Saturday, January 28, 2012

In My Mailbox #16 - ALA Midwinter Edition


In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  It's a weekly meme where we all get to brag about the books and swag we got in the mail, for review, won in contests, etc.




Okay, so I had to ask a friend for advice on this, due in part to the recent drama all over the blogosphere.  I don't want to get into it, mostly because I'm a newish blogger -- only eight months into this thing -- and I don't want to judge anyone (or be judged) without knowing the full story.

First off, let me say that some part of me has always wanted to be a librarian.  But in the back of my head, this was just a job that you fell back on when everything else flopped. No offense meant...I just didn't understand, until I had a friend who was actually going to school to be a librarian.  "They have librarian school?" I said.  Of course, this friend ended up teaching instead, but to each their own.  I still have a burning desire to be a librarian, even if it wasn't a true profession.  I just love books.  And I want to encourage everyone, young and old, to read and hopefully take away from reading what I do.

That said, I met an awesome librarian at ALA Midwinter, and we talked shop -- books and reviews among other things.  She invited me to come talk to her students about book blogging.  She also encouraged me to donate to the library.  And my immediate reaction was, "Why haven't I considered this before?"  Especially since my local library is ever so small and wouldn't have 1/8 of the titles I'm looking for, maybe even less since it's actually also the high school library.  (Yeah, I live in a rural area...not much I can do about it.)

So, yes, after my amazing experience (and haul) at ALA Midwinter, I will be doing a few giveaways.  But I'll also be donating my books (once read) to my local library so others can enjoy them, too.  Others who, quite possibly, wouldn't have had access to these titles otherwise.

Here's the advice my other friend gave me (the one who's not a librarian turned teacher) and ultimately resulted in me proceeding with this post:  Mike and I were talking about something completely off-topic this morning, and he said, "You can't please everybody...but you sure can piss them all off."   Jen, who cares if a few people get their feathers ruffled?  I guaran-damn-tee you if they had been able to go, they would not hesitate to post pics of all their loot!  And with that, here are the pics:


And here are the books I was most excited to get ARCs of:


Destiny and Deception (13 to Life, #4)Incarnate (Newsoul, #1)The Springsweet (The Vespertine, #2)
The Book Of Blood And ShadowShadow & Bone (The Grisha, #1)Of Poseidon
IlluminateThe PeculiarsMe and Earl and the Dying Girl


I bought some books at ALA, too, just so you know.  That Rapunzel book, for one.  My daughter is in love with everything Rapunzel, so I had to have it.  Also, the second picture is from the last day of ALA, when they just want to be rid of everything so they don't have to ship it back.

I'm relatively new to the small town I live in now, but I do have plans to check out the local library's volunteer program and see if they need any help, paid or otherwise, besides just donating books.  I would love it if I could give up my full-time job and do what I love best, but it's not in the cards, at least not right now.  I'll continue researching it and I'll continue to support the ALA, even as just a friend, though I hope to one day join as an actual librarian. 

I guess what I'm saying is, don't judge all of us based on the actions of a few.  I wasn't at ALA just for free books.  Shoot, I bought or won almost every single book I read last year, which was definitely over 100 if my Goodreads count is to be believed.  This was my first conference, and I learned soooo much from it.  I'm shy, so I didn't meet many of my fellow bloggers and network like I suppose I should have.  But I still had a great time.  And although I probably won't be attending any conferences in the near future, I'll still be attending book signings and giving authors and publishers my money.

11 comments:

  1. You go, girl!! That is an ahhhhhhmazing haul!! Congratulations on getting the ARCs you did and bringing home those beautiful books. I think you would make an incredible librarian and hope that it will be a dream that is one day fulfilled.

    Hmmmm... that friend and her husband...Mike, was it? Well, she seems crazy, but good advice, nonetheless. ;)hehehe

    Great post, great pics, and great job at ALA.

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  2. I love your attitude! There are some great books in this pile - lucky you! My old library (I was a teen library assistant) raised a good chunk of our budget off of donations made by people like you. Sometimes we'd take a book into the collection, but most of the time they got sold at an anual sale to help pay for programs and books. Other times we'd just give ARC's as part of our summer reading prize back. Teens were always eager to get those.

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  3. Awe-some! Anyone who knows you knows you ate a book liver and not all about the ARCs. I don't know anyone who wouldn't take an arc if given the opportunity. Pubs wouldn't put them out if they didn't want them taken. Enjoy your books!

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  4. Thank you all for your support. You're good people. :)

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  5. awesome haul!! it must have been soo much fun to hang out with Bloggers and publishers!!

    http://lovesbooksreviews.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-my-mailbox-29.html

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  6. That sounds like a cool event - there's nothing like that over here,as far as I know, in the UK as The London Book Fair is strictly a trade event, based on the promotional material (despite the impression you get from the film "Hereafter" where you get Matt Damon's character happily wandering around).

    Glad you enjoyed yourself - that's what blogging should be about.

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  7. first... I want to know what a book liver taste like since Andrea so nicely pointed out that you ate one. Lmao.

    I don't know too much about the drama that went on.. but I know that you aren't the type who would go there just for free books.

    I'm pretty excited about Posiedon too. that one looks soo good. :)

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  8. Thank you for considering donating your books to your local library! I'm sure they'd love to use them!

    Personally, I'm not against bloggers attending events like ALA. I'm a blogger AND a librarian. I am against people being rude and shoving people and taking multiple copies and then giving everything away as soon as they get home from the conference. (All things I saw happen.)

    It upsets me as a librarian, because it makes it really hard to do my job (and as a librarian, ALA is me going to work.) It upsets me even more as a blogger, because it paints all of us with a bad brush.

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  9. @April, Yeah...where is autocorrect for idiots at 1am?

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  10. Aw, what a great post Jeannette! I love that you're planning on donating some of your ARCs, that's really generous and I'm sure it will be very much appreciated. :)

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