This year, ALA Midwinter was held in Denver. I have always wanted to attend an ALA conference, but I hadn't planned on going this year. Mostly because my library couldn't send me, and to go on your own costs about $300, which I didn't have to spare. I had even almost forgotten about it until the weekend of, and I told John about it. It was he who sparked my interest in it again, as he said "How many times does ALA come to Denver?" I still didn't have enough money to go to the whole conference (nor the time), but the exhibits were running all weekend, and so I decided I should tow John along on Saturday. The exhibits-only cost was $25 per person, but a librarian friend directed me towards free passes online. And so we left around 11:30 (although we got lost in Denver and didn't get to the Colorado Convention Center until an hour later). And although the exhibits were now free, I ended up having to pay $25 for parking.
I think most librarians can agree that the exhibits are the best part of ALA. Walking around, playing with new technologies, and most importantly, gleaning loads of free stuff from the booths and vendors. It was all a bit overwhelming at first, with aisles upon aisles of booths and a veritable ocean of people. I grabbed a free bookbag at the first available opportunity, and I advised John to do the same, in order to hold all our schwag. And at first, it was actually a bit disappointing. Free pens are great and all, but once you get 20 or 30 you start to get a little bored. Then there were the squishy stress balls, the keychains, the rulers, the candy. The hard part was not getting drawn into the vendor's spiel. More than anyone else, I was simply present for the goodies, and since I have absolutely no decision-making power whatsoever in my library, I could have cared less what the vendors had to say or offer.
It got much better when one booth was giving away huge cookies and slices of cake. And then we hit the comic booths, Marvel and Dark Horse, which were both giving out free issues of comics (and pretty famous ones, like Buffy season 8 and Umbrella Academy!). We stood there drooling for awhile before moving on.
But this was nothing compared to what came next. Starting at 2 pm, the publishers' booths were giving away...free books. Seeing those two words together is enough to make me start to tingle. But at first even I had slightly low expectations. They would probably be unpopular or locally written books, given out by local publishers (no offense to local writers). But these were major publishers' booths, like HarperCollins and Random House. And major books, mostly advanced readers copies, from major authors. We made our first rounds and filled up two bookbags apiece, until they could hold no more. I was giddy with excitement (my librarian friend told me I need to get out more!). They were even giving out free hardcover copies of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...a book I really have no interest in, but it's a national bestseller, and the author was there signing it! I couldn't resist. It was when I was standing in line that the excitement (and, I suppose, lack of food and water) got to be too much, and I got light-headed and nearly fainted. John brought me a bottle of water and took my place in line while I recovered. I tried to slow down a little after that, but it was hard. We had to run to the car to pile our books in the trunk, and then we rushed back inside for round 2. There were more books to grab, and the booths we'd already visited were putting out new ones. It became clear that we could just hang around the same spots all afternoon and still get different books. Another trip to the car and a final purge of the area later, and we were exhausted. As we looked at the ridiculous pile in the trunk afterwards, John remarked that it looked like we'd robbed a bookstore. I counted them later, and there were 136 books in all, not including the comics. I didn't even have room for all of them. I gave some to John, some to John's mom, I'm going to send some to my mom, and I took some to work for my co-workers. But the books are still double-stacked on my shelves.
I'm in heaven.
I think most librarians can agree that the exhibits are the best part of ALA. Walking around, playing with new technologies, and most importantly, gleaning loads of free stuff from the booths and vendors. It was all a bit overwhelming at first, with aisles upon aisles of booths and a veritable ocean of people. I grabbed a free bookbag at the first available opportunity, and I advised John to do the same, in order to hold all our schwag. And at first, it was actually a bit disappointing. Free pens are great and all, but once you get 20 or 30 you start to get a little bored. Then there were the squishy stress balls, the keychains, the rulers, the candy. The hard part was not getting drawn into the vendor's spiel. More than anyone else, I was simply present for the goodies, and since I have absolutely no decision-making power whatsoever in my library, I could have cared less what the vendors had to say or offer.
It got much better when one booth was giving away huge cookies and slices of cake. And then we hit the comic booths, Marvel and Dark Horse, which were both giving out free issues of comics (and pretty famous ones, like Buffy season 8 and Umbrella Academy!). We stood there drooling for awhile before moving on.
But this was nothing compared to what came next. Starting at 2 pm, the publishers' booths were giving away...free books. Seeing those two words together is enough to make me start to tingle. But at first even I had slightly low expectations. They would probably be unpopular or locally written books, given out by local publishers (no offense to local writers). But these were major publishers' booths, like HarperCollins and Random House. And major books, mostly advanced readers copies, from major authors. We made our first rounds and filled up two bookbags apiece, until they could hold no more. I was giddy with excitement (my librarian friend told me I need to get out more!). They were even giving out free hardcover copies of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...a book I really have no interest in, but it's a national bestseller, and the author was there signing it! I couldn't resist. It was when I was standing in line that the excitement (and, I suppose, lack of food and water) got to be too much, and I got light-headed and nearly fainted. John brought me a bottle of water and took my place in line while I recovered. I tried to slow down a little after that, but it was hard. We had to run to the car to pile our books in the trunk, and then we rushed back inside for round 2. There were more books to grab, and the booths we'd already visited were putting out new ones. It became clear that we could just hang around the same spots all afternoon and still get different books. Another trip to the car and a final purge of the area later, and we were exhausted. As we looked at the ridiculous pile in the trunk afterwards, John remarked that it looked like we'd robbed a bookstore. I counted them later, and there were 136 books in all, not including the comics. I didn't even have room for all of them. I gave some to John, some to John's mom, I'm going to send some to my mom, and I took some to work for my co-workers. But the books are still double-stacked on my shelves.
I'm in heaven.
The pile of books in the trunk, and the subsequent pile of books on my bed:
1 comments:
Okay that was one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. Fainting from the excitement of books- definitely bibliomania. Sounds like it was worth $25 for parking!
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