BEA Day 4 Recap

Day 4: BookCon (Saturday)

Christina's and my reaction to the
number of people attending BookCon

The fourth and final day of BEA was perhaps the most surprising for me (and I think Christina too), because while past BEA attenders said it would be packed, both of us severely underestimated just how packed it would be. Since we had nothing really going on early in the morning, we slept in (until 8:50!) and took our time getting ready before strolling over to the Javits Center. Even then, while there were a lot of bodies, it didn't necessarily seem overwhelming, though we did meet a woman who said that the BookCon side (since BookCon only attendees were only allowed in certain parts of the center) was out of control—scary even!—and that she was going to stay on the BEA Attendees side only as much as she could help it. (People wanting to get things signed had to go on the BookCon side, since one of the big draws was certain celebrity author signings.)

In light of all these bodies, Christina and I decided to split up. She headed downstairs to the Diversity in Books panel that we were both interested in attending, and I went to Bloomsbury to get a copy of The Bone Season (along with another TMO sampler, but I gave it back since I already had one) and then hurried downstairs to get into the panel. Except that I couldn't get it in, because the room was at capacity and there was already a huge crowd waiting to get in.

The packed Diversity in Books panel

Though I tried to explain that one of those seats that was supposedly taken in there was for me, I was turned away with everybody else and was just going to sit by the exit rather disappointedly until the panel ended when the complaints of several waiting crowd members won out and they opened up the room for them to fill the standing room only part in the back.

Christina has a rather good summary of the panel on her blog here, so I won't rewrite it, but suffice to say the panel was really really interesting. I'm glad she talked me into going! After that, we went upstairs to various booths to chat with publicists and editors and such, but we had to give that up once we got to BookCon side, because it was so busy. So we though we would go to the Epic Storytelling panel early and secure a place in line, but the line was already so long, they weren't allowing any more people to join it!

And thus ended Day 4 of BEA. It was only about noon too, but Christina and I returned to the hotel to change and then headed into the city. First, we went to Books of Wonder, a fabulous bookstore that had several signed copies of a lot of books because of a BEA YA author event that had taken place there on Friday night. After much deliberation (because my suitcase was already full!), I decided to only purchase The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, and a signed copy of Jennifer E. Smith's The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, possibly one of my favorite contemporary romance stories.

The High Line - so pretty
and relaxing!

As we stepped out of Books of Wonder though, it started to rain and that's when we grabbed some food, just a snack since we were supposed to meet Alexis for dinner (though that didn't end up working out). After that, we headed to the High Line, but again it started to rain so we ducked into Chelsea Market for a little bit to wait out the rain and found this cool custom jewelry maker booth called Brooklyn Charm and Christina and I both had necklaces made. Then we went up to the High Line and it was wonderful! Warm, so we had to keep moving out of the sun, but we relaxed in the park, first one a bench, then at a table, then on a patch of grass and read. Then we headed to dinner at Salsa Y Salsa, a restaurant only a couple blocks away, and were just headed over to say bye to Alexis when she called to say her goodbyes over the phone because she was falling asleep.

So, Christina and I headed home and settled in for the night. Watched a bit of the Thunder vs Spurs basketball game and then Sense and Sensibility, before going to bed far too late for a 4:30 wake-up call. All-in-all, another satisfying day, though I wish I'd had one more to just stay in NYC and relax. Leaving early Sunday morning was a brutal decision, I think. Especially with me being so "delicate" in the morning and all.

There you have it! My first BEA experience laid out in exquisite detail! Did you have any questions? Thoughts? Did you get to go to BEA or has this excited you to save up and try to go next year?

Alexis, from Alexis Adores Books, awesome "I <3 YA" manicure!

Categories: bea, Book Convention