Christi's Adventures: Collingswood Book Festival!

http://www.collingswoodbookfestival.com

Yay for the Collingswood Book Festival! I tell you, this is one of the nicest festivals I've ever been to, and it's a book festival, to boot! Daughter & I attended last year after kind of stumbling upon it somewhere. We had an awesome time and I've been eagerly awaiting the 2011 festival ever since!

This year I had a game plan in place. I'd pre-purchased a lot of the books I wanted to get signed from B&N online. I had a list of which authors we wanted to see, and when. I took one of Daughter's backpacks, instead of killing my shoulder with a tote bag. I made sure we were on the road by 8:30am, to be there by 10am. And my cosmic twin, Kristie, made breakfast reservations at the Pop Shop, an awesome eatery in its own right but made even more famous for being on Bobby Flay's Throwdown!

Daughter, Cosmic Twin Kristie and her girls at the Pop Shop

Kristie rocks, because she booked us in for breakfast instead of lunch. Now, I think I could've ordered a grilled cheese at 10am, but I opted for the Bananas Foster Waffle instead. One of Kristie's girls got chocolate chip pancakes that were, no joke, bigger than her head:

After rolling ourselves out the door, it was time to buy the books I hadn't gotten, and to meet authors! I actually didn't take any pictures of the authors I wanted to meet, but I got a few of my daughter:

Dan Gutman (author of the Weird School books, the Homework Machine, and oodles more), me, and daughter

Daughter & Nancy Viau, author of Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head

(every book purchase came with a DIY rock collection--a cute touch!)

But never fear! I did meet tons of authors and got books signed! Here's the rundown:

• Where I Want to Be and Tighter by Adele Griffin (2 copies of Tighter--a giveaway coming soon!)
• The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder--guys, Amy totally recognized me! Like, my face. From Facebook. She was so excited to meet me! *fangirl swoon*
• Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
• Inconvenient by Margie Gelbwasser (so excited for finally meet her in person!)
• Popular by Alissa Grosso
• Starstruck by Cyn Balog
• The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
• The Butt Book by Artie Bennett (OK, this is a picture book, but it's hilarious and I can't wait to read it with my teens!)

Daughter and I each also got a Charming Book Clip, which has a clip to clip onto your book, a ribbon to mark your place, and a charm to keep it all pretty. This company is relatively new and they're from my area (I missed them at the local book festival last week), and the concept is just really cool!

We also stumbled upon Gourmet Popcorn Creations, a nifty little shop that has, well, gourmet popcorn. But it's like nothing you've ever tasted before. Sure, they have "regular," kettle corn, and caramel, but they also have lime, mint chocolate chip, raspberry, bubble gum...wow. We got some regular, salt & vinegar, and caramel apple to take home. Yum!

The weather wasn't especially gorgeous, but at least the rain held off enough so the event could be held outside as planned. And it was nice enough, not too hot, not too cold--as long as you weren't sitting! 

What could be better than spending a beautiful day with my daughter, my cosmic twin and her girls, and a slew of fantastic authors? Well, as we were heading into town this morning, we saw this sign:

which caused daughter and I to start screaming with delight. There used to be a KK not that far from us at home, but they closed down several years ago and we have yet to find another store during any of our many travels. So of course we arranged to meet Kristie and her girls before we headed home!

So that was our fantastic day at the Collingswood Book Festival! I'm already excited for next year's--the 10th! I think it's generally held on the 1st Saturday of October if you'd like to plan to join us next year!

Enjoy your reading!

Christi