Tuesday, May 26, 2015

RT Booklovers Convention 2015 Recap

So, a week or so ago, I went to the fabtabulous RT Booklovers Convention! I had a wonderful time and while I was too busy to take pictures, here's what I did all day in booknerd heaven!

The Book Fair
The Book Fair didn't start until 11:00, but by 8:30 the lines were already starting, so my mom and I snagged a spot. We waited in line for 2 1/2 hours, though we luckily had plenty of people to have conversation with and plenty of books to read.
*not my image*
The book fair was crowded. Imagine thousands of book nerds in one place! The book fair lasted until 2:00 and we stayed for all 3 hours. Here's why:
See those stacks of books? Those are all the books I brought to get signed. Turns out that I brought over 90 books. Sounds like a lot, but it's even worse since they changed the rules this year so that you can only bring 10 books at a time per person. My mom kept taking books up and down from our hotel room (thankfully, we were only on the 4th floor, right by the elevators). Except for a few by authors who cancelled, I got ALL of them signed!
I'm not listing all the books I got  signed, but here are the authors that signed my books at the Book Fair:
Ann Aguirre, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Jenna Black, Meg Cabot, Rachel Caine, Kiera Cass, Susane Colasanti, C.C. Hunter, Andrea Cremer, Lindsay Cummings, Liz Czukas, Susan Dennard, Kimberly Derting, Bree Despain, Susan Ee, Jennifer Estep, Sarah Fine, Becca Fitzpatrick, Kami Garcia, Claudia Gray, Colleen Houck, Tara Hudson, Stacey Kade, Justine Larbalestier, Marie Lu, Mary Lindsey, Michelle Madow, Mari Mancusi, Melissa Marr, Jodi Meadows, Page Morgan, Lauren Oliver, Stephanie Perkins, Kristen Simmons, J.A. Souders, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Vincent, Kasie West, and Scott Westerfeld.
And that's not including all the authors who signed my bag and I talked to throughout the day.


The Pizza Party
By the time that we finished at the book fair, it was time to go to the Fierce Reads pizza party. I was very excited for this, but I ended up being disappointed. There were already hundreds of people in line, so we didn't get in until 2:30-ish. The first 100 people got Fierce Reads bags. I was obviously too late for this, but while I was in line someone gave me their bag, since they didn't need it. There were 4 books inside, 2 of which I already had, so I gave them to someone behind me in line. By the time we got inside, they were out of pizza. My mom waited for them to have more, but it turned out they didn't even have cheese (which I think should be a given), being a vegetarian, I had to opt out (my mom did go get me a grilled cheese from our hotel when I went to the panels, so I didn't starve). I was also expected BINGO and prizes, as that's what they said on the website, but nope. The only bright side to the pizza party was that I got to meet Katie Finn/Morgan Matson ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE AUTHORS!

The Panels
*sorry for the bad image*
The first panel I went to was Family Feud. It's just like the usual Family Feud, but with authors as contestants and YA oriented questions. This was a very fun panel! The most interesting (and horrifying) question was "Most awkward thing [the authors] had to sign" Answer: Body parts, Baby/Child, Food, and Someone else's book.

After that we went to the Match Game, again, it's like the Match Game, but with authors and YA questions. The info is misleading because the questions weren't trivia questions, but fill-in the blank. There would be a question like "You're writing a scene and reach next to you to drink a large glass of ______" The authors would write their answers on notecards and then reveal them to see if their answers match the two teens playing. This one was also very fun! A lot of the interesting things came from Brendan Reichs, mostly since he always answered with Dumbledore and that he was (probably) the only guy in the room.

Teen Day Party
Finally, it was time for the party! We got out of Match Game early only to find that the Teen Day party was already very very long. This worried me, as the first 500 teens would get a swag bag. When we got into the room, we were told to sit at a table with an author. We just choose a random table, which turned out to have Rachel Caine, Cynthia Hand, and Alyson Noel. After everyone was in, we all played a trivia game and the tables with the most points would get to go first. This was really different than last time and I was miffed because it was obvious that some people used the google and some tables had an advantage (Richelle Mead's table for one. And that question had 3 points to it).
Here's the trivia if you're wondering (as well as our answers):

We got 7 points out of 14, so we had to wait. I ended up having nothing to worry about, as there we more than enough bags and books to go around.
Here's some of the swag I got
This is my bag by the end of the day
And here are the books I got!

Overall, I did have a very great time! I was very happy by the end of the day! I got to meet so many authors and have a good laugh! I didn't have as much fun as last year, but that's mainly because of the crowds.

I really want to go again next year, but Vegas is further away from me. Wouldn't be that much of a problem, but it's also during the school year and I can't go roadtripping during the school year. BEA will be closer to me, but it just HAS to be during finals week!
Anyway, if you ever get the change GO TO THIS! I especially recommend the Teen Day events! :)




2 comments :

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  2. Wow! Awesome recap:) You got 90 books signed:O Amazing! I only brought 10 because I didn't want to go back and forth:P Awesome haul!

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