BEA Adventures

As you probably already know, I took the last week off from work, from reading, from blogging, and made the trip to New York City for BEA (Book Expo America). I flew up on Saturday (though the conference itself did not begin until Tuesday) and stayed with a friend who lives on the East Side, many, many blocks from the Javits Center. On Saturday and Sunday, I partied with my friend, and I'll spare you the details of that, both because I'm not really all that interesting myself, and because it doesn't have anything to do with books. If you want to know more, you can totally tweet me about it though.

Monday, or How I Made Some Blogging Friends:
I decided to attend BBC (Book Blogger Con) on the last day when tickets could still be purchased at a reduced rate. It seemed like a good chance for networking, and would also give me a dry run at locating the Javits and navigating around the building (which, by the way, is totally labyrinthine).

The complimentary breakfast was a choice between a bagel or a muffin, accompanied pretty much solely by coffee. Since I don't like coffee, I poured myself cups of the milk that was intended to be used for the coffee and ate a bagel. I chose to sit at the table for Jenny Han. We also got to talk briefly (the authors were speed dating with the bloggers) with Tricia Rayburn and one other author. You'll have to pardon my completely awful memory. Lunch, too, had this speed dating with authors, and, for that meal, I was at a table with authors I was completely unfamiliar with, although they were all very nice, despite my inability to recall their names now. There were basically two tables for YA authors, and a zillion YA bloggers, so, for some odd reason, those filled up fast.
 

Jenny Han at the Author Breakfast

Other than the meals, the day was primarily speakers and panels. Jennifer Weiner was the opening speaker. Her speech was pretty amusing, although not too much about blogging particularly, and more about her personal struggles and successes. Anyway, I got the definitely feeling that she uses that speech frequently, throwing in a couple different slides depending on the audience. I was super uncomfortable the whole time, because I really wanted to turn my chair, but the folding chairs in the Javits require Herculean effort to move. I don't know why, but this is true facts.

My favorite panel was the one on critical reviews. Basically, we all should be honest, but avoid libel. I think I'm good for the most part, except maybe that one review where I said that if Jane Austen really were a vampire, then she would totally murder a particular author. That might have been crossing a line. :-p The discussion was fantastic, except for one obnoxious man who will not be getting any favorable reviews from us.

The other panel I attended was on demystifying the publisher/blogger relationship. Honestly, though it was interesting, I am just as confused as I was before. Perhaps if I hadn't been too afraid of offending people and had asked the things I really wanted to know, I would have learned something. Oh well. In case you're curious, what I want to know is this: 1) If publishers supposedly like honest reviews so much, why do bloggers who rarely give reviews below a four seem to always get twenty books a week? and 2) Why do publishers send some bloggers multiple copies of a single title, rather than spreading them out? Also, why do they send books without asking, meaning that some books immediately get thrown out or passed on? This seems like a waste to me. If anyone knows, I would love to understand.

The closing address was Jenny Lawson, who is completely hilarious and awesome. I really should be reading The Bloggess. I snagged a copy of her (mostly true) memoir and got her to sign it. Very excited to read it. :D

Jenny Lawson, the Bloggess

All in all, it was good, but I don't think I'll ever go again. I really don't feel like it was worth the money. However, I did make some lovely friends in a group of Virginia bloggers, so that was awesome. They were definitely some of my favorite people as I went around the conference.

Tuesday, or, How I Would Have Died Without Fake Steph
One of the awesome bloggers I met on Monday was Steph, the blogger behind The Fake Steph. We already followed each others blogs and she was one of the people I was hoping to run into (I'll have a list of awesome people I met at the end of the post with links and all that jazz, but Steph gets a link now, because she did an awesome favor for me, namely let me put some books in her checked bag (at the Javits...this is not about airplanes).

Anyway, I realized pretty much first thing that my schedule for BEA was exceedingly optimistic. I had this giant list of signings I wanted to maybe go to, multiple for most half hours. Yeah, so not happening. You could pretty much get to one signing an hour, unless it was a big one. For some, you needed at least two hours, like the Pitch Dark Days Signing, the HarlequinTeen signing on Thursday, the Chris Colfer signing or Melissa Marr's Carnival of Souls. Thing the first to know about BEA: the lines are ridic.

I picked up most of the books I wanted on Tuesday (35), and it was seriously heavy. I spent all of my time on the floor, and totally forgot to eat breakfast or lunch (bad plan).

From 3-5, I was at the Apocalypsies event, where I met every single one of them that was at BEA. That was awesome, and they're all SO NICE. Some of them even knew who I was, which was just totally mind-blowing. They also gave me some of my only sustenance of the day (a cookie). Also, look how pretty they are!

The Audies, or, How Neil Gaiman Gave Me a Hug
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the Audie Awards, which was pretty freaking cool, and definitely the fanciest party I've ever been to. I really wish I'd had a camera, but it didn't fit in my clutch purse.

There was an open bar, which is super awesome, although I probably should have been more mindful of how little I'd had to eat that day. Thankfully, my German heritage was up to the challenge.

I met some lovely folks from HarperCollins Audio and Tantor Audio, and made some friends who were also there solo (always an awkward prospect). The highlight of the whole thing of course was that Neil Gaiman gave me a hug (or half of one, while also balancing a plate of food). Yes, I have showered since, because I don't want that to be the last hug of my life. I was totally starstruck for like an hour afterwards.

The awards themselves were interesting, but I don't have much to say on that score, since you can totally look up the winners yourselves. Anyway, the main thing I took away from that is that I should definitely listen to Bossypants, because Tina Fey is the best ever (so knew that).

Wednesday and Thursday, or, How I Got MORE Books
Wednesday morning, I attended the Random House Power Readers breakfast, which was super fancy and awesome. Unfortunately, I was totally feeling sick, so I couldn't really eat any of the delicious food, which still totally makes me want to cry. I was even thinking I might have to miss BEA that day, but I did start feeling better, thank Zeus. Anyway, thanks to the wonderful folks at Random House!

Honestly, I feel like I've given way too many details already, so I'm going to condense this down and say that I got more books and it was awesome. I do want to do a shout out to the amazingness of bloggers, librarians and authors, though. Three books I got I would not have managed to procure were it not for the magnanimous natures of people I met, so I want to take the time to thank them properly.

At one point on Tuesday, I could not walk anymore, so I headed for the Russia booth, because I knew they had chairs (red, of course). A man started talking to me, and we had a lovely conversation, during which he offered me one of his extra copies of Barbara Kingsolver's latest. Did I want it, he asked? Umm, hell yes! I adore Kingsolver's work. Thanks Brad!

Waiting in line for Prodigy, I was talking to an educator in line behind me. She had made it to the HarlequinTeen signing that day (Wednesday...the line was too long for me to get to that one, although I made it to the previous day's) and she didn't want Pushing the Limits, which was the book I most wanted, so she gave it to me. Thank you very much, Lanna!

The LINES

On Thursday, waiting in line for a book (I don't remember which), I started talking to Donna, who was in line behind me. We were talking about various signings and things we'd been to, and she mentioned that she had multiple copies of The Fault in Our Stars. She is the sweetest because she let me have one, and I am under strict orders not to give it away, which so would never happen. I love John Green, but it was ticketed and I did not have a ticket. Donna, you rock. Also, you can check out her blog here.

Who I Met (and Remember)
April of Good Books and Good Wine: http://www.goodbooksandgoodwine.com/
Steph of The Fake Steph: http://www.thefakesteph.com/
Kim of On the Wings of Books: www.onthewingsofbooks.com/
Kate of Midnight Book Girl: http://www.midnightbookgirl.com/
Nicole of Nicole About Town: www.nicoleabouttown.com/
Tara of Hobbitsies: http://hobbitsies.net/wordpress/
Aly of My Heart Hearts Books: http://myheartheartsbooks.blogspot.com/
Anna of Anna Reads Books: http://www.annareads.com/
Brad of Film Festival Traveler: http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/
Olivia of The Reading Enchantress: www.thereadingenchantress.blogspot.com/
Donna of First Novels Club: http://www.firstnovelsclub.com/
Kassia of The Fictionators: www.fictionators.com/
Some of the Apocalypsies: http://apocalypsies.blogspot.com/

What I Got
Assuming my boxes arrive safely, my book haul is (I think) 55. Awesome, right? I tried to be selective or it could have been more. 12 came home in my carry-ons, so you can see those on today's On My New Arrivals Shelf post. :)