Book Expo America -- BEA 2008

We're off to BEA today --

The nice thing for me is that it is LA this year. For once I can actually drive there. No big travel hassels and no jet lag!

BEA can be a little overwhelming with thousands of attendees, hundreds of authors and a myriad of events. For me, however, the best part is catching up with old friends and making new ones.

There are a lot of events and author signings. So here is an idea of how we will spend our days.

Friday morning Thomas Freidman kicks of the show with this opening address. The rest of the day will be spent in education session or walking the show. I am especially looking forward to the session with Chris Anderson (Wired Magazine) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon).

We start Saturday with the Author Breakfast. This year we will hear from Magic Johnson, Philippa Gregory, Andre Dubus III and Alec Baldwin. And for a bonus we will have lunch with Richard Engel, Markos Mouslitsas Zuniga, Jon Krakaur, Micheal Moore and Christopher Buckley.

The most fun, however, should be the Saturday night event with Lewis Black. I just hope I can stay upright for that long!

We end the conference with a Sunday breakfast featuring Ted Turner, Azar Nafisi, Dennis Lehan and John Hodgeman.

By Sunday afternoon when we head home we will be loaded down with books -- galleys, free copies and few we bought and with very sore feet. I wouldn't miss it for anything!

Maybe we'll see you there . . .