I made it to the Columbus Book Festival about 30 minutes after it started this morning. Don’t let the photo above fool you; all the action was happening inside the library and the topiary park behind the library, and it was already packed when I arrived!

The Midnight Readers Club was probably the most packed spot in the topiary park and with good reason! They were selling lots of wonderful “Blind Date with a Book” packages that all included a reading log bookmark, a magnetic bookmark, a highlighter, annotating tabs, and stickers. Since it’s #SciFiSummer, I picked up three interesting-sounding SciFi novels.

When I was looking at the schedule this morning, I saw that there was a Horror panel, and I almost went to that, but then further down on the schedule, I saw there was a Science Fiction panel at the same time. I did not look at the names of the authors on the panel but decided to go purely because it was SciFi. So, imagine my surprise when I saw JOHN SCALZI! I’m sure the Horror panel was great, but these three authors were hilarious and I’m glad I didn’t miss it. I was in the back, so the photo I got of Tobias S. Buckell, John Scalzi, and Yume Kitasei isn’t great.

Unfortunately, it completely skipped my mind to ask them if I could take a good photo when I went to get their books signed after the panel. I already have the ebook of Starter Villian, but couldn’t resist getting a physical copy along with a couple of Scalzi’s other books. I also got both of Kitasei’s books, The Deep Sky and The Stardust Grail, and Buckell’s Runes of Engagement, in addition to a couple of other books that looked interesting. 60 Songs that Explain the ’90s by Rob Harvilla is also a podcast that I will be listening to at some point and I picked up Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings after seeing the author on another panel I happened upon while trying to get out of the sun for a few minutes.

All in all, I had a great day. The lines were long for just about everything, and I got hot, sweaty, and a little sunburnt, but now I have lots more books to read and some book-related puzzles to work through while I hang out inside in the AC.