Family Literacy Symposium

On Saturday I attended the Family Literacy Symposium at the Provo City Library. This is one of the annual events I used to plan when I worked there so it was very relaxing to experience it as an attendee and also to hang out with all of my friends who still work there.

Leif Enger was the keynote speaker and was fantastic. Aside from being a great author he was also an awesome speaker. After his presentation there were several break out sessions talking about books. The best was the last one I went to titled "One Year, Three Librarians, Fifty Books". My friends Gene, Carla Z, and Anji covered their favorite books that came out in 2010, and greatly extended my "Too Read" list. Click Here to see their book list, it's awesome.

After the event I got to hang out and visit with everyone I used to work with and Leif (pronounced Lay-f), take some pictures and get some books signed. He really is a cool guy and was fun to talk to.



Leif Enger, me, Carla Z
Carla and I are hand-modeling Leif's books.

Being the book nerds that we enjoy being, we got talking about eReaders, which ones are the best, and the whole idea in general. One of the big hang ups for people is "How do I have someone sign my eReader?". Carla solved this mystery when she said "Well you can type notes on it right?" Genius. I immediately pulled out my Kindle and asked Leif to 'sign' it. We had to take a picture to prove it was really him and not just me in typing notes to myself. Now, when you open So Brave, Young, and Handsome on my Kindle, you see a note from Leif that reads:

"my first kindle signing ... the new world has arrived! Leif Enger"

You know he's always going to remember that. I feel so special.

Leif Enger "signing" my Kindle