Yesterday I attended - with other
UB MFA friends - my first ever
Baltimore Book Festival after my creativity class. It was exhilarating! I have to say I went a little crazy on the book buys - C'mon who can resist $1 books?... I left with a box of books, my filled backpack and my friend Mike's filled backpack (sorry Mike and thanks for helping me carry all the books :)
We walked from class and all scoped out the food as most of us were starving. I ate an avacado and crab taco (Yum!) while my friends chose quesadillas or hot dogs. Once we filled our bellies, we strolled the busy walkways leading us from one book tent to another. So many tents, so little time! At one point, we all ended up at a tent that portrayed Edgar Allen Poe's the Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe. A brilliant actor (I wish I knew his name) did a stunning portrayal of this chilling story.
Afterwards, our group split and I scouted for interesting book buys with Mike. We ended up making a detour up the stairs of Mount Washington. This in itself was an adventure as the spiraling staircase really only allowed one person through, yet we were constantly maneuvering our body into positions I didn't know it could do in order to let others go down past me. We made it to the top winded, and I hate to say it, disappointed. It was just as tight at the top as the whole staircase and they had four breakout windows that provided one - to two people a view at each window. The view was beautiful as you took it all in but the walk up wasn't worth the view. After we regained our breath, we made our way back down. I had shaky legs the rest of the afternoon...
What I enjoyed most was meeting several independent authors, two of which I bought books from: The Bum Magnet by
K.L. Brady and Identity Crisis by
Debbi Mack. I look forward to reading these books.
I would have enjoyed staying longer and perusing more books and talking with more authors but between the shaky legs and the rain, I chose to end my book festival adventure. I do look forward to next year's book festival.
I would enjoy reading other's experiences of the Baltimore Book Festival either in the comments to this post or through a new posting.
