Literary pleasures: a feast for the soul

The crowds thronging the Los Angeles Times Book Festival at UCLA seem to get thicker every year. Or perhaps it seems that way when you're trying to navigate your way through thousands of people while pushing a stroller.

More than 130,000 people attended this year's event, but not even the crowds or traffic can deter me from rounding up my husband and two kids each year to head out to this literary bookfest that features more than books, as you can see in the photos I took last weekend.



The Nuevo Cielo folkloric dance group was a definite highlight of the event for my kids, who were mesmerized as they watched the young dancers and singers swirling around the stage in their colorful costumes while making beautiful music.

Other highlights of this year's event:

Though there were plenty of celebrities on hand, Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar held his own, with a long line of kids and parents constantly waiting to take their picture with him.

Book-lovers were invited to write on a wall mural titled "What are you reading?" A computer took snapshots of people while recording the names of the books.

Toward the end of the weekend, only the very top of the "grafitti wall" remained blank.

Sadly, very few attended the readings held at the poetry stage.

Yes, we'll likely return next year, despite the crowds.