The Book Fair was massive.  The clean-up wasn't that bad though--there were so many workers!  I feel bad for them now as they sort out the books (they had us pile any and all books leftover into the available boxes for storage).  After cleaning that up, we helped set up the YA party that had tons of swag bags to give away.  And then, what surprised my friend and I the most was that we got invited to eat lunch with the RT Convention workers!  Wow.  They were so friendly and welcoming!  We're just college students who were volunteering, but we were actually accepted into their group.  So awesome :).  Afterwards, they didn't have anything for us to do for a bit so we listened to the YA panel hosted by Holly Black on how to the authors got their ideas... And like I said earlier, Sarah Rees Brennan ROCKS.  She got up on her chair when she was talking about her research on some London bridge and how a sword fight there would work, etc.  She knows how to tell a story :D.  We didn't stay for long-- we went back to the swag bag room where Melissa Marr was in charge and got things going.  I handed out swag bags and bookmarks (for the Morganville vampires) with Tina Ferraro and Rachel Vincent.  And I learned that people can be vultures.  (Though I probably would have been doing the same if I was in their position.)  We had been open for maybe like 15 minutes and people were already lining up and asking me what we were going to do with the extra swag bags.  In the end, we gave away the extra green bags (green was for the Teen's companion/the adults; pink was for the teen) to teens who only got pink bags, but I'm pretty sure people lied when they came up and said they hadn't gotten a bag yet.  Oh well.  And then the massive book exchange--can I switch this book for another?  I already have it.  Originally, there wasn't going to be any switching and then we relented when we had like six bags left over.  Finally, when there were just a few people there, we packed up what remained and took it down to storage.  We went to help set-up the late night banquet mixer (for the adults), which was really pretty in a classic type of way with red, silver, and black tablecloths and red rose centerpieces stacked on top of vases filled with water and red beads sparkling at the bottom.  There was even this silver halo-like thing at the front of the stage that looked pretty cool.  After that, we helped assemble some of the giveaway baskets and tada!  The night was officially over since my friend and I had to catch the train (unless we wanted to get stranded in LA with all our books ;p).

YOU GUYS.  This was one of the BEST experiences of my life.  I mean I may have sounded grumpy about some people's behaviors, but this is something I will remember years later.  It wasn't about getting free books and bags and swag and whatnot.  Actually, it's kind of like having this book blog.  It was about being the presence of all these other people who loved the same thing that I loved and helping them get it, sharing their passion, discussing the books, seeing the authors, being accepted into the group of workers, being behind the scenes and knowing that I helped with it...  I would recommend volunteering at a reader/writer's convention to all of you if you enjoy this sort of experience.

And now.... The books I ended up with at the end of the night:

YA NOVELS:

ADULT NOVELS:

Followers, expect a giveaway soon for the Sarah Dessen and the Pretty Bad Things ARCs and for Beautiful Darkness, Firelight, and Dracula, My Love (as I said yesterday for the latter two).  More giveaways later.

Happy Sunday!