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By John, April 19, 2012 7:01 AM

For Details: www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks

Original contents copyright 2012 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

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By John, May 3, 2011 7:55 PM

Is there one best way to see the Festival of Books? I don’t think so. It’s just to big. Too many vendor booths. Too many panels. And too many stage events for both adult and children.

And as it always happens every year all the panels or author signings or stage events that I find interesting happen at the same time. It’s either get that autograph or take the kids to see what’s on at the Target Stage. You can never win.

I always attended both days and even then there were conflicts in what I wanted to see. They all happened at the same hour or so close together there was no time to get to the next panel.

This was my 5th Festival of Books and this time I decided to limit my activities at the Festival. I decided this year to get one panel in the morning and maybe one in the late afternoon. I could only get to the Festival on Saturday so I had to make my choices count.

The morning event was a no-brainer for me. It was Patti Smith. I’m not going to try and give a summary of the conversation between Patti, David Eggers, and the host David L. Ulin. You can read about it in Mr Ulin’s article at the LA Times web site. It was probably the best panel I’ve attended in the 5 years I have been coming the Festival.

In the afternoon I just couldn’t decide and but finally decided to see Tod Goldberg. I’m glad I did. Unlike the title of the panel, Fiction: Writing the Absurd, the authors really had some interesting thoughts. Deep. Tod was the deepest of the group. Basically they talked about how far they could go with the absurd before it was over the edge. On the panel were: Moderator: Mr. Jim Ruland, Mr. Andrew Foster Altschul, Mr. Joshua Cohen, and Mr. Tod Goldberg

With only one or two panels for the day that leaves plenty of time to walk around and visit the book store booths and maybe meet your favorite author, buy a book or two, and later get something to eat.

Most important is to go slow and drink plenty of water.

I know this advice is a little late for this year’s Festival but next year . . .

Lastly here are some photos I took Saturday.

Original contents copyright 2011 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

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By John, May 1, 2011 2:44 PM

Most of the first day of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books attendees were asking each other “where is BLANK?” You fill in the blank. No one knew where anything was. So heavy map usage was required.

But one question that was asked all day was: Where is the food? There were no independent food vendors anywhere on the USC campus. The food court at USC is small and slow. At least to small for the Book Festival.

There were plenty of authorized venders selling $2.00 small bottles of water. No thanks.

Hopefully the food problem will be resolved next year.

I did enjoy the USC campus. One it’s flat. The festival is more compressed than at UCLA and this means less walking. And less walking up and down the Jans steps. That alone was a big relief.

Original contents copyright 2011 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

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By John, April 30, 2011 10:10 PM

If you’re not an accredited press photographer you basically get stepped on. All day.

Trying to get a photo of the Festival mascot posing with kids turned out to be impossible. Either the mascot would turn away from me just as I was about to take the photo, (Not her fault she could barely see anything.) or another photographer, who was big and ugly, would step directly in front of me just as I was about to take a photo. He did it twice. I gave up. It wasn’t that big a deal.

The kids really loved the mascot. That was the important thing. You could tell that some of them just didn’t know if she was real or a giant doll. Their expressions were priceless.

More on the mascot and it’s creator later.

In this photo you see another accredited press photographer who kept pointing the camera at me! That’s when I left.

More photos tomorrow late. I’m to tired to do it tonight and tomorrow I have a club meeting all day.

Original contents copyright 2011 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

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By John, April 30, 2011 6:00 AM

Today is all day at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

If you’re standing in line for Patti Smith then maybe you can say hello. I’ll be in the line too.

Later, hopefully, getting Just Kids signed by the author herself, Patti Smith.

Original contents copyright 2011 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

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By John, April 28, 2011 11:07 AM

For details go to the LA Times Festival of Books web site.

Original contents copyright 2011 by John S. Krill and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.