Twenty one highlights of my visit to Los Angeles

Here in no particular order, is what I loved about my recent trip to Los Angeles.

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1. The generosity of the LA Times: There were only eight winners, one in each category, but all writers of the 52 books nominated were honoured in a wonderful way. As Dave Eggers said when he received his award, bless the LA Times for its belief in books and in reading and for using its power for good.

2. The LA Times Festival of Books. I have never seen anything like it. 2 days. More than 500 writers. 140 000 visitors. Yep, that's 140 000 visitors, all buying books and engaging with writers. That's over 500 writers.

3. Hanging out with my girl Lisa and driving around LA in the sunshine. Venice Beach! Santa Monica! Bel Air! The Palisades!

4.Yann Martel. He talked about his books, his life, and his hilarious project of sending Canadian premier Stephen Harper a free book every month or so. I loved him. His intelligence and shining kindness. His engagement and his interest in his readers. When I grow up, I want to be Yann Martel.

5. An unforgettable two hours at the Getty, feasting on Da Vinci and Rustici, Goya and Gainsborough, Renoir and Cezanne, Turner and Sargent, Millais and Munch, Degas and Monet, Rubens and van Dyck. And my masters, my Dutch Masters, Brueghel and Steen and Franz Hals and Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt. (I am insanely in love with the 17th century Dutch painters ... one day, when I have recovered, I will write about the disorienting shock I felt on coming face to face with Rembrandt's Nachtwacht in Amsterdam).

6. Graham Farmelo who gave the best and funniest acceptance speech ever when he won for his book The Strangest Man, a biography of the British quantum physicist Paul Dirac.

7. Hanging out with some super cool writers: Philipp Meyer who deservedly won in our category, Paul Harding, the freshly-minted Pulitzer winner who is as nice as they come, Attica Locke, a super sister doing her super thing with crime fiction, Amy Akon, the stylish lady of manners who wears evening wear as day wear and Lisa Fugard who tried to recuit me to do a panel with Ngugi for which I was too chicken!

8. Laying my hands on Ngugi's memoir.

9. The Unexpected Pleasures of Jet-leg Part I: hanging out in the hotel lounge with Aussie writer Christos Tsiolkas. If you haven't already, please do read his award-winning novel The Slap.

10. My panel chair, Alex Espinoza, and fellow panellists Marilyn Chin, Leonard Chang and Chitra Divakaruni who were totally on fire and made an hour seem like a very fun and fast five minutes.

11. The incredible David Shannon who designed the poster for the festival and whose children's book are wonderful splashes of imagination.

12. Sarah Silverman talking about her new book, Bedwetter. She is fiercely funny. Asked why she was fired from Saturday Night Live she said, "You know, I went back the other day and looked at the work I was doing and the reason they fired me is probably that I was crap at my job." Hee. She has this great idea that we should all support: sell the Vatican and feed the world. As she said, "What would Jesus do?" Well, she thought, the same Jesus who chased out the money changers from the temple would definitely be aghast at the wealth of the Vatican. Double hee.

13. The team at my hotel, these gorgeous bell hops and waitrons who are also music and art students. Their very California wake-up call: "Good day this is your wake up call. The team at the Hotel Angeleno wish you a day filled with joy."

14. The booming voice at LAX airport, a sobering reminder that America is a nation at war: "ATTENTION ARMED SERVICE PERSONNEL. Then some bla bla about a free bar with internet where they can relax with family members, followed by: THE NATION THANKS YOU AND SALUTES YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE." Then the national anthem plays and everyone stands at attention. Not.

15. The Unexpected Pleasures of Jet-lag Part II. Watching HBO at 3 in the morning, and catching Al Pacino's seven forehead wrinkles give the performance of their life in "You Don't Know Jack", the story of Jack "Dr Death" Kervokian. Mr. Pacino reminded me of someone and it was really bugging me that I couldn't remember who it was, then on my flight back, I read a People magazine in which the movie was previewed and the writer talked about Al Pacino looking like "Woody Allen in need of a good meal", and I was like bingo!

16. Pam Grier talking about her new book and her life in the movies and the day she and then boyfriend Richard Pryor put a sick horse in the backseat of her convertible and drove the poor thing on the freeway to the vet ... "And all people could see where these two black people with a horse in the back seat of the car," said Pam. She had some great stories about being offered the role of Jackie Brown by Quentin Tarantino and about falling off a stallion in Rome and landing at the feet of Federico Fellini. What a star!

17. The food. Brioche French toast with maple syrup and bacon. Fluffy blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and sausages. Spicy California rolls. Spicy tuna rolls. Blue cheese hamburgers. Carrot cake with icing. I feel hungry just writing this.

18. The Unexpected Pleasures of Jet-lag Part III. Six, that's six, back to back episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I don't watch TV regularly, you see, so this was a real treat. If I was into cars, which I am not, I would say the Law and Order franchise is like a series of elegant Jaguars, while the entire CSI franchise is like those yellow Lamborghini cars with the doors that open up, and you think, well it does what it says on the box, but why is the freaking door opening up? And who buys a yellow car??

19. Booths, booths and more booths. The book festival really was a microcosm of America in all its lunatic diversity. From this booth, the Communist Party of America promises revolution. From that one, Jews for Jesus offer salvation. Over there, the Scientologists promise some kind of space travel. Just two hundred metres away is a cheeky riposte to the Scientologists: a booth dedicated to the "Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard". Oh snap! And if material and not spiritual comfort is what you wanted, there was more than enough book-related stuff to buy. I fell in love with a little outfit called Little Bookwormz that makes t-shirts "for the cultured kid". See their wares here.

20. How fitting was it that I bought my copy of the latest issue of Granta, the Sex issue, in LA?

21. The Unexpected Pleasures of Jet-lag, Part IV. American adverts for health products. My goodness, President Obama was right to make healthcare an absolute first term priority! You know how Nicholas I of Russia described the Ottoman empire as the Sick Man of Europe? He hadn't been to America, which clearly has the sickest men and women of all time. Every other advert is for one drug or another. And they all seem to have side effects like heartburn and dizziness and diarrhoea and constipation and nausea and one even had this side effect :"it can lead to thoughts of suicide". Man, if that is the cure, I would sure hate to have the disease! And is nothing sacred any more? "I like to do all sorts of things with my friends," chirped one chirpy lassie, "Even on an over-active bladder. So I take care with Vesicare". Okaaaayyy!!! You go girl, with your over-active bladder, you!