Did I mention I like books ...

Today it rained. I went to the National Book Festival anyway. Because I love it that much. When I think about how next year at this time I will be a Working Adult (again, since I did try that out for a while there) with an Actual Paycheck, I dream about the library I will create with said paycheck, with a really comfortable reading chair and a great lamp and lots of bookshelves and framed posters on the wall. And one of those posters will be the picture above. From the National Book Festival today. And I will remember this:

Listening to Jeannette Walls, of The Glass Castle fame. She told us that everyone has a story to tell. I agree. Next came Lois Lowry, who wrote The Giver and Number the Stars. I read The Giver for the first time this summer, thanks to the suggestion of a wise friend, and good news, Lowry told us that Jonas lived. She told us how she narrates her life in her head as she lives it in person. She said writers do that. I do that too. I like that. Then I listened to Sue Monk Kidd, who wrote The Secret Life of Bees. She came with her daughter, since they have written a new book together. Something about pomegranates and traveling through Europe, mother and daughter. Note to Working Adult Self: read that book. Also read book Laura Bush is writing. And, read book that came out this week, written by former White House speechwriter Matt Latimer, who, in my limited experience, never seemed to display any sort of human emotion. Yes, I met him. In the speechwriting office. Where I interned, and he worked. And I have absolutely no respect for people who pretend to believe in something and someone and then sell out three weeks later for a measly 15 minutes of fame and some cash. So, Working Adult Self: read that book because I met this particular sellout. But do not buy that book because that would benefit him. And I am morally opposed to that. Also, Working Adult Self: do not sell out. But back to the Book Festival.

I loved the last speaker, Azar Nafisi, who wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran. I wish I could remember everything she said, but I especially liked how she said that every culture, every civilization, has made some hideous mistakes and committed terrible atrocities, but a country grows stronger and becomes better by overcoming and coping with these challenges. She said it better. And so much more. I love the National Book Festival ...