Victoria’s FIRST Book Festival- What’s your favorite history book ever?
March 6th and 7th marks the inaugural Victoria Texas Book Festival for the Museum of the Coastal Bend located at 2200 E. Red River St. The Victoria Texas Book Festival is a partnership co-hosted by the Museum of the Coastal Bend alongside UHV School of Art & Science, VC Library and the Victoria Public Library. The festival's keynote speaker is Dr. James Bruseth who is the lead archaeologist for the Belle shipwreck and author of the book From A Watery Grave. There will also be local and regional Texas authors on hand to meet and greet whose writings have explored our rich Texas History. The event is free and open to the public. If you want more information just visit MuseumoftheCoastalBend.org
If you're a fan of reading history, especially but not limited to Texas history, I'd love to hear which history book is your favorite read. We are a HUGE Alamo history family. In fact, and I'm not too embarrassed to admit this, we collect Alamo toy solders in the hopes of one day creating a massive Battle of the Alamo diorama for display in our living room. When our family travels to San Antonio for an overnight adventure we always stay in a hotel room that overlooks the historic Alamo grounds. BIG FANS.
Fun fact: Did you know at one time British rocker Phil Collins owned over a hundred million dollars in Alamo artifacts? One of the biggest gems in his collection is a rifle owned by Davy Crockett, and a Bowie owned by none other than Jim Bowie. In the summer of 2014 Phil donated a large portion of his collection to the Texas General Land Office. Insert sigh of relief.
Our top two favorite Texas history books are Texian Iliad by Stephen L Hardin and The Blood of Heroes by James Donovan.
According to True West Magazine truewestmagazine.com Phil Collins has his own list of top 5, and Texian Iliad is this number one hits rocker's number one choice, followed by Exodus From The Alamo, The Illustrated Alamo, The Alamo: An Illustrated History and An Altar for Their Sons.
Read Phil's book,The Alamo and Beyond: A Collector's Journey and "check out"Victoria's first Book Festival March 6th and 7th at the Museum of the Coastal Bend.