BEA Pictures

Since I still do not have working internet (this post is being done from the library), this will not have too much substance to it, but here are some of my pics from BEA.

This is the Javits Center where the conference was held.  This picture is of the people in line behind us to get into the exhibits.

Here is Abby with Super Chicken Nugget Boy, who I believe has a book coming out soon.  As a vegetarian, I should find this offensive, but he is just so darn cute!  There were several characters like this walking around BEA including a book, some pirates, and several weird puppets that we learned to avoid.

This picture is kinda dark, so you might not be able to tell, but it is Tony Hawk.  If I had paid more attention to my program and realized he was there, I would have gotten in line for his book.  But by the time I realized he was there, the line was so long I couldn’t even find the end.  But I was brave enough to push past the paparazzi and news cameras to take my own pic.  I think it is kind of funny that he is sitting in front of a book called The Amish Way.

Here is a picture of me with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney.  I actually did wait in line for his book and got his autograph.  It was a very well managed line and even though it was super long, I only waited about 15 minutes.  They even had someone standing there with the sole job of taking pictures for you.  If you notice, my forehead is glistening with sweat.  That is because BEA is HARD WORK!  You can’t tell from the picture, but there is a huge bag filled with probably 20 books at my feet that practically broke my shoulder.  I felt a little bad standing so close to Mr. Kinney when I was all sweaty and gross.

Here is the giant typewriter at the Abrams booth that Jeff Kinney was sitting next too.  Did I mention how awesome Abrams was??

This is my spot in line for the Author Breakfast on Thursday morning.  I don’t know if you can tell how far ahead the line goes, but trust me, it went on FOREVER.

Here is the man himself, Jon Stewart.  He was funny, charming, and just a little bit irritable, which was pitch perfect.

If you want to see more BEA pictures, you can go to my Flickr page.  Also, make sure to check out Abby’s BEA recaps that are much more informative than mine.  Recap 1 Recap 2 Recap 3

Jen

BEA Highs and Lows

I am very relieved that I survived my first (and probably last) BEA experience.  It was a whirlwind trip that is unfortunately still going on.  My flight to Chicago got canceled, so I am chilling in a hotel (that I had to pay for) and waiting for my flight to leave tomorrow afternoon.  Yeah, that’s right….I will be getting home 24 hours after I was originally supposed to.  I hope my cats are okay.

Since I am still a little crabby about the whole airport fiasco and not in the mood to read, I thought I would post about my favorite parts of BEA.  I wish I had pics to share, but they will have to come later since my camera cord is at home.

Here are the best parts of BEA:

**Getting to see Abby!!  I haven’t seen her in months, so it was great to get to hang out with her again.  She was the perfect partner in crime to tackle the expo.

**The librarian’s dinner on Tuesday night was awesome!  We got like five books and dinner for free just for being librarians!!  All five authors spoke and they all did so well.  Jane Green was my fave because her accent was so cute, but I loved them all!

**The author’s breakfast with Jon Stewart, John Grisham, Condoleezza Rice, and Mary Roach.  Even though I didn’t get to actually meet any of these people (sigh) they did an amazing job of speaking.  Each one was really interesting to listen to, and of course, Jon Stewart was hilarious!  I think my favorite had to be Mary Roach, who talked about her new book Packing for Mars.  It’s about the more “human” aspects of astronaut life (like cleanliness, sex, and pooping in space).  I think it will be awesome!!

**Getting Jeff Kinney’s autograph!  I got the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie Diary signed and I am going to use it as a grand prize for the summer reading club (after I read it, of course).  I hope the kids will be as excited about it as I am.

**Getting Wendy Mass’ and Ingrid Law’s new books made the trip for me!!  These ladies are two of my favorites and I literally squealed when I picked up The Candymakers and Scumble.

**The Librarians’ Lounge and the shipping area were so convenient.  A free place to get food and a place to drop off all of my books in order to save my shoulder??  What more could I want??

**Getting free books!!!  Did I mention how amazing it is to get free books!  I did not get a count of how many I actually picked up, but I shipped two giant boxes back along with stowing some of them in my suitcase.  I picked up most of them for the library, but some of them were just for me 🙂

Here were some of the things I was not so fond of:

**The autographing area was not well organized at all.  Sometimes you had to push your way through four layers of people to get through to your line.  At least the lines were filled with polite people (mainly booksellers and librarians) who remained nice even when we all wanted to scream in frustration.

**I am not a fan of the city of New York.  I can’t imagine ever coming here as a tourist just to be a tourist.  Taking a cab ride anywhere is terrifying and walking is even scarier.  I don’t care what kind of wonderful things the city has to offer, I really don’t plan on coming back any time soon.

**There were a lot of rumblings among the seasoned BEA goers that there were not as many ARCs this year and that the publishers were not as willing to give things out.  I have nothing to compare it to, but I did notice that it did not seem to be as magical as everyone had described it (I was not literally swimming in books like I thought I would be).  But I did get a lot of great books and I have nothing to complain about.

**Getting stuck in New York is totally terrible.  Awful, awful awful.  I had an emotional breakdown at the airport in front of a lot of businessmen.  I probably should have been embarrassed, but I will never see these people again, so I did not care.  I am much more calm now, but I am still upset that I won’t be home for another 28 hours.

Overall, it was a great experience and I had a good time picking up books like a human tornado, but I don’t think I would spend the money to come again.

I will be sure to post pictures of all of my fun stuff as soon as my boxes get to the library.

Jen

I’m Going to BEA!!!

I am so excited right now that I can barely contain myself.  In less than 24 hours, I will be in New York City for the Book Expo of America!!  I’ve never been to New York before, so that alone is exciting, but I can’t wait to get my hands on all kinds of free books!!!

I told Abby (the) Librarian (my traveling partner) that I was going to be a human tornado, sucking up every book within range of my flailing arms.  I hope that I can contain myself enough to not be a rude human tornado.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is the Author’s Breakfast on Thursday morning.  I am going to get to eat breakfast with Jon Stewart!!!!  Well, Jon Stewart and hundreds of other people probably.  I will try to take pictures if they are allowed (and even if they’re not tee hee).  He is the person I am most looking forward to seeing.  Also, I would like to get a glimpse of Mo Williams and Adam Rex since they are two of the hot men of children’s literature (also, I happen to like their books).

There are a few titles that I am going to be truly crushed if I don’t get my hands on them, but I am not going to list them here.  I feel like that would jinx it somehow.  But we all know from the Catching Fire incident last year at ALA that there is nothing that will stop me from getting a book I want!  (Unfortunately, we already know that Mockingjay will not be given out, so I am not counting that as one of my titles.)  Wish me luck as I head off into the wild forests of ARCs!  Hopefully I will bring back some good stuff to keep me busy this summer.

Jen

I’m a Travelin’ Fool

I don’t often post about things that are going on with ME (unless it involves my pets), I tend to stick to pop culture stuff like movies and such.  But I am little excited about all of the fun places I get to go this year, so I thought I would fill you all in before I burst from excitement.

Up first, Minneapolis, which might not sound too thrilling, but I’ve never been there before, so it should be fun times.  I am going for my friend’s bachelorette party, so automatically it is going to be awesome.

Then, I am off to New York to go to Book Expo of America!!!!!  I am going with my dear friend Abby, and we are going to spend our time swimming in free books!!  I am also pumped because I coughed up the extra dough to go see Jon Stewart be the MC at the special breakfast on Thursday.  There will be other people there that morning, like, oh, someone named Grisham, but I will only have eyes for Mr. Stewart.

During the summer I am going to sneak off to the wild plains of Illinois for my family reunion!  Or maybe we are going to St. Louis?  I don’t think things have been decided quite yet.  I am not one of the planners, I just show up when people tell me.  I am excited because I haven’t seen my cousin Tedi in a long while because she was in Chlie doing awesome mission work (not during the earthquakes though).

Then…….then, last but not least……I am going on a cruise in December!!!  I have never been on one before, but everyone I’ve talked to says they are amazing!  I am a little terrified of water (actually more than a little) but I like boats.  So I will skip all the special snorkeling trips and stick close to the buffet.

I am going with my friend Leslie to celebrate our 29th birthdays.  We were both born on the exact same day and we are both single, poor, cat ladies.  We are going to celebrate this fact all over the Bahamas (at least I think we are going to the Bahamas…I let Leslie book the cruise because I don’t really know the difference between that and the Caribbean).

Here we are celebrating our 25th birthday

So we have our cruise booked and airline tickets purchased-there is no turning back now!!!

So, I promise to take lots of pictures at all of these events and even hopefully blog about some of them too.  I am glad that I have a lot of awesome things going on before December to keep me busy before the cruise.

Jen