To start off, I'd like to say that I have been to this convention three times now and this was probably my least favorite of the three. Sure it was still fun and I got a lot of books and met authors and had a great time, but I had a lot more complaints than in the previous two years. There were just so many people, you could hardly breathe! Much less jump into lines, unless you wanted to wait an hour just to spin the wheel for a chance at a fucking tote bag. Sorry. I'm still a little bitter.
But let's talk about the fun stuff.
DAY ONE
My aunt Annette went with me on the first day, and we got into the show floor at about 10:30. We spent the morning just browsing around, looking at all the booths and picking up a few books here and there. We spotted a book that was a critical analysis of the show Breaking Bad, which would have been cool if I had ever seen that show. I asked about All The Crooked Saints ARCS (I want one sooooo bad) and ended up giving my address because they said they could mail me one. I don't know if it'll actually happen, but my fingers are crossed!
After eating lunch at the food court (the baked ziti was to die for), I headed back to the autographing area for the Rainbow Rowell autographing. I ended up talking to the boy, Justin, in front of me for the majority of the two hour wait and to the girl behind me as well (I feel awful, but I don't remember her name). It helped pass the time and was really nice. I ended up sending my aunt to the Harlequin booth when I heard about a Zenith ARC drop, but they were all gone by the time she got there :( I also missed the only Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding ARC drop, which was a bummer as well. But meeting Rainbow was so nice! I even told her how Fangirl is my favorite book ever. She's such a sweetheart and considering I missed out on meeting her at my first BookCon, I was so happy to get this chance now.
This is when it gets interesting. If you hadn't already surmised, I really wanted to get my hands on an ARC of Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings. If nothing else went right at the convention, I would have been happy as long as I had it. And while my aunt and I were resting our feet (she had been busy collecting books for me and getting a book signed by one of my favorite authors, Brandon Mull), Sasha and Lindsay starting doing a "find us and get an ARC" game on Twitter. I was too tired to go running around the show floor just then, but then they posted a picture of them sitting at a table outside the show floor. My aunt pointed out that it looked like they were right downstairs and I ran for it. I couldn't run down the escalator, though, because there were people in front of my. This was my demise. I watched, painfully, as a group of girls got to them before I could.
Needless to say, I was bummed. But I still got to talk to the girls and get a hug from Sasha, so it was nice. I also got a nice Zenith button for my lanyard.
DAY TWO
My mom got to go with me this time, which was so great. I love my aunt, but my mom just sort of makes things better, you know? Anyway, since my mom is a disabled veteran, we got medical stickers and got to go in right after the VIP people did, which was so nice because we had a game plan for that morning. There was going to be a Zenith ARC drop at 10:30 and I needed to make sure I got a copy. So as soon as we were let in, we were booking it to the Harlequin booth. Or rather, I was booking it and my mom was going as fast as her back would let her. I did get sidetracked at a booth that had four ARCs just sitting out there and somehow I ended up running with my arms full of books at full speed to the Harlequin booth.
Somehow, I was still number 22 in line. My mom was 23 and I gave her the slip of paper I was given. I had to get to the Sarah J. Maas signing, which had started right at ten. I waited in that line, chatting with a super nice girl from the Philippines who was behind me in the line, and got to meet Sarah!! She's so pretty in real life, it's not even funny.
I found her in the Little Golden Bus and could have cried real tears when she told me that she'd gotten not one, but two copies of Zenith. One was for my sister, who was sick and couldn't come. After that, we wandered for a little. We ended up buying a few books, along with some for my sister and an ACOTAR coloring book for me. It's glorious and I love it. Just as my mom grabbed me a sampler for Because You Love To Hate Me, Victoria Schwab walked by! She's my favorite author and I've gotten to meet her a few times and have all of her books signed (which was why I didn't try to do her signing) and she signed the sampler for me! She only signed for a couple people, though, since she was trying to get to a panel she was on in a few minutes.
After that, I went (an hour early, mind you) to get in line for the Zenith signing. I figured it wouldn't matter if I was far back in the line since I already had the book, but the line was already capped and they wouldn't let me. Boo. (Please don't get me started on the whole line situation there- it's so fucking nuts.)
My mom and I ended up waiting for, like 45 minutes for the Owlcrate wheel and my mom actually won the box! I got the March box, which was full of tons of goodies. It even had a book I wanted and the prettiest mermaid washi tape!
We waited in a couple more lines and talked to a few more people, but ended up leaving kind of early. I was tired and the only other thing I wanted to do wasn't for two more hours and we really didn't want to wait around.
And that was my trip to BookCon this year! I may have skimmed a couple, things, but that's the gist of it. I had a lot of fun, but I think last year was better. I'm debating whether or not I'm going to go next year...
If you went to BookCon, I'd love to hear about your experience :)
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