Cloudy skies and a few raindrops didn’t keep book lovers away from the Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday. Authors sold books and talked to children, parents, teens and readers of all ages. According to city councilman and festival founder Jud Ashman, the unofficial tally of festival attendees was about 18,000, bypassing 2012’s attendance by about 1,000 people. Attendance was “amazing, given that the weather was pretty iffy,” Ashman said. “I’m really pleased.”