Our members did not discuss plans for books prior to going.
When we met afterwards we found each of us had vowed not to bring home books. Amazingly, none of us told anyone else of our resolve. Guess we really were sick of reading.
Though we'd all gone past the publishers' booths on Preview Night, no one went to one on Thursday. Every member had spent the day in panels or on the south end of the exhibit hall.
That resolve weakened on Friday though, as the panel options were less appealing. We all acquired a book or two that day.
By Saturday we were all back in full collection mode, though we each passed up books that didn't look interesting. Some of us even went to publisher booths at 4:30 on Sunday, when the publishers were clearing out their booths. One PAL claims her best swag was the cold can of Diet Coke one booth passed out as it cleared out the refreshments it had stocked for its staff.
At our first meeting after the Con we shared the books we'd acquired. Among us we'd acquired copies of Red Rising and Her Majesty's Dragon signed by their authors, books we'd reviewed last year. Several of us had already read some of their swag books, and we readily agreed they should write reviews of them.
We all agreed the staff at the publishers booths had been phenomenal. Patient and polite every one. The line formation and management was better this year than last. There were tan-vested volunteers to help keep things under control and the aisles clear. They did a good job too.
Particularly noticed was the arcade game developed to publicize Armada, by Ernest Cline. Not only could you play the game, but some lucky person won it. The publisher pays the shipping. We were all sad no one snagged an ARC of this book.
DK Publishing earned praise because they had a table and chairs, with Legos, crayons and coloring pages. Children could color and build things while their parents watched, giving all of them a break from the chaos of the exhibit floor. This was a great use of booth space.
After much discussion, wrangling, whining and arguing, we agreed we did not want to waste time on books we really didn't want to read. To that end, each of us will bring to the next meeting any and all books he/she acquired but does not want to read. Other PALS can go through them and take any he/she wants to read, with the understanding that any book so taken must be reviewed. We won't tackle 85 books that way, but we'll cover some.
Because we are so grateful to the publishers who generously distributed these books, we agreed we would read every sampler we picked up and write a post about each one. We all remembered how excited we were with the sampler for Naomi Novik's Uprooted, a book we all loved after we read the whole book.
Reviews are already trickling in, so watch the blog for new posts.
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