The inaugural BOOKED! fest is now less than a day from completion, and results have been mixed. The flagship Stephen King event went off well, and some readings drew solid numbers, including Kenneth Oppel’s on Saturday afternoon and Susan Juby’s on Friday.

Elsewhere, though, some events have been spotty. Most of Friday’s children’s programming was cancelled on late notice, after planned school-group visits fell through. And Saturday morning’s lineup of kids’ authors at the CBC Atrium began inauspiciously, with only two children in attendance – one of them the son of a publishing exec. (Said nine-year-old soon distinguished himself as the hero of the morning with his energy and enthusiasm, as did the authors – Ruth Ohi, Heather Collins, Bill Richardson, Linda Granfield, and Evan Solomon.) Over the next two hours, the crowd grew to six kids, who enjoyed very up-close-and-personal readings. (Author Kevin Sylvester cancelled.)

Throughout most of Saturday afternoon’s “History of War” group reading at Fort York, featuring three military history authors, there were half a dozen audience members on-site – fewer than the number of people present connected with the event.

Among the events still to come as of this writing are the Ami McKay-led event to be held late Saturday afternoon, Saturday night’s panel featuring Naomi Klein and Christopher Hitchens, and Sunday’s James Patterson event.