There’s the Vroman’s booth on Sunday morning, before the Festival even officially opened. That was probably the only time you could get from the signing booth (front right corner) to the registers (back left corner) without leaving the tent and going around. The whole festival was packed all day, both days:

I didn’t have a lot of time to visit other booths, but just walking around on my lunch break was awesome. There were books galore, free stuff, people in costumes, guerrilla art (although I missed Human Tetris), and more, including these odd little guys:

(I also came to the conclusion over the course of the weekend that people who read and love books have the cutest children. It must be genetic or something. Every child I saw was so adorable.)

I also stopped by Book Soup and snapped a picture of Charles in one of our new Out Of Print t-shirts, which we’re carrying now at both Vroman’s and Book Soup. I want them all, but I do particularly like his choice:

He conveniently posed in front of the display, so you can see some more designs behind him. Fahrenheit 451, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Catcher in the Rye are some of my favorites, but really, I could probably fill my wardrobe with these shirts and be totally happy. Best part? Book-related t-shirts are in dress code at work. Oh yeah. (Those are links to the books, by the way, not the shirts. Can’t wear something you haven’t read!)

The author signing were a huge part of the festival for me, and of course a huge highlight. All of our authors were totally wonderful, and each one of them brought something different and interesting to the booth. John Vorhaus offered to sign books by other authors and Marisa Matarazzo actually did it, Matthew Reinhart explained how he made his crazy pop-up books, Jef Czekaj rapped and drew animals on request, and Lou Gossett, Jr. had an impromptu Mod Squad reunion with star Michael Cole (Mr. Gossett appeared on three different episodes throughout the series):

Every single one of our authors was an absolute pleasure to have at the booth, and you should buy and read all of their books, as we informed Festival goers throughout the weekend. You can find a full list of the authors we hosted here (just scroll down the page a little).

It was a very busy two days, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Of course, no matter how tired we actually were, the entire Vroman’s staff maintained our smiles (and adorableness) to the very end.

See? Loving books makes you automatically awesome, even if you aren’t a little kid anymore. Photographic proof.

Until  next year, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books!

Additionally, I will be appearing on a panel called Publishing:  The Next Generation, which will be kind of like Star Trek:  The Next Generation, only instead of LeVar Burton, you get me.  My fellow panelists include Goodreads.com founder Otis Chandler (You may remember my podcast with Otis from a ways back), former Publishers Weekly Editor-in-Chief and current contributor to the Wall Street Journal Online Sara Nelson, and former Soft Skull/Counterpoint publisher Richard Nash.  The panel is moderated by David Ulin, books editor of the LA Times.  We’ll be discussing the future of the printed word in a digital age.  What does it mean to be a journalist, editor, publisher or bookseller in a world where, increasingly, books exist as digital objects as much as they do bound paper.  It should be a fascinating conversation between a bunch of smart people and, well, me.  We will try to avoid a Twitter lynch mob.  I would love it if you could make it.  The panel is at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in Humanities A51.  You will need a ticket, which I hear is sold out, but rumor has it that people willing to get there early and wait are often admitted.

And if you’re at the Festival, stop by the Vroman’s booth and say hi.  I’ll be there in the morning and evening on Saturday and all afternoon on Sunday.  If you’re on Twitter, remember to tag your posts with the #latfob hashtag.  Have fun and see you there!