Read, America, Read!

JJ and I attended the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington today.

It was so great! So many authors, so many readers, so many people. Here's a little taste of our day:

We got there early to get in line for James Patterson; both JJ and Nicky really like his books and with Nicky camping with the Scouts this weekend, I represented him to get a book signed. His line was already working on the second rotation when we got there, so I saved us a spot while JJ walked around. I stood in line for an hour before the line even started moving! So after an hour and a half:

Here's JJ getting James Patterson to sign the books. He was a very nice man...showed up early to the signing when he found out how many were in line. Awesome.

We didn't get any other signatures, but I took some more pictures. Here's John Grisham, of Saving Christmas and The Firm fame:

Talk about awesome! This guy was scheduled to sign for 45 minutes. He stayed 2 hours and would have stayed longer but the Festival needed the booth for another author. Great guy!

Here's everyone's favorite children's author, Judy Blume!

Look at that smile! (Superfudge was nowhere to be found, though. Haha!)

And then...for me...I sat in on this lady's presentation:

It's the last picture I took with my camera before the battery died. I was so mad! But yes, that's Paula Deen!

I got a decent picture of her at her book signing with my cell phone:

She was very dynamic and quite the ball of fire! I enjoyed her talk tremendously and she was so personable at the signing. Too many people in line for me, though. Maybe next time.

And of course, since we were in the Nation's Capital, I had to get a picture of the Nation's Capitol:

I'll definitely go back next year. I can't wait to see who's going to be there!