Leave it to a man of words to perfectly sum up the truth about the 25th annual Miami Book Fair International.

''We're just an excuse for you to celebrate your community,'' Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Díaz told his avid audience. At this party, he said, ``we're just the liquor.''

The fair, which carried on through Saturday's sweltering humidity and Sunday's blessed chill, ended Sunday at Miami Dade College with a packed house for Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, who was interviewed by fellow novelist Nathan Englander. The final session isn't always so jammed -- after a long day, perhaps even two days, fair-goers often straggle home early -- but Rushdie drew a capacity crowd. The staff had no firm head count Sunday night, but said they were pleased.

''It went wonderfully well,'' said an exhausted but beaming Alina Interián, executive director of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College. ``Every session I went to was packed, packed, packed.''

At Rushdie's session, she urged audience members to mark their calendars or BlackBerries for Nov. 8-15, 2009, the dates of next year's fair.

Interián admitted she was concerned about the new ticketing process for the weekend Chapman Conference Center events, but said every person without a ticket who waited in the standby line got in to their events.

''I was nervous, but people welcomed that process,'' she said. ``They saw it as a way of assuring them of a seat.''

There were rough patches; some of the volunteers seemed unclear of the procedure for lines early Saturday, but things ran much more smoothly as time passed. Besides, a drop in temperature always brings out the best in heat-weary South Floridians.

Kerry Firth of Pinecrest, sitting in line for the coveted -- and, as it turned out, hilarious -- Dave Barry-Frank McCourt event, said the ticketing was ''a great idea.'' She was there with her mother, Valerie Sawders, and friend Mariela Custer, who had traveled from Las Vegas.

Mary Ann Dybeck of Daytona Beach, who got in to the Carl Hiaasen-Roy Blount appearance without a ticket, had no problem with the process, but wished there were a little more time between all the events she wanted to see. And she echoed the true book fair lover's lament: ``There are always two people you want to see at the same time.''

This year's fair carried a predictable undercurrent: In the wake of the presidential election, everywhere you looked someone was wearing a pro-Barack Obama shirt, pin or hat. This was not surprising, perhaps, given the fair-goers' inclination toward politics of the left, but even authors not usually identified with the subject couldn't help but refer to the election.

Peter Matthiessen said Obama's election ''lances a great boil,'' and that he saw pro-Obama signs in Tanzania. National Public Radio's Scott Simon, whose new comedic novel deals with Chicago politics, joked that ``when President Obama sits down with Vladimir Putin, Americans can be assured it's a Chicago politician vs. the former head of the KGB.''

Dave Barry had perhaps the most Floridian view of the event:

``Let's give it up to Florida for not screwing things up.''

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