The L.A. Times Festival of Books

I am (currently) an Orange County/Los Angeles based blogger, but I've never gone to the L.A. Times Festival of Books until this year. It's probably because it nearly always falls on my sister's birthday. But this time, I decided to go anyway. And it definitely was worth it.

(look how crowded it is!)

The first thing my friends and I did when we arrived at UCLA was make a beeline for the South signing area, because, due to my superb planning, we knew we could meet Meg Cabot and Robin Benway. Of course, I brought another one of my sister's many Meg Cabot books to get signed (a French one, this time), as well as my copy of Audrey, Wait! and my ARC of The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June. Can you believe Robin Benway has heard of The Book Muncher?!

(me and Meg Cabot)

(Robin Benway and me)

After that, we wandered around a little. We passed by the brand new YA Stage where LAYAPALOOZA was going on. We were also distracted by the Warner Bros. Pictures' booth where the stars of Flipped, a movie based on Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen, were signing pictures. I didn't even know they were making a movie for Flipped. I really enjoyed that book when I was younger. For some reason, I didn't take a picture of them, except when I spotted Callan McAuliffe (who plays Bryce Loski) while walking up the steps and took a photo of his backside.

(he's the one in green)

Then a couple of my friends and I got sort of lost looking for Rachel Caine and the Mystery Bookstore booth. Luckily, we found it in time for me to get some of my Morganville Vampires books signed.

(Rachel Caine)

(Rachel Caine, my friend Celine, and me)

We went back around to the YA Stage where our other friend was watching Lisi Harrison, Amy Goldman Koss, and Robin Palmer at the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun panel. We found our friend in line to get Movers and Fakers signed by Lisi Harrison, and I popped in for a picture.

(Lisi Harrison)

(me and Lisi Harrison)

Lastly, I wanted to drop by the Mrs. Nelson's Toy & Book Shop booth. On the way there, we passed this really cool wall where you could write whatever you were reading at the moment. Too bad I just finished Epitaph Road and hadn't started anything new yet.

When we got to the booth, we saw both John Green and David Levithan. Unfortunately, I don't own any books by either of them anymore! And I don't know why I didn't buy their latest either.

(John Green and David Levithan)

And that was basically my time at the L.A. Times Festival of Books! I had lots and lots of fun. It's a shame I'll be moving this year and probably will not have the opportunity to visit again.