Book Heaven!

As mentioned, I recently won a book contest. This ended up being a great event! I went with my girlfriend...and we sat through about 3 hours worth of information in terms of books coming out in the fall and listening to authors speak. The book information were actually recommendations by the different book companies, i.e. Random House, DoubleDay, etc. The book companies basically print a gazillion books a year, but these were the ones that they felt was at the top of their list. Wow. There are a lot of great books coming out! I think my girlfriend and I were drooling at one point because we both had a ton of books we wanted to read from the list. I also got a chance to take note of some as Christmas gifts!

So, as a geek, an event like this is just awesome. But what I couldn't believe was the extras that I got! Everybody got to have breakfast there if they chose too. They had toasters set up for bagels, tons of pastries...heck, I had two. Tons of teas, coffees, etc. Nice touch.

When my girlfriend and I registered, we got prize bags with 3 different books inside. My girlfriend happened to get one book that she's been eyeing! How fun!!!

But the best part is what we walked out with at the end of the event! You see, at these "shows," the audience is actually made of people that work at bookstores, i.e. Chapters, Indigo, etc. They listen to the recommendations and from there, they determine what books to stock their shelves with. At the end of the event, these folks get to choose a couple of books to take home. We didn't get to pick books during the first and second choice times as we were contest winners and not actually staff. But when it was time for the free for all, we both scooped some books. I ended up bringing home 15 books (many hardcovers and that I'm actually excited to read). As well, I scooped up 6 signed copies of a book that's coming out for a United Way event. That should get some dollars. Yes, we were slightly miserable for 5 seconds because we didn't get some of the books we really wanted from the recommendations list. Then we told ourselves to snap out of it.

Maybe it's the Asian in me...15 books multiplied by an average of $20 per book...that's $300!!! So scored. And books...I could never get enough. Seriously. This event was Christmas for me.