Hayden is here to kick off our coverage. Dr. Hayden, for those who were not with us 23 years ago, how did this get started . It is so exciting to be here. You can hear the buzz behind us as everyone is coming in. In 2001, First Lady Laura Bush had been successful as a first lady of texas, starting the texas book fair. It was renowned. When she got to washington, d. C. , she asked my predecessor, dr. Billington, wouldnt it the nice if we had a book festival, a National Book festival because i do not think we have one . He said, we do now. In 2001, first lady bush, who was the first librarian to be first lady cut the ribbon on the National Mall for the book festival. It has been successful ever since. She has been a supporter ever sense. Is she still active in the book fair at all . Dr. Hayden she makes commemorative videos and things like that. We keep her involved. We send her everything. We send her we sent her signed posters from every year. She has been a wonderful supporter. When you came on board in 2016, the fair was being held on the National Mall. Dr. Hayden it had just moved to the Convention Center, where we are now. That decision led us let us not think about the weather and all types of things that happen when you are outdoors. Now that it has been in the Convention Center, it is wonderful. You have restrooms. [laughter] you have a food. You have all of these angst. It cannot rain. It can rain and everything and we can still enjoy dozens of authors. What is your role in the book fair . Dr. Hayden i am the hostess with the mostess in terms of being able to open the book festival on the main stage. I get to read stories to young people in the young people section. I get to interview authors. Just, be the cheerleader and the person going around and thanking people for being interested in books and reading. Peter the library of congress hosts a opening ceremony, which we just aired on book tv. What is that . Dr. Hayden that is a chance for the authors, illustrators and sponsors of the book festival to come together to get ready for this fullday. We feature five authors each year who tell their own stories. That is the theme this year, everyone has a story. It is so touching when you hear the different perspectives of the authors. Peter you brought over some books. To talk about some of the authors who do have a story. Lets hear about a couple of these authors who are appearing. Dr. Hayden it is important for everyone to know the book festival is free and is being streamed, and that people will be able to purchase the books and have them signed by the authors. When you think about a memoir, that is a chance for people to tell their personal stories. Elliott page, his story is so gripping because it is something that everyone can relate to. How do you find your true self . Elliott will be here signing and talking about what it takes and what it takes to move forward after you have spoken your own truth. To everyone. Dr. Hayden elliott was known as ellen page, the actress, at one point. I just hope people will think about their own stories and their own journeys. Peter another brooke book you want to share with us . Dr. Hayden i am smiling because rk russell also had a chance in his life to think about what is really true and being courageous. That is with elliott, too. He had to think about the courage to say to heck with everybody. This is who i am. Rk russell, the same type of thing. If you are a football fan, you are going to get football history and insider scoop on football. You will also get a chance to really hear someone talk about their own journey. Memoirs are something, as you can tell, are one of my favorites. Peter this is another memoir for young adults. Dr. Hayden i mentioned the childrens section. We have a young adult area, too. Chest and buttigieg will be Chasten Buttigieg will be talking about his story for 12 and up. He adapted his memoir for adults to younger readers. You can tell by the cover and everything that it is designed to attract younger people, and to have them think about at the earliest stages, when they are trying to figure out who they are, have something they can relate to and have a story that really speaks to them. That is going to be great. Peter when your mother, colleen, would take you to a Library Early on in your life, what were some of the books that impacted you or grabbed your attention . Dr. Hayden i loved anything that had to do with fairytales and all of those types of things. Also, there was one book someone gave me. That is when i learned about library fines. It was the first book where i saw myself in a book. I loved all these other things, other places, but when i saw another little brown girl with pigtails who was a brownie, if we tell young people books are important and they do not see themselves in a book, what kind of message . That is why memoirs are so important, that you see yourself and relate. Peter i pulled this article out of the wall street journal. It was a little oped by Brenda Cronan who works at the wall street journal. The title of it is, books resist digital domination. A quote was, reading is a commitment. There are too many easy alternatives today. Dr. Hayden yes. It is a commitment that is important that, though you do not have book gilt built into it. I know you are looking like that. So many people in different generations feel that if they start a book, they have to finish it. No, you do not. There are hundreds and thousands of books. That means you put that one down and get another one. So often, we make the commitment to figure out the text or listen to the words if you are doing books on tape. That, we say you have to do it. It is not like broccoli. [laughter] or brussels sprouts. You want people to get into it. Yes, it is a commitment, but if it is something that engages you or you are interested in, you will make that commitment. Peter in a sense, your bosses are congress, correct . Dr. Hayden yes. Peter are they readers . Dr. Hayden yes. I think people should be heartened by the fact members of congress as a whole are basically interested in history and their place in history. We find that quite a few members of congress one to read about one to read about historical facts and fiction that give them a sense of, ok, we are part of this journey in this country. 250 years, we are part of this. Peter i want to let our viewers know, in a few minutes dr. Hayden has to leave because she has to go to mc an event. But, we want to hear from you is morning before our first event. What are you reading . We have been talking a lot of books. It is interesting to hear from you, what is on your reading list, what is on your bedside table . Start dialing in. 202 is the area code. 202 7488000 if you live in the eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001 for those o you in the mountain and pacific time zones. If you cannot get through on the phone lines and still want to make a comment, use the text line, 202 7488003. If you send a text, please include your first name, your city and the name of the book that you are reading. Back to some books we are going to hear from today on the National Book festival. Here is this one. Dr. Hayden nonfiction, this book is getting a lot of traction especially at this time in our country. Poverty by america, matthew desmond. It is nonfiction. It talks about the issues around poverty. It gives you the historical perspective, but also some things to think about as we look into income inequality. It is very gripping. People are reading it and listening to it and talking about this book. The author will be here. We think the question and answer periods going to be interesting. Peter this is an awardwinning book. Dr. Hayden she was given the library of congress is prize for american fiction. She is going to not only talk about her novel, but also her life and how they affect what she does. That is going to be really touching. She is one of the people i have on my nightstand. [laughter] peter dr. Hayden, you mentioned the National Book festival has always been free. But, a Convention Center is not free. All this, bringing in authors, is not free. How do you do this . Dr. Hayden we have sponsors. Our cochair for the National Book festival who has been cochair for a number of years, mr. David m rubenstein, is a major sponsor. We have sponsorship from corporations, organizations, we have 1000 volunteers, the Junior League of washington is right here. There are so many entities. General motors. It is really wonderful. The sponsorship, to make it for. Of course, cspan, and you have to show the bag. Peter you are right. Dr. Hayden book lovers love ads. Each year, there is a different color. As a book lover, i can tell you it is designed to hold a lot of bags a lot of arm room there. This one is the 25th anniversary. Definitely, make sure you get a bag. Peter this is book tvs 25th anniversary. We will be talking about that a little bit later. It is the 23rd anniversary of the National Book festival, 25th anniversary of book tv. We have 92,000 hours of programs in our archives you can watch, all free, all online, all authors. Two more books. Dr. Hayden a more tours, the lincoln highway. Many of you know him from a gentleman in moscow. He is here and is going to talk about his new fiction book. You can hold it from the side, turn a bit. It is good. With the pages, how many . [laughter] peter [laughter] i will figure this out. Dr. Hayden i will make you a librarian. [laughter] yes, this is a good summer book. On those rainy days and everything, you just dive into it. Peter i grew up in fort wayne, indiana. The lincoln highway. Dr. Hayden starting from michigan, it is about this crosscountry trip. If you are doing staycations, the book is for you. Rebecca mckay, she has a followup to her book, the great believer. I am a true crime person. I moved on fairytales to true crime. This one really gets charging in. If you like true crime it is fictionalized, but you can get a sense of her, too. That is on the book stand, too. Peter this is on your book stand, and what else . Dr. Hayden well, i have got rk russells book, too. After hearing him speak, i really want to read that one. Then, there is another book, afro chique. Beautiful houses and homes of people of color. Jason reynolds, who is the youth ambassador for the library of congress and author, his home is featured on the cover. That is one it is a dream book. Peter what is the dewey decimal system, and do you still use it today in libraries . Dr. Hayden many do. Usually, elementary and high schools use it. It is a simplified way to classify your fairytales or fiction or nonfiction. The library of congress classification system is much more involved. The library of congress manages the dewey decimal system, as well. That is just a way to make sure you are thinking about things, it is a Search Engine in a way. For books, and to get to what you want. Peter does anybody from the states visit the library of congress . Dr. Hayden yes. If you are 16 and older, you can get a readers card and go into one of the 19 reading rooms physically in washington, d. C. Anybody, anywhere can visit through what we call our digital front door. Llc. Gov. That is where you can explore 61 million items that have been digitized. Rosa parks collection, it has her pancake recipe. Oh, there is a section today about food. I am definitely going to make that. Peter we are covering that live. Dr. Hayden you can go online and look at the papers of 23 president s that have been digitized. All of these wonderful things that are right there. Even if you cannot come physically to washington, d. C. , you can visit us virtually. Peter 800 million budget, 300 300,000 employees . How many of those are dedicated to books itself . You have music divisions. You have there is a film division. Dr. Hayden sound, also when you think about everything that surrounds books and manuscripts and film, we have the National Library for the blind and print the sable that includes people with dyslexia. There are books you can download and listen to. All of these people are working to make sure we provide information and not just physical books, but words and images in as many formats as possible. It is a really exciting time to be at the library of congress, but also libraries in general. Peter two final questions. A lot of the news this year about book bands and as a librarian, what is your take . Dr. Hayden as a librarian, i have been involved with making sure that as one of our colleagues says, freed free people read freely and everyone has a right to know, get information and a right to read. When you think about the rights of parents and guardians, just about everything in their childs life, they have a right to make sure they are the guardians of that. When it gets a little dicier is when there are things that prevent other parents from saying, i want my child to read this book. That is the balance you have to have. Every parent and caregiver can judge what their child should read. Peter what is Colleen Hayden reading . Dr. Hayden oh, my mom is 91. She wont mind me saying this when she passed, she said you can say my age. She has a voracious reader. She has a lot of nonfiction, she loves history but is also a history fan. There is this book by Brandon Slocum about music. An African American violinist, my dad was an africanamerican violinist. It is mystery and all of that. His second book is out. I got it for her. She is quite a reader. Peter is she here today . Dr. Hayden she is watching you. She told me, i am going to do what i always do. I watch book tv. Colleen is watching right now. Peter be sure to bring her the book tv anniversary mug. We are very proud of that. Dr. Hayden is going to be back later today. We have a special announcement. We are going to save that for later this afternoon. Stick with us. Dr. Hayden is coming back to make that announcement. Carla hayden, as always, it is a pleasure. Dr. Hayden i will seem soon. Peter they are going to sneak you offset and i am going to continue to work. We referred to the fact it is book tvs 25th anniversary. I want to give you statistics about that. We have beeon the air for 1300 weends. We have 92,000 hours of programming. We have covered 22,000 authors, 16,000 events have been covered and 871 cities have hosted our programs. We have been to 875 book fairs. Including the National Book festival for 23 years in a row. Here is a look back at the National Book festival over the years. [video clip] it was here in this library, the Great Library of congress, while i was employed in the government job as a young man, that i first discovered the pull of history and first discovered my vocation. Found out what i wanted to do. I can never, ever express sufficiently my gratitude to the library of congress. Or, to the Library System overall. When you think of what we have in this country and our public Library System, there is nothing like it in the world. When you walk through the doors of a Public Library anywhere in the country, little town, big city, does not matter. When you walk through those doors, you are walking through the portals of freedom. In 1950 six, was my brothers and sisters and some of my first cousins, we went down to the Public Library in a little town in alabama, trying to get a library card, trying to check books out. We were told by the library was for whites only and not for colorants. On july 5, 19 98, i went back to the pike county Public Library in alabama for a book signing of my book and hundreds of blacks and white citizens showed up and they gave me a library card. [applause] i came to believe early on, lincoln was where he possessed unusual talent. Yet, it was so hard in that bleak childhood of his to figure out how to learn anything. He later calculated he had only gone to School One Year altogether of formal schooling. His father needed him to work on the farm, his father would loan him out to other farmers to whom he owed credit. He scoured the countryside for books and Read Everything he could lay his hands on. It was said he when he got a copy of the bible or shakespeares plays, he was so excited he could not eat or sleep. The great poet Emily Dickinson once said, there is no spigot like a book to take up lands far away. Lincoln went with lord byrons poetry to spain and portugal. Literature allowed him to transcend his surroundings. I am amazed eisenhower, nixon got along as well as they did. When you think about it, you have to president s rumbling around together. A president is going to be someone who is very driven. He has an agenda. He has a vision. He knows where he is going. You have Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon who becomes his Vice President who already is showing signs he is on his way. The fact they got along so well, as well as they did, i would say i think it is a testament to several things, but first of all, eisenhower should be praised. Eisenhower made the vice presidency significant. He sat my parents 253 nations around the world as goodwill ambassadors. They were in vietnam in 1953. They were in africa, asia and all over the world. Because he believed in person to person diplomacy. He used his Vice President. I think my father liked that. Thats say eisenhower led the way on that relationship. I have spoken to a lot of my grandfathers colleagues over the years, and one in particular was lynn the hall, a former national chairman. I interviewed him in oyster bay, new york, very close to the Teddy Roosevelt homestead some years ago. I asked him that very question. I think he would have agreed with your response entirely, that Dwight Eisenhower was not somebody who enjoyed campaigning, but he said the two greatest natural politicians, the two greatest natural politicians he had seen in his entire life were al smith and Dwight Eisenhower. The one thing i love my job, it is the best and hardest job i have ever had. It has kept me going through four cancer rounds, instead of concentrating on my aches and pains, i know i have to read the , the draft opinion, so i have to somehow let whatever is going on in my body and concentrate on the courts work. When you think about a oneday festival, the National Book festival, and you have over 100 authors from childrens authors, illustrators, graphic novelists, all of these different authors, over 100,000 people come in and celebrate books and reading. You cant have a better time, i think. I am a little prejudice, because i am a librarian. I have to tell you, if anybody wants to get inspired, the book festival is the perfect place. The late eudora welty whose recent death all lovers of literature morning said this about her First Library experience in her autobiography, one writers beginning. She said, my mother wished me to have my own library card to check out books for myself. She took me in to introduce me to the librarian, and she said, eudora is nine years old. She has my permission to read any book she once wants from these shells. The young ms. Welty devoured books. She wrote, 2 x 2, i read Library Books as fast as i could go, rushing them home in the basket of my bicycle. From the minute i reached our house, i started to read. I this was bliss. I knew this was bliss. Peter that was a look at the National Book festival over the past 23 years. We were talking with the librarian of congress, carla hayden, earlier today. Not only can you see your favorite author here today, you can go and buy the book at the book sale shop. Politics and prose, a local store here in washington, d. C. , is selling the books. We wanted to find out what you are reading. Lamarr in the reno valley, california, you are on book tv. What are you reading . Good morning, how are you doing this morning . Peter go ahead. Caller in reading by martha p johnson. How they wrote the gettysburg address over and over again. I enjoy. Peter who was the author again . Caller martin johnson. Peter thank you for calling in. Ray in glendale, arizona. Caller hi, peter. What i am reading right now is able all troubled refuge, about the struggles for newly freed in the civil war. I just finished master slave the husband and wife, which is an excellent book about the same subject. Peter right, which we covered on book tv. Can you tell me how often you read books, how many you have going at once . Do you get through a book a week, or what . Caller i go to the library often. It is just down the block from my house. I look at all the new books first, then besides that one, i have rebel yell, which is a biography of stonewall jackson. I read the latest simon novel. I am all over the map. Peter thanks for spending a few minutes with us. Lets work in caroline in raleigh, north carolina. Caroline, good morning. What are you reading . Caller good morning. A pleasure to speak with you. I wish i was there at the book festival. I am currently reading my book club in rally, we are reading Toni Morrisons bluest sky. Peter and . What do you think . Caller well, we are just getting into it. I cannot believe i have never had a chance to read it before. So far, it has been so profound. Just very interesting to the forward of the book, where she mentions that she is not sure that the book did what she intended it to do in the sense that she wanted people to be jan touched. She wanted people to be moved. I think, literally a call to action with that book. So far, so good. Peter caroline, thanks for being with us. As a reminder, raleigh is only four hours from washington. You can come up to the National Book fair any year you want. We are going to go now to the first author discussion of the day. This is