Sarah E. Moffett

Hear ye, hear ye, the 2007 National Paper Cut Conglomeration will take place next week on Target One in the Emerald City with the Wizard’s wife presiding.

In other words, the 2007 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush will be held on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public.

According to Mrs. Bush, this is an equal opportunity event. Imagine that. “The National Book Festival welcomes all Americans to the National Mall to celebrate reading and meet with some of America’s most-loved authors from across the country. Readers of all ages can discover the joys of new books and fall in love again with old favorites.”

With seventy-five writers and illustrators to be present to “share their experiences and autograph their books,” the real 2007 National Book Festival website promises you’ll find someone, anyone to like before you leave. More importantly, the forecast is sunny skies, 76 degrees, and a Washingtonian 54% humidity. See those book pages curl folks.

Should you decide to visit DeathCom One to have your curling book pages smudged upon by a mass produced signature, the Washington Post has kindly provided a guide to each author and illustrators name, works, signing times, and eating habits, should you need to bribe the animals for them to be pleasant.

If you do not live near Target One, fight the nation’s third worst traffic, and/or beat back rabid lawyers on a daily basis, The Library of Congress was thinking of you when it decided to make 2007 the year of the podcast.

Flashback. Can anyone imagine Shelby Foote doing a podcast? It would be worth it to bring him back just long enough to hear that Southern voice spin Confederate tales that a 14 year old could play on his iPod. You know he rather listen to Foote wax eloquent on Lee than Diddy on women. Right.

Anyway, if podcasting isn’t enough to overload your literary senses, the Library of Congress is promising same-day webcasts, collaboration with Book TV on C-SPAN2 to televise events taking place at the festival; and the C-SPAN2 Book TV Bus, a mobile television studio with a multimedia demonstration center for the public, will also be on the National Mall. The Book Mobile better hope the fans don’t get crazy. They might loose something serious, like a hubcap. I wonder if the Cap Hill Five-O will be able to handle the madness…Moving on.

In anticipation for all this excitement to begin, the Washingtonpost.com will be hosting online chats with authors beginning tomorrow, September 24th. A countdown, if you will.

And for those bibliophiles that simply cannot wait for their literary Santa’s to come down the chimney, the Library of Congress has webcasts from the preceding technologically savvy years to keep you company during those long nights. This is, after all, a book event with something for everyone. Especially geeked out book nerds like me.

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