Well, we did it again, but there was no oops about it, just a lot of hard work by a lot of people. When I woke up on Sunday at 6:30 and heard the rain, I got an instant headache. The Kerrytown BookFest is a mighty, mighty creature, but like the wicked witch it has one weakness – water. Even though we have tents and roofed vendor areas a little liquid sunshine is pretty much of a deal breaker for attendance. Various people placated the gods in their own fashion (let me tell you, it’s hard to find a virgin in Ann Arbor to sacrifice at that hour) and lo and behold at about 10:30 the skies cleared and once I saw the sun I knew everything was going to be copasetic.

Attendance was up, the author panels and demonstrations were jammed, the vendors were making money and just about everyone was walking around with a smile, digging the groovy booklovin’ vibe. I guess it really is the Ann Arbor News’s loss if they treat the fab Fest like a red headed stepchild. They had a little article the week before and an anemic photo essay on Monday, but tell me the pictures by our official photographer GREGORY D. ANTHONY won’t be a jillion times better. The front page cultural event of Sunday? The bike race which was said to have "several hundred" spectators. Even if that were true – there were maybe twenty when I saw the start while on a coffee run (as well as the WORST mangling of our national anthem since Roseanne Barr) – it seems to me that an event that had almost FIVE THOUSAND attendees might merit a tad more ink. The other Ann Arbor Book Festival got a week of gushing build up raves from the Ann Arbor News before their event as well as a glowing front page postmortem with fantastic attendance figures, but all I know is that they are going to seriously downsize next year while we are expanding, with bigger tents, more exhibitors and more books.

There were so many good moments and so much help from good friends that I can’t name them all. I’m usually not a big fan of the Boy Scouts, but I have to tell you that I saw them in a different light while they were so assiduously and efficiently helping us set up (and most importantly) tear down. Tearing down is like sprinting uphill at the end of a marathon, and the first few scouts I saw at five p.m. were tiny lads, but I breathed a sigh of relief when their brawnier cohorts showed up. Hail to thee SCOUTS and SCOUT MASTERS! Even though I’m older, I’m only half as sore as I was at this time last year.

Authors are at worst interesting people, and at best as personable as the ones who were on the book panels at the Fest. Although I really enjoyed every writer I talked to, I admit having a bit of a crush on the Noir Ladies, MEGAN ABBOTT and THERESA SCHWEGEL. I guess I just have a thing for beautiful women who are incredibly cool, intelligent and write brilliantly wonderful books. Weird, huh?

The only downside is wondering how we are going to top the 2008 Kerrytown BookFest, but knowing the board that so brilliantly guides its destiny, I can only say that only a chump will miss 2009’s edition.