Nashville City Sights: Southern Festival of Books

The Southern Festival of Books is one of my favorite Nashville traditions!

When we first moved here in 2014, I was super excited to find out about this festival and to see one of my favorite authors, Lev Grossman (again!), to get his latest book signed and hear behind-the-scenes tidbits on the making of the new TV show based on his Magicians trilogy.

In 2015, I took a day off work to meet the Petersiks of Young House Love fame and David Levithan, a YA author I love. Even in the pouring rain, it was the perfect introvert’s day out.

Last year, I missed the festival for a very worthy reason… Amelia’s arrival!

This year, we attended for the third time with our new companion.

Even though the experience was different – I didn’t attend any panels, we stuck close to the Youth Stage tent, and our day trip only lasted a few hours – it was so much fun to see the festival through her eyes!

Sam asked if I think Amelia will be a reader… I don’t think she’ll have a choice 🙂

I hardly ever make the trip to Nashville these days, but I love visiting the War Memorial pavilion around the public library.

Since we didn’t attend any author panels, we spent most of our time browsing the vendors, listening to live music (it’s Nashville, after all), eating from the food trucks, and hanging out near the Youth Stage. Amelia was just happy to people watch the whole time.

The Nashville Zoo brought animals!

Emily Arrow was a treat!

Of course we had to bring home a few souvenirs. Amelia chose a book, I picked out a signed copy of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (owner of Parnassus Books), and I couldn’t resist a tiny t-shirt.