#bookcon 2014

So I just got back from New York yesterday at 1:15am and my god was it worth it! I got to do some touristy things, some shopping, but most importantly Book Con! I came home with half a shelf full of books, and it makes me smile every time I look at them! My friends (Celise-blonde and kat-brunette) and I (redhead) flew in from Canada a day early to book shop… (and regular shop)!  

First stop Barnes and Noble! Where I booked it to the Young Adult section and picked up Katie Mcgarry’s new book ‘Take Me On’

I also picked up ‘Invisibility’ by David Levithan and Andrea Cremer, while Celise opted for Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

Next day was the BookCon kick off! Celise and I got up early to walk to union square and hit The Strand bookstore, where I found some amazingly priced used books! I picked up Fates by Lanie Bross for $5.00, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor for $3.00, Poor Little Dead Girls by Lizzie Friend for $5.00, What goes around (Cracked up to be & Some Girls are) by Courtney summers for $5.00, and Dorthy must Die by Danielle Paige for $5.00. Such an amazing haul for so cheap!! Thank you to my follwers for telling me “Emma if you’re in New York you MUST go to The Strand!”  Praying them and all my BookCon books would fit in my suitcase, Celise and I walked up Broadway, did some actual shopping and then found ourselves at the BookCon Kick off!

Where about 5 minutes into sitting down Christine, Ariel, Jesse, and Katy, sat behind me! I start freaking out internally. I'm whispering to Celise 'that’s them, those are my booktube idols', the most amazing people! Celise tells me to ‘say hi’, ‘say hi’, thank goodness it was dark cause I was blushing- and you can’t hide that being a red head. I was such a nervous wreck! Finally I turned around and said a very awkward, very loud ‘Hi’ to Jesse and Katy, luckily they said ‘Hi’ back and were all so nice and perfect! We chatted, and took photos, it was amazing! 

However it was also dark! Luckily I got to see all of them again at Book Con and get better photos! The kick off itself was alright. Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, and everyone on the panel was hilarious and awesome. I’d never heard of Jonathan Trooper’s ‘This is Where I leave you’, but now I’m certain I have to pick it up! If you haven’t heard of it, I suggest looking it up on Goodreads! The only thing I think should have been changed was the panel moderator. Who else felt he needed to go? He talked more than the people on the panel, and some of his questions… ya they should have picked someone else. Overall it was fun and insightful, and made me fill another space on my TBR shelf. 

After the panel Celise and I walked back to Union Square for Book of Wonders ‘Fantastic Teen Reads’ event! 

It was perfect, there were only about 60ish people, it was nice and small. I picked up A.G Howard’s ‘Unhinged’ the second in the ‘Splintered’ series, and Jennifer Armentrout’s ‘Don’t look back’. I was also fortunate enough to get Jennifer and A.G to sign their books for me. They were both so so lovely and only made me love their books even more! I was also approached by Melissa a fan of my channel and blog, who asked for a photo! I was floored, and want to thank everyone who subscribes, tweets, and follows me! You’re all so amazing! I also got Maggie Stiefvater to sign Shiver, everyone’s always going on about how amazing she is- I now understand. She stood on a table to introduce herself! The entire event was just so perfect and wicked!

Finally BookCon! We woke up at 6am to get to the convention center around 7am, it was already packed! We’d already picked up our badges, so we went to wait in line for autograph tickets, where I met the amazing Jessica from Priceiswong (BookTube- look her up!)

She was so nice, and hilarious, and awesome, and the 1.5 hr wait in line wasn’t so bad then! Once inside, Celise lined up for Cassandra Clare’s autograph and I wandered the booths. I focused more on books and autographs then panels. Which worked out well because I got a ton of both. I was really lucky to score JD Netto’s ‘The Whispers of the Fallen, and Rebellion’ both autographed! I’ve been wanting to read those since Sasha and Ben’s reviews! I also got an ARC of Mr Mercedes by Stephen King, Hero by Athena Kontis (signed), an ARC of Rainbow Rowell’s ‘Landline’, At First Sight by Heather Todd (Signed), and A Not-So-Innocent Seduction by Janie Maynard.  I also had the pleasure of meeting Morgan Matson, who I’ve talked to on Instagram. She was so sweet, and awesome, and remembered who I was! It was pretty cool, I got her to sign the dust jacket of Since You’ve Been Gone, and got a photo and signed ebook copy of it as well! 

I also went to the BookTube Meet up, where I met all my favorite Booktubers, and got better photos with Ariel, Christine, and Katy. I also got to meet some awesome people from the BookCon app, and trade tons of business cards with other readers and bookbloggers/ booktubers! So thank you to BookCon and all the Booktubers that organized that!

Finally Celise and I went to get in line for TFIOS panel at 2:00pm. Much to our disappointment, BookCon did not stick to their rule of ‘you may only line up an hour before hand for each panel in the special events hall’. Instead they let people line up 2 hours early for the TFIOS panel! By the time Celise and I got in line, we had no hope of getting in. Our fangirl sides made up wait (we had flown in from Canada specifically for John Green!) but unfortunately we didn’t make the cut. However we chose to focus on the positive! Yes BookCon could have been organized better (I could have organized it better! Really it was terribly done!) but I ended up with a half shelf full of new books! Some ARC’s from my favorite authors, and tons of new friends! So I count that as a success! Hopefully next year it will be better run and be even more amazing! I’m sorry this wasn’t up earlier I was so exhausted from flying and trekking around New York with all my books! I’m so happy I got to meet a ton of new people, including some of my favorite booktubers and authors! I brought home a suitcase full of books, and a few new clothes, and had such an amazing time! How was your BookCon experience? Did you visit any book stores in NYC?  Look out for a review of Book Con, my Book Con Book Haul, and my May Wrap up video’s which are all going up my channel this week! See you all next year!