I’m not a librarian. (A few job interviews and a perfect score on an entry exam for entry-level work at the local libraries are as far as I’ve gotten to that career path.) So I’ve certainly never made a point of attending the American Library Association conference before. It’s one of those cons that floats around the country once or twice a year. A couple of weeks ago, thanks to my Twitter feed, I discovered it was being held in Chicago this summer, which is somewhat easy commuting distance for me. With a little research, I discovered it was open to the public and there was an affordable exhibits-only entry fee. With the blessing of one of my librarian friends (how can you be a book lover and not know more than one?), I decided to go ahead and go, and stop worrying about con-crashing something intended for a different career field than the one I’m in.
After all, I’m a writer and a reader, so we all love books, right? And I do love comic book, entertainment and anime conventions, so I was eager to attend what would be my first “book convention.”
It was a lot of fun! It was also very crowded, but NYCC holds the record for most-people-squishing-me-into-booths still. (And hey, sometimes being squished into booths is a good thing, like when I was accidentally squished into a signing line on my way out, and it turned out to be for free graphic novels and signatures from a few comic book writers!) I’m so grateful for the opportunity to attend and to be introduced to popular and upcoming books, and to meet a few authors of those books in person, all of whom completely rocked. It’s a good thing I was nearly finished with all the books on my to-read shelf because I just filled it up with these:
And I also got my paws on some cool posters!
Sorry for the glare. Was anyone else there? Did you attend any signings or panels?
Amy McNulty 