Festivus Libris!

Being lucky enough to live in West LA, I was able to attend the UCLA Festival of Books today! It's a two-day annual book fair of epic proportions which sprawls over a large swathe of UCLA campus. I highly recommend attending. Several hundred companies, from book publishers to book sellers to local interest, set up a booth to promote their particular product. Stages are set up for performances, readings and lectures outdoors, as well as smaller tables for authors to sign their books. The festival also presents panels and seminars throughout the day, of interest to readers and writers.

I only partook of the smallest portion of the Festival's offerings, and wandered amongst the various booths for awhile, ducking Jews for Jesus offering evangelical fliers, 9/11 truthers asking for donations and Scientologists promoting their free stress test (I took one once, figured out how the e-meter worked after about two minutes, and spent the next half hour playing with my interviewer).

I spent far too much money, but it was for a good cause (An ex of mine, when we were living together, used to complain about how many books I brought home. Admittedly enough, we were rather short on shelf space in our tiny one-bedroom apartment. I told him to be grateful it wasn't crack, and stacked my books in the closet). You can see the newest additions to my hoard in the picture above. I scored:

* Several urban fantasy paperback novels. Buy three, get one free! Yeah, I know, I'm a sucker like that.

* The Manga Cookbook, which is a gift for a friend who enjoys both manga and cooking. I flipped through it, and now I want sushi.

* Los Angeles Noir and Los Angeles Noir 2. Because who doesn't like noir? Especially Los Angeles noir! The publisher offered Noir for nearly every major metropolitan center on the globe. However, only Los Angeles came in two volumes, each of which was thicker than all the rest. Yeah, that's my city!

* The Science of Good and Evil, because I promised myself I'd get at least one book on philosophy.

* Master of the Mysteries, a biography of Manly P. Hall. As well, a copy of The Legend of Aleister Crowley and a slim mimeograph on Ethics which was just mysterious enough to be intriguing (and, only two dollars each!). Interestingly enough, the last two were found at the Atheists United booth, when I went to pick up a Flying Spaghetti Monster car decal for my mom (hi, Mom!)

* Living Lies by Kate Mathis, which I found almost by accident. The author approached me after seeing my already-overflowing free blue tote (thanks, C-SPAN BookTV!), accurately assumed I'm a voracious reader, and handed me a bookmark which had her book synopsis written on one side. I figure there are worse things to spend ten dollars on than helping a new author promote her book. I read the first couple of chapters on the bus home - so far, the main character has had her heart broken in college (who hasn't?) and joined a secretive government spy organization. Spy fiction is not quite what I normally read, but a life lived within only one genre is quite boring!

Did my civic duty by signing a couple petitions. Picked up some promotional literature about the LA Opera Ring Festival and a schedule for the Hollywood Bowl summer season. Enjoyed a cup of coffee, a chocolate chip muffin and my new books on a patch of lawn. I also looked into a couple self-publishing companies. I haven't quite yet decided if I'm going to attempt self-publishing or go the more traditional agent/contract route when I'm ready to see my work in print. I gave a few companies my e-mail address, so I'm sure I'll soon receive all sorts of information about self-publishing!

Around 3 pm, I realized that my wallet was alarmingly slim and I should probably go home before I spent any more money.