A Sampling from the 2013 Brooklyn Book Festival

Photos by MK Metz

A beautiful day, thousands of book lovers, hundreds of authors, panels, readings, talks, and books, books, books -- that was the 2013 Brooklyn Book Festival.

It's like a living bookstore, with authors popping up to talk about their work -- from comics to religion to humor, love, cooking, or government spying.

Haven't heard the official count yet but the lines to all the talks were long and the crowds were big.

People lined up to buy books by their favorite authors then lined up again to have them signed. Above, Katherine Applegate, signing "The One and Only Ivan." (This is the book that won the 2013 Newbery Award.)

Lois Lowry, the winner of this year's Best of Brooklyn Award (and Newbery winner), signs "The Giver," soon to be a movie.

Pete Hamill, writer of fiction, nonfiction, a journalist and an all-around Brooklyn landmark, spoke about his nostalgia for the Brooklyn of old. (Nostalgia: "An ache for people, places and things that no longer exist.")

Cartoonist Adrian Tomine (you've seen his New Yorker covers) says Brooklyn inspires him. "There's very little translation between what I see on my walks to the market and what I put on the page."

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