Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Last Saturday, I spent the day at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books with Julie, one of my childhood friends. We have not seen each other very much in the past ten years, so it was fun to reconnect while book shopping!

The Los Angeles Time Festival of Books started in 1996 and was originally held on the UCLA campus. I attended the first event, and many others in the early years. We moved out of state and I haven't attend the festival of books since 2010. I was so excited to be back. It has since moved to the USC campus and has exploded in popularity. It's the largest book festival in the United States, and beyond having hundreds of vendors, it also has ticketed panel discussions, outdoor stages, and book awards.

We attended this event on one of my favorite days of the year; Independent Bookstore Day. Many of the Los Angeles area indie bookstores were vending at the festival, and my plan was to visit as many as possible, spending a bit at each to show support.

Things got a little complicated.

First, it was an unseasonably rainy day in Los Angeles. I wore a raincoat, brought an umbrella, and had several waterproof totes for my purchases. This said, the rain made things complicated. We arrived in the morning and for a majority of our time at the festival, it just poured. The skies opened up and we were drenched. The booths were under tents, but it was raining so hard that many had to keep the books and other merch covered with plastic tarps. This just made it hard to shop.

Second, it was crowded. This made me happy, as book lovin' vibes were strong, but it also made the entire festival very crowded. Very, very crowded. Too crowded. I don't even generally mind crowds and I'm the type of person who will go to Disneyland on the busiest day of the year and just be happy. However, most of the booths, certainly all of the indie bookstores, had long lines to enter and when you entered, it was just hard to browse. My friend was really excited for the Jane Austen Society of North America's booth and we just couldn't really enjoy it. Honestly, the shopping was mosly a bust.

We left after three hours, with the highlight being a great chat with the people at the Los Angeles Historical Society. We learned that if you join, they offer tours of the city archieves. Isn't that cool? I tried to win tickets to the shows at The Music Center, which is one of my favorite places in the entire world. I didn't win tickets, but I was given a very snazzy Center Theatre Group pen. I bought one book, not from an indie bookstore, but from an indie author with whom I had a nice conversation. I also bought some book themed tea.

I'd like to come back next year, but I think my focus will be on tickets for panel discussions and not so much on the vendors. I wish I had spent Independent Bookstore Day in an actual bookstore. That said, the indie bookstores at the festival definitely had big sales and got a lot of love. In particular, the crowd for Annabelle's Book Club was enormous and enthusiastic! It's a fantastic store.

Feeling guilty about my lack of purchases, I did support a few of my favorite indies with online orders when I got home. I shopped with Pete & Freddy's Pages Aplenty and Octavia's Bookshelf. As a bonus, one of my purchases was my close friend, Shannah Game's new financial book, Unravling your Relationship with Money. If you're looking for some great financial advice, please grab her book! Yes, this is a shameless plug for my friend.