At past  National Book Awards, held at Manhattan's Marriott Marquis Hotel, I would attend as a member of the press, sitting upstairs in the peanut gallery, munching on a sandwich, and taking notes, while  black-tied nominees and their publishers dined below on banquet rubber chicken. But this year, the organizers limited the number of press passes , so I did not go. One reason  may be,  I suspect, that  too many people were attending just to watch, and not report, on the events. But I think also another factor lies in the increased number of literary bloggers covering the event. If you want to get a sense of what the evening was like, check out  this web video posted by the Publishing Spot's Jason Boog. 

And  Confessions of an Indiosyncratic Mind's Sarah Weinman offers a terrific overview of the activity upstairs: "I  was amazed at the content generated up in the press box, from print journalists scrambling to meet near-impossible deadlines to bloggers mixing mini-podcasts and videos on the fly....Content wins out , no matter what."