YALC 2017 Recap and Haul

I think it's official. I'm going to go to the YA Literature Convention every year for the rest of my life. I'm not a big socialiser and I didn't really talk to anyone other than the three friends I went with, but the atmosphere of book nerdiness and being surrounded by fiction is enough for me to have an amazing time.



Rather than write a bunch of boring paragraphs of what happened, I will try to sum up the key events in bullet points:

• Most of our time was spent wandering happily on the YALC floor and collecting postcards, posters, bookmarks, book samplers, tote bags and badges. I have a small pile of these things that I'm looking forward to sort through.

• I hyped up Whisper to Me by Nick Lake and managed to convince my friend to buy it which I am quite proud of because this book needs more love.

• I finally bought Kiersten White's And I Darken and Now I Rise. I had read the former but until this point I hadn't been able to get my hands on the sequel, and obviously I needed both 💚

• Generally I exhibited incredible self restraint when it came to buying things. I anticipated a lot more spending and a much bigger book haul but I'm impressed with myself for sticking to my TBR.

• I dragged my friends to a talk called Publishing 102. They were probably very bored, but publishing is an industry I have a strong interest in, and it was great to hear from people in the industry about their path to getting their jobs and what working is like.

• When we went to the Comic Con section on the floor below YALC we also did a lot of wandering. My friend and I bought 2 blocks of fudge between us and split them - one cherry flavoured and one caramel flavoured - and they were so good.

• Back on the YALC floor we sat at the back of Patrick Ness' talk. I missed some of it but he was so great and talked about some really interesting and relevant topics in YA and writing and books in general.

• Benedict Cumberbatch walked past me twice. Also Natalie Dormer. It was kind of bizarre.

• I actually met Patrick Ness! And I was weird and kind of want to erase that moment from existence but he was really nice.

• As the booksellers were packing up during the last hour of the convention, there was one stall that had reduced paperbacks to £1. And spotting the beautiful cover of Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody, I had to grab it. I know nothing about it, but I had a moment of weakness and couldn't resist.

A picture of my YALC book haul only (plus the last Land of Stories book which makes this picture of my whole July book haul)

Considering I only went for the Sunday, there was a surprising amount of things to do. I can't explain how much I love being in a bookstore and just standing there, and being at YALC felt like that, only magnified (with the bonus anxiety of more people). I'm definitely going next year if I have the time, and I hope I will make time to do even more and maybe talk to some new people too.