DC National Book Festival 2013

Having grown up in a small town in the, almost, middle of nowhere, getting to see authors that I admire face to face has always been a hard thing to do. If anything, Washington D.C. has been the closest thing to a "big city" I've been near since Cleveland, and the D.C. Book Festival my saving grace when it comes to seeing awesome authors and having them sign equally awesome books. 

We started out our journey on the ever reliable DC Metro. Reliable it is, but quick it is not. They're been doing construction on the metro probably since I've been using it (which was around 2009). Though I only ever travel it on weekends I've definitely noticed the lag. Also the price. The metro had definitely doubled since I started riding. BUT, whining aside, it is nice to feel like a city girl, public transportation and all, once in a while.

We also had awesome snacks as made by my greatest festival going friend. They were rice balls. We demolished them.

When traveling to a festival with so many high caliber authors such as Holly Black, Veronica Roth, Lisa McMann, Tamora Pierce, K.A. Applegate, etc, you will often find yourself needing to bring books to be signed, which are heavy. Originally I was going to bring a back pack, but decided against it. Instead I packed my handy-dandy FokiDoki bag filled with Divergent by Veronica Roth and Tithe by Holly Black. Both excellent reads.

Once at the festival, we found ourselves giddy with the pure awesome that means tons of book-lovers in one place. Poetry Out Loud was presenting as soon as we arrived but we also realized that Holly Black was speaking.


We only made it to the tail end of her question and answer portion, so we decided to go ahead and book it to the line that was forming for her signing an hour later.


And we waited. In line. For awhile. Before we did get to the line we made our purchases in the book tent. Specifically, I bought The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, of course, as well as The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann. The second book is a middle grade that sounded interesting and I've wanted to check out other things that she's written.

Then, the line waiting. Which was broken up by copious amounts of reading the books we bought and discussing our reading lives.

And then, the waiting paid off.

YAAAAY Holly Black!

 The rest of the day was another set of lines and the mall. It was a little weird to see the Washington monument all done up in bandages after the earthquake last year.


The last line was Veroncia Roth's and while I'm a big fan of the  Divergent  trilogy, I haven't had the same length of love as I have with Holly Black. meeting Veronica was cool, but the poor woman had such a horrible line, it was very brief. Definitely excited to read the rest of the series.

We were in line for at least two hours. It was intense, but we made some awesome friends while there. We talked books and I'm sad now we didn't get their contact information. 

All in all, the day was amazing! We'd originally had plans to go both days to see Tamora Pierce and Lisa McMann, but unfortunately it was not to be. If you ever get a chance to head to this shindig, do it! 

Awesomeness did occur.