***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: ala

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:

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.