Incoming Books: BEA Swag

I was only at Book Expo America for one day (today); I've never gone for longer than that (and only that much when it was in New York), because there was always barely enough business for one day's attendance, and I didn't want to waste my employer's money. (Really. I'm frugal with my own money, but sometimes even worse with other people's. Ellen Asher can vouch for the time I asked her if I should fly somewhere at 6 AM to save a few bucks...)

Anyway, I was busier today at BEA than I ever have been before; mostly just with running into people in the rows. (Parenthetically, for those people who think I'm particularly tall, I ran into three members of the hallowed Even Taller Than Me club -- Harper's David Roth-Ey, Wildside's John Betancourt, and everybody else's Glenn Hauman -- and thus spent a decent fraction of my day talking upward.) I won't try to remember everyone I talked to, though I did check in with a gratifying number of ex-colleagues -- although the thing about publishing is that, if you last long enough, nearly everyone is an ex-colleague (or at least an ex-contact).

But the big deal about BEA is, of course, the free stuff. And here's what weighed me down as I staggered out of the wonderfully located Javits Center late this afternoon:

• two quite nice tote bags, from DK and Wiley (though not a spiffy Orbit bag, or the fabled Baen bag -- I saw one or two of them, but didn't even manage to find out where Baen was, though I suspected they had a tiny piece of the Simon & Schuster booth at odd times).
  
• a water bottle, courtesy of Microsoft.
  
• The Summoner, a first fantasy novel by Gail Z. Martin, whom I hope to see read tomorrow night.
  
• Set the Seas on Fire, a galley of Chris Roberson's new book -- and I also hope to see him read tomorrow.
  
• the two "Free Comic Book Day" comics I really wanted then -- Owly and Unseen Peanuts.
  
• F&Gs (folded and gathered pages, inside a jacket) of Mo Willems's new book, Knuffle Bunny Too, signed right in front of me by the author and read to my appreciative boys this very evening -- thanks, Mo!
  
• The Uncommon Reader, a novella by Alan Bennett -- he's someone I keep thinking I should read, and this is very short.
  
• Exit Ghost by Philip Roth -- I should read more Roth, though this is a Zuckerman novel, and I should probably read the earlier ones first.
  
• The Electric Church by Jeff Somers -- one of Orbit's launch titles, and I think a first novel.
  
• The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta -- my biggest squee of the day; I was on his very long signing line briefly, but I had an appointment, so I snuck in and just grabbed and unsigned one -- I really just want to read it, anyway.
  
• Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley -- I was chatting with someone in the Hachette booth, asked her quietly "Is that Walter Mosley, quietly signing, with a short line, just to our right?" It was, and he did, and it's even a new Easy book.
  
• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke -- any book with this kind of publicity campaign gets my interest...
  
• Racing the Dark by Alaya Dawn Johnson, the first novel by a former colleague (also signed).
  
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks -- you might need to know something about publishing to appreciate this, but I imagine this was a #1 bestseller in the UK (it's one of Banks's mainstream books) and it's being published by Macadam Cage here. So it's not just his SF that hasn't quite clicked on this side of the pond...
  
• Scott Adams's Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
  
• Shortcomings, a new graphic novel by Adrian Tomine -- I didn't even suspect it might exist, and I got it signed.
  
• and, lastly, I learned that DC was giving away copies of the hardcover of Justice, and wandered over to see some guy grab the last copy. Ten minutes later, I was talking with Ellen Datlow, and she gave me her copy -- she hadn't actually wanted it, but many years of BEA had instilled in her the reflex to snatch as many free books as possible.

And that was my day. Tomorrow it's back to the thrilling life of suburbia, with a T-ball game and possibly a movie!