Once a taboo topic, marijuana-related books now flood American stores, promising everything from gardening and cooking tips, to hours of stoned coloring joy.

On Thursday, August 17 in San Francisco, hundreds of Bay Area cannabis fans and allies celebrate the bumper crop of books with the free event Lit LIT! — The New Pot Book Author Showcase, featuring leading voices, free food, drink, music, readings, signs and book sales. Coming to 60 13th St. #D in San Francisco — the headquarters of the Meadow pot tech company, Lit LIT! includes interviews and panel discussion with:

• Big Book of Buds Greatest Hits chief editor Ellen Holland (an editor at Cannabis Now Magazine) 
• The Newbies Guide to Cannabis & The Industry author Chris Conrad with Jeremy Daw (The Leaf Online) 
• and The Medical Marijuana Guidebook author David Downs (a freelancer who appears in Scientific American, edits Smell the Truth on SFGate,com, writes the column Legalization Nation in the East Bay Express). 
  

Just in time for the legalization vote, Ed Rosenthal’s Big Book of Buds Greatest Hits distills the best-selling series into 95 essential, commercially available strains, with gorgeous, mouth-watering art high resolutions photos and insider tips on cultivation. Chief editor Ellen Holland updated and curated the reference book. Holland coordinates the content for Cannabis Now Magazine, the first marijuana magazine available on iTunes with publications now available at airports nationwide, and is working with Rosenthal on the 2017 release This Bud’s for You: Selecting, Growing and Enjoying Legal Marijuana.

World-class cannabis expert Chris Conrad teaches at Oaksterdam University and the International Pharmacological Academy and has given numerous presentations for continuing legal education (CLE) and continuing medical education (CME) programs. Conrad and Daw’s “The Newbies Guide to Cannabis & The Industry” helps direct the wave of green rush entrants toward success in the industry, which will generate $40 billion in economic activity by 2020. Daw graduated Harvard Law School and also authored Weed the People: From Founding Fiber to Forbidden Fruit.

Best-selling author and award-winning journalist David Downs wrote The Medical Marijuana Guidebook at the request of patients now living in U.S.' 37 medical marijuana states.

Called 'America's medical pot whisperer', Downs reaches a combined two million readers per month through his outlets, including the East Bay Express, Smell the Truth on SFGate.com, CULTURE Magazine, Cannabis Now Magazine, and The Hash podcast.  Downs contributed to 2014’s best-selling Beyond Buds by Ed Rosenthal with David Downs, and releases Marijuana Harvest by Ed Rosenthal and David Downs this Fall. Downs is producing Lit LIT! as part of a three-year-old author event series.

“Every author appearing is a huge book nerd at heart. It’s a privilege to be able to combine both the love of scholarship, the love of cannabis, and help change lives for the better,” he said.

The 2016 book authors will be joined in conversation with special surprise guests, before breaking for book sales, signings, and refreshments 6:00-8:00 p.m. Thursday.

The free event is reachable via BART’s 16th St. station and a 10-minute walk.

The event is made possible in part by media sponsors: East Bay Express - Legalization Nation; Smell the Truth on SFGate.com; Cannabis Now Magazine; Quick American Publishing; Reset.Me alternative health journal; The Hash podcast; as well industry sponsors like Meadow technology; the Berkeley Patients Group dispensary in Berkeley; Bay Area C.R.A.F.T. delivery and readers like you.

Stay tuned for more sponsors and guests. And RSVP for your place at Lit LIT! using eventbrite.