A couple of weeks ago I went to Book Expo to nerd-out with book vendors, publishers, authors, and librarians.  It was my first year going, but I had so much fun–I’m not sure how I lived so long without having gone to this!  I got a ton of free things, most of which were advanced readers copies of books that look delicious enough to eat.  I did get a poster I was really excited about–it’s already hanging up in my room.  There were tons of literary famous people (the best kind of famous people, in my opinion).  I got to take a picture with Captain Underpants:

And then I decided I hadn’t collected enough photos of me with men who were not wearing shirts, so I got cornered for a picture at the erotic romance novel table (they had really cool playing cards there):

The book cover models were nice and even gave me a free calendar so I could look at them without shirts every month next year.  It was a fun time.  I got to hear authors I admire (John Green and Lois Lowry) talk about things that matter, and I got to talk to aspiring authors explain how they view libraries in our current economically challenged society.

All in all, I got enough reading material to last me all year, and I even made some friends in the librarian lounge!  I’m already looking forward to next year–I can’t wait to see who they choose to speak in the mornings, and see what’s the big items on the floor.