L.A. Times Festival of Books: The Sequel

Imagine a book lover’s ultimate dream.

In a relaxed, civilized setting, you stroll past tables piled high with books from all over the world. Best-selling authors appear in spacious lecture halls and on grassy lawns to answer your questions, while children gather outdoors for stories and games.

There are poets, pundits and puppeteers, plus merchants to feed you and musicians to entertain the vast crowds pouring into the fair. But you’re not just impressed by the sheer numbers of books and authors: It’s the realization that a community of readers has come from miles around to celebrate, discuss and enjoy, in a belief that the printed word matters.

Well, wake up. The second annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is just a week away. Thousands of Southern California book lovers are expected to attend an event larger than last year’s inaugural festival, which drew an estimated 75,000 people.

Next weekend’s gathering, free to the public, features more than 200 authors, including Michael Crichton, Jackie Collins, Scott Turow, Marianne Williamson, James Redfield, Mary Higgins Clark, Dean Koontz, Barbara DeAngelis, Olivia Goldsmith, Steve Allen, John Berendt, Ray Bradbury, Kelly Lange, Joseph Wambaugh and Roger Kahn, to name a few.

The two-day festival also features an appearance by Frank McCourt, who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for “Angela’s Ashes,” a powerful memoir of his Irish upbringing. Other writers of quality fiction and nonfiction slated to appear include Garry Wills, Robert Stone, John Gregory Dunne, A. Scott Berg, Mona Simpson and Elizabeth George, plus poets Christopher Merrill, Philip Levine and Czeslaw Milosz.

As before, there will be literary panels, poetry readings and book signings at a variety of locations in and around UCLA’s Dickson Plaza. Children will be entertained at their own festival site, while booksellers and other merchants staff nearly 300 booths. Many literary cultures and traditions will be represented, ranging from African American, Latino, Native American and Asian American writers to the work of gay and lesbian authors.

This year, in response to last year’s overflow crowds for literary panels where many people waited in line and couldn’t get in, there will be a free ticket distribution system. Tickets will be required to attend the author panel discussions but will not be required for the outdoor stages, poetry corner and children’s events.

The tickets will be available during the week before the festival at 33 Ticketmaster locations across Southern California and at the festival on April 19 and 20. The festival program will wrap this Sunday’s Times Book Review section and will include information on events, locations of ticket outlets and other important details, including parking and shuttle information.

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This year’s festival will feature panels on such topics as sportswriting as literature, the politics of women’s health, the art of the memoir, turning novels into screenplays, how to write your first novel, nature writing, African American female mystery writers, sci-fi versus sci-fact, travel tales, religion, lessons learned in business, children’s literature, China, surfing and many more.

It wouldn’t be Los Angeles without movie and TV authors, and this year’s group includes Lynda Obst, Stephen J. Cannell, Barbara Isenberg, Richard Shickel, Eric Lax, Gerald DiPego and Rob Long. Similarly, “Overcoming the O.J. Addiction” with Linda Deutsch and Lawrence Schiller is tailor-made for those still brooding over the bloodstained Bronco.

Solo appearances are planned by 14 authors, including a reading by talk show host Larry King. Other onstage appearances include local author Sandra Tsing Loh performing from her one-woman play; poet Wanda Coleman; cooking demonstrations by several celebrity chefs, including Emeril Lagasse; and Charlton Heston joined by Digby Diehl in reading from classic Hemingway texts--as well as winners of PEN’s “Bad Hemingway” writing contest.

Meanwhile, the profusion of booths runs the gamut from Harry Abrams, publisher of fine art and photography books, to the Zagat Survey, a leading guide to dining. In between, browsers will find a world of books and ideas reflecting the rich diversity of publishing itself.

For children, there will be appearances by the Cat in the Hat, Arthur, Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” Kino and Lucy, Winnie the Pooh and Cruella DeVil. Authors include NBC 4 weather caster Christopher Nance, who will be joined by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in reading from two of Nance’s books, Dom DeLuise, Barbara Saltzman, Olympic champion Carl Lewis and Cheryl Ladd.

Los Angeles has become the nation’s largest book market, with area residents spending $550 million on books in 1995, compared to $500 million spent by book buyers in New York.

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Festival of Books

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 20

WHERE: Dickson Plaza, UCLA

HOW MUCH: Free admission; parking, $5

INFO: (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 7BOOK

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Festival Authors Featured

In anticipation of next weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Life & Style section will present samples from the recent work of six participating authors each day beginning Sunday.

Featured in the daily Shortcuts column will be:

Sunday: Michael Crichton, whose most recent book is “Airframe.”

Monday: Himilce Novas, “Mangos, Bananas and Coconuts: A Cuban Love Story.”

Tuesday: Mona Simpson, “A Regular Guy.”

Wednesday: Viana La Place, “Unplugged Kitchen.”

Thursday: Hilton Als, “The Women.”

Friday: Kem Nunn, “The Dogs of Winter.”

For information about the festival, please call (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 7BOOK.