ALA Conference 2014

URMAGAWD VEGAS

VEGASSSSSSSSSSSS

The ALA Conference was quite a trip.

I arrived on Thursday and managed to make it back to Michigan on Sunday.

I attended the Conference on Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday.

I also did some other Vegas things.

The first night I arrived, we went to see the Jabbawockeez show as it was conveniently at the hotel we were staying at. It was an amazing show. I also tried my hand at gambling ($1 bet) and came out with $1.32 - before I tried again and got down to $0.03. The house always wins and I get really bored with gambling (because let's face it, they're not books).

The first day of ALA (Friday) was madness as the exhibits were only open from 5:30pm - 7pm. Not a huge window to get everything done in.

We checked in and waited with everyone else for the doors to open and as soon as they did, the crowd surged forth in a merry WANT BOOKS kind of way.

In the hour and a half, I gathered close to 40 books with the help of a couple of book buddies (which included my sister and a best friend from college).

FIRST DAY HOARD

Now from my past experience with ALA Chicago WHICH YOU CAN READ ABOUT HERE I knew that there would be a post office area to ship books home in (so you don't have to lug them around the plane).

....however, the post office was not open on Friday. All of the books, bags, and book goodies rode in a taxi with me back to the hotel. Not an A+ way to start the conference, but it made sorting easier.

That night, we went to a Cirque Du Soleil show (Zarkana) and called it an evening.

POST OFFICE

We returned to the conference bright and early on Saturday and immediately went to the post office. It was full of other folks who had the same idea and I crossed paths with many cool people as we waited in line. But the lines. THE LINESSS. The preferred method for getting boxes through lines was putting them underneath the barriers and waiting to move them again until you reached that point on the other side. Or...you shoved the box along the floor with your foot until reaching the front (like I did). I really appreciate the post office for being open and there and sending all my books back home.


After the post office, I waited in HUGE lines for books to be signed by the authors. It was awesome to see how many other people care about literature and can get super excited about meeting the creator of said literature.

Shout out to my book buddies, yes the lady creeping
behind us is part of the book entourage.

I definitely appreciated having my book buddies there as we could rotate who waited in what line when so we made sure to get one copy of each book we wanted so we could share them with each other (WINNING!).

As the conference wound down for the day, I sent another box of books out, and headed back to the hotel.

Where I promptly took a nap. Because I'm old and get tired.

We went out to see the Divas show and ride the high roller that night. It was a blast!

The line for Ally Condie was HUGE
(it wrapped around a few booths).

On Sunday there was a lot of grogginess and exhausted noises as we forged through the morning routines and made it back to ALA for one last Hurrah of getting books. I randomly bumped into Scot Westerfeld while waiting to have a book signed and he was very nice.

Sunday was mostly waiting in lines to get books and a few here or there (another box full though - a last trip to the post office was mandatory).

I packed it in, wished my book buddy who was staying a bit longer well, and made my way to the airport.

It was a good trip and I'm very excited for all the books that will be arriving in the mail over the course of a couple weeks (hopefully).

I'm kind of glad that the conference happens only once a year (I know there's a winter meeting but it's my understanding there are less book giveaways and author appearances) as I'm pretty freaking exhausted.

Book blogs are in the near future...maybe in a couple of days so I can catch up with my life outside of books.

Until then, HAPPY READING!!!