texas book festival

this past saturday, i had the privilege of volunteering at the texas book festival at our state capitol.  if you're unfamiliar with the festival, it was started up 16 years ago by my FAAAAAAVORITE first lady in the world, mrs. laura bush.  ah, i just adore her.  anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful day, as evidenced by my iphone photo of the texas capitol:

i found out about the festival through texas monthly and i thought, "hmmm...i don't have any weekend plans and this sounds like it's right up my alley!"  i was assigned to the google technology tent, which i soon discovered was not my forte.  i had to spend the entire afternoon convincing people of the magical, liberating, and dynamic powers of the e-reader (irivers, kindle fires, nooks oh my!) when i positively detest the idea of having one.  i realize this is the direction the world is going, and like many associates at google assured me, "you'd love having one on an airplane!", i still can't shake my old soul ways.  i need to smell a book, i need to feel it in my hands, i need to write my name and the dates i read it in the front cover, i need to dog ear the pages, i need to write my notes in the margin, and i need to place it in its alloted space on my book shelf.  (sounds more like a love scene in a telenovela i realize, but i do have a passionate affair with my books.)  as you can see, the tech tent was not a good match for me.  next year, i shall do author escorts.

the increcible part about the festival was that all of these remarkable authors were in attendance and from what i am told, it is a huge honor to be invited to the texas book festival.  i was giddy at seeing all of the people's names from texas monthly - mimi swartz, jake silverstein, and paul burka and i couldn't believe my eyes when i saw that sarah bird, molly shannon, and paula deen would be there!  surely by now you do know that paula is one my icons?  side note: before i married my husband, my grand plan in life was to move to savannah so that i could marry bobby deen and have paula as my mother-in-law...i'm not even being facetious.  i didn't get to meet her, but i did buy her new book which promises to be tasty and phenomenal.

one of my favorite parts of the day was going to tall of the cooking demonstrations and i sat in a fabulous one by virginia willis, author of bon appetit y'all.  she was gracious, kind, and a firecracker and she used to head up culinary arts for martha stewart!  she's from georgia, but she's french trained so she mixes the two to create her cuisine.  i am DYING to try out some of her recipes.

VERDICT: this festival is a must do!  who wants to join me next year?