Book Riot Live

You may have noticed that it has been a little quiet on our blog lately. That is because I’ve been traveling. Last week I was in Disney World for my daughter’s fifth birthday and for the past two days I’ve been in New York attending the Book Riot Live convention. We will announce winners of our Halloween reading challenge (both the weekly prize and the grand prize) tomorrow. But first, check out what I did yesterday at the convention.

View from my hotel room

My first day at Book Riot Live started off at 9am with a huge line to get in the door. Once inside, I checked out a variety of vendors and filled out a questionnaire for the Brooklyn Public Library book match. I listed a few of my favorite authors: David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Chimamanda Adichie, and Margaret Atwood. I also listed my favorite genres: literary fiction, fantasy, magical realism, and international literature (okay, not a genre but I wanted diverse book recommendations). Finally, I listed a few things I generally dislike in books: graphic violence, stream-of-consciousness, and Story of the Eye (my least favorite book ever). These are the recommendations I got:

1. Our Ecstatic Days by Steve Erickson
2. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe
3. Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

I haven’t read any of them. What do you think, will I like them? 

Moving on, I attended a variety of events including a live Book Riot podcast with Jeff O’Neal and Rebecca Joines Schinsky, a panel titled “Fighting the Good Fight: Turning Awareness into Action” about diversity in publishing, a literary game of Pictionary featuring graphic novel artists, and a panel titled “Writing What you Don’t Know” with Margaret Atwood and N.K. Jemisin. I ended the afternoon at a book signing session with Margaret Atwood and managed to get a copy of her latest book signed (which we will give away in the near future so stay tuned).

The highlight was obviously the Atwood and Jemisin discussion. Both authors were funny, intelligent and a pleasure to listen to. Atwood is like a firecraker. I’ve read a few of Jemisin’s works and I enjoyed learning about her writing process. One thing I found interesting was a comment Atwood made about finding inspiration for her books. She stated that she never makes anything up but rather bases everything on events that have really happened at one time or another in some part of the world — and then stretches the boundaries of what happened.

The truth of the matter is that I attended Book Riot Live in large part due to Atwood being there but I ended up enjoying all the programming that I attended. The podcast was very funny and the panel on diverse books was pretty interesting as well. Here are some pictures of the events:

Literary prints: One of the Vendors

Writing what you don’t know panel with Margaret Atwood and N.K. Jemisin

Today I’ll be attending a few more events including a live recording of All the Books (a book riot weekly show of book recommendations focused on new releases) and a presentation by Angela Flournoy followed by a book signing (and I just happened to bring a copy of The Turner House with me)!

I don’t always agree with Book Riot posts/receommendations but I do love how they often advocate for diversity in reading and this event lived up to that mission.