Mom's Day Out - one for the books

The last weekend in April is always a great time for Southern California book lovers, as we make our way to the UCLA campus for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books! I don't usually go for the entire weekend, but this year I made a full day of it on Saturday - and it was a full day. Full of books, full of conversation...but not full of children.

I met up with eight other book bloggers to partake of the Festival this year. More than half of us are moms, but none of us brought our kids along. (One childless blogger did bring her husband, though.) I was a little ambivalent about the choice myself at first; as a mom who values and encourages reading, wouldn't bringing the kids to an event that celebrates books reinforce those messages? The Festival always sets up an extensive children's area featuring entertainment, activities, and authors especially for the kids, along with vendors of children's books and reading-related merchandise - shouldn't the kids have the chance to soak up all of that reading enthusiasm?

Maybe. They may have even enjoyed it. But we didn't give them the chance, largely because there was no guarantee how much, or for how long, they would enjoy it. The Festival gets very crowded, the weather is unpredictable, and you can find yourself doing a lot of walking - and honestly, those aspects aren't even that enjoyable for parents. And we all know that once our kids stop enjoying something, they're quick to let us know it - sometimes over and over - and that tends to make the experience less enjoyable for us too.

Call us selfish if you want to, but we wanted to enjoy this for ourselves. We wanted to browse and discover new books, authors, and products. We wanted to attend panel discussions and author talks, and perhaps even have a chance to chat directly with the writers. We also wanted to talk with each other about books and reviewing and blogging - all of the things we discuss on our blogs and over Twitter, but this time, it would over a meal or in a college lecture hall, face to face. Nearly all of us would be meeting for the first time in person, and we wanted to be able to focus on that.

And so the kids stayed at home with their dads. The moms learned more about social media and the publishing industry, and gained insights from authors both familiar and new on a variety of topics, genres, and issues. We were inspired by some of these authors to buy their books, and to meet and speak with them while they personally autographed copies for us.

In between getting to know the authors, we got to know each other better. As so often happens when bloggers meet off-line, none of us felt like strangers to each other, and conversation and laughter flowed readily. We talked over lunch and through a leisurely dinner near the UCLA campus, and the lucky (if exhausted) ones got to go back and do it again on Sunday. Not me, though - after a thoroughly excellent Mom's Day Out, I spent the rest of the weekend with my family. I did drag them to a bookstore on Sunday, though; there were a few books I hadn't been able to find at the Festival.

An original Los Angeles Moms Blog

Florinda Pendley Vasquez blogs at The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness, where she frequently talks about books.