleasant surprise because I didn’t even know that he was going to be there until that morning. Had I known, I would have been like “Sorryjobcan’tworktodayhavetoseeJohnGreen!!!” While I would have loved to stand in line, get his signature, and tell him how much I love his educational videos (seriously, they are all great), I had to get my fellow booksellers some burger-y fuel. Due to my height, and the fact he was standing at that moment, I was able to see his head, which was enough for me to text my YA-fan friend: “I saw John Green!”

In addition to Mr. Green, I saw some other authors walking around, and was rather impressed with Laini Taylor’s bright pink hair (I will get around to reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, because everyone, seriously everyone, told me to read it). I didn’t see as much the next day, but heard the line for Veronica Roth (the author of Divergent) was insanely large as well, which is pretty awesome considering that people think kids don’t like to read. If anything, they were the most ravenous and hungry of all the groups that were there (not that the poetry crowd wasn’t rowdy as hell, as they are wont to be).

I don’t really know what I was trying to say with this post (which is great to say in blogging), but wanted to bring out the fact that this year I was there, and last year I totally wasn’t. I was invited to go with my writing group last year, but had to work all weekend at a German market (and like every single fucking weekend I had that job). But really, if anything, this post shows that in 365 days from now, you could be (as I am from last year) one step closer to where you want to be.

If you told me a year ago I’d be at a the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and would be even just a small, tiny, tiny part of it, I would have said you were verrückt. I mean, I was technically working this weekend, too, but selling books of authors who were on panels is way closer to where I want to be than telling someone which German mustard goes best with which wurst. (Hint: Bavarian Weisswurst and Sweet Mustard are like made for each other!) And if I could spring from the German market to working at the Festival of Books, who’s to say I could spring from there to bigger book things? Rome wasn’t build in a day, for sure, but at least now, I feel like I’m finally starting to lay down some bricks. And if I can start some brickwork, you can too. :)

What about you? Did you attend the event? Who did you see? If you didn’t go, who would you want to have seen? Who would be on your dream panel?

-Casey of Book-Obsession-Land

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