The Los Angeles Times Festival of books is a really great opportunity to explore interesting topics in a panel/lecture format, or mill around and soak up the bookseller/street fair vibe. The best thing to do is to get a schedule ahead of time and RSVP for some of the discussions, which are always very broad in range (one year I saw Ray Bradbury discuss his career and then caught a lecture on "Motives for Murder: Mystery Fiction").