1. BEA 2010 - I tell you, the first time I stepped foot into the Javits Center for the first time I ever went to BEA is beyond compare. It was sickeningly early. I had gotten next to no sleep. I just got through doing lots of stuff on my own that I'd never done on my own, and I'll admit, it was a little on the stressful side. And it cost a hell of a lot of money to get there, but that first moment when I glimpsed the Javits all decked out in bookish finery made it all worth it. And everything after that just made it ten times better.
2. Getting Chris Van Allsburg's autograph - I'm a book girl, not really an "author" girl, so getting autographs isn't an activity that really lights my fire, but it was pretty awesome to meet an author/illustrator who so shaped my young bookish life.
3. Selling the last Harry Potter - I was working at Borders in Boston when the last Harry Potter book came out. I can remember working at the register that Saturday and doing nothing but ringing up Harry Potters for hours without flagging. Even then, the book naysayers were all like "the book is dying, nobody reads any more, wah wah wah." That day was the perfect antidote.
4. Getting hired at Borders in the first place - I always wanted to work at a bookstore, but never suspected that the opportunity would present itself. The store was huge and amazing, and I had a hard time believing it even existed, so getting to work there for a few months was priceless.
5. Reading til Midnight - When I was a kid I would always spend New Year's Eve with my grandparents at their cabin. My grandmother would always fall asleep early, but I insisted on staying up until midnight. My grandfather would keep me company and more often than not we'd end up reading by the fire until the New Year showed up.
6. Summer reading - (had me a blast?) Getting the whole summer free to gobble up books of my choosing without the hassle of jobs and bills and assorted responsibilities is one of the things I miss the very most about my childhood. Best of all, though, was when my dad and I would pay my other set of grandparents a visit during the summer. My dad and pap would go fishing while I hung out with my gram and read book after book with nary a distraction unless you count the toasty warm summer weather and passing wildlife.
7. The summer my mother and I discovered that all the local libraries had used book sales - And on that day, my life truly began. ;-)
8. Being the Accelerated Reader champion - I guess Accelerated Reader is still a thing now, but it was just starting to be a big deal when I was in middle school. You'd read books, log on to a computer to take test on it in, like, DOS. (What's this here Windows crap?) Pass the test, get points. For several of my years in middle school I was the champion point getter in my grade, made all the more impressive by the fact that there was a kid in my grade who actually read Moby Dick as a 7th grader just for the ridiculous amount of points on the AR test. Yeah, I beat that kid (er, but not the year he read Moby Dick. At the ripe old age of 28, I still have no interest in reading Moby Dick, no matter how many points it might be worth! LOL). What's more, I think most of my friends actually thought that was cool. ;-)
9. My first author comment - Okay, maybe this is more of a blogging memory, but look, we're at #9. Things are getting a little thin here. For what it's worth, it was Jennifer Donnelly after I was gushing about A Northern Light. I don't think it occurred to me until then that authors might actually read my blog. I was surprised and delighted to see that it could be so.
10. BEA 2011 - No sophomore slump on this one. By the time 2011 ruled around, I'd become much better at hanging out with bookish people and enjoyed that aspect of things so much more since I wasn't so utterly overwhelmed and exhausted. Plus, there was the awesome surreality of hanging out in Simon and Schuster's building that one afternoon being served delicious guacamole and pitched delicious books. It was one of those strange moments where I was thinking, "Hey, wasn't I a bored unemployed chick only three years ago or so who thought writing about books on the internet might fill up the empty hours? Where am I? How exactly did I go from being a book nerd holed up at my desk with my not high-functioning laptop to this?" If you know what I'm saying.
What are some of your favorite bookish memories?
Fun list, Megan! I'm still giggling over #7. :D
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I'd have trouble ranking them but BEA and SIBA would certainly be on the list. Hanging out with some of my favorite authors would be too. Are you going to BEA this year?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about the BEA-related memories. My first trip, in 2010 I think, I got there on the last day and only had a few hours to wander. But I distinctly remember coming up the stairs to meet two bloggers in person for the first time and just the overwhelming sense of awesome I had, both being there and meeting people I "knew" from online for the first time. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteAwesome memories! I hope to add the BEA thing to my stash one of these years!
ReplyDeleteAwww, these are wonderful memories! I still want to work in a bookstore, so I am jealous of anyone who has had the opportunity to do so.
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