NYPL Bookfest

A room full of librarians, teachers, and publishing people - not to mention authors - what better day could there be?

M.T. Anderson was the keynote speaker. He spoke about writing historical fiction and why it is important. He even touched on global warming in his discussion of why it's important to realize we are live in history, that we are not separate from what has gone before nor what will come. I only wish I could be as eloquent and charming as he was.

The second part of the morning we divided into discussion groups. The time allotted for these was much too short. I choose a young adult group when I registered and had read the five books in preparation (including Octavian Nothing). We were very lucky, in that M.T. Anderson joined our group and we were able to continue the conversation. Unfortunately, this meant that we had very little time to discuss the other four titles.

I find these types of activities so invigorating. I actually spoke up during the discussion. (This is huge for me. I'm the type of person who generally thinks long and hard about what I'm going to say.) I love that I belong in this community. I'm guessing Comic Con will be a bit more of a stretch to my comfort zone.