And when I say “ultimate”, I mean a list of things that I am going to try to see and do at the Decatur Book Festival next weekend. A list of good intentions. My wife will be on the other side of the country for the weekend, so it really comes down to how much a three year old and I can pack into a weekend before nap time. Print out a schedule so that you can follow along. Here’s my game plan as of today:

Saturday, September 1:

  • Breakfast. Caffeinate adequately. Review strategy and logistics. Ensure adequate supply of Goldfish and milk before going in. Hop on MARTA. It’sMARTA.
  • 10:00 AM - Jack Wilkinson and Abe Schear: Baseball and the Braves. Hey, we were just talking about Schear!
  • 11:15 AM - I’ve seen Kwame Dawes recently, so I am either going to check out southern gardening guru Walter Reeves or southern authors Roy Blount Jr & George Singleton. Probably the latter. The game day decision may come down to distance to walk, temperature on the field, and the mood of my festival companion.
  • 12:30 PM - I’d really like to check out Joseph Crespino, Matt Lassiter, and Kevin Kruse’s panel on new approaches to Southern History. This may be when my daughter and I check out the food booths and tents on the square. We do need to find the Wren’s Nest tent so that we can buy our copy of Soy Nut Butter, the Nest’s hip new lit mag for local high schoolers.
  • 1:45 PM - Ice cream and air-conditioning break at The Little Shop of Stories to keep my festival companion in good spirits.
  • 3:00 PM - We’re well into nap time here. If we were able to nap al fresco on the square, we’ll head on over to see Pulitzer Winner Natasha Trethewey. If the crowd is crazy, we’ll set off to see Josh Dorfman read from The Lazy Environmentalist.
  • 4:15 PM - Are we still here? If so, it’s upstairs to see novelist Wesley Stace perform. He was formerly the musician known as John Wesley Harding.
  • 5:30 PM - How’s my little trooper? Hanging in there? Then it’s off to see novelist Sherman Alexie whose work I’ve recently fallen in love with.
  • Later - Charles Frazier is presenting a key note address in the evening. I expect it’s going to be a mad house. If you’re not off to see Chuck, I know of this totally hip book store around the corner that is hosting a panel discussion at 7:30 PM called Future Tense - a look at the future of media. And I’m on the panel. As unlikely as it sounds, it’s true. Check out the flyer. There’s music afterwards with deep guy electro-popsters One Hand Loves the Other. Please, please come see us. I’ll have more on this later.

Stay tuned for Part 2, which will cover SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!.