Dateline: Books, Books, Books

On Friday, Boss Man and I headed into NYC to attend Book Expo America.
(That is a picture of the main floor from a balcony on the floor above. There is another floor just for childrens books.)
This is a conference for the publishing industry. There are educational sessions, and a show floor where publishing houses show off their titles and their authors. Review copies are often available, the authors do signings, and people can "network."
All of that ink and paper in one place makes my little heart beat as quickly as a new yarn store, or the Market Place at Stitches.
Ostensibly, we were there to find management and leadership books we can review in the magazine, but really we each had our own agendas.

Review Books? For me?
First order of business was to stop by CICO Books, which is an imprint of Ryland Peters & Small. This is the company that contacted me the other week about reviewing their knitting titles on my blog.
She showed me an number of lovely titles that I can't wait to get my greedy little hands on. I think you'll really enjoy them, too.
I told her I crochet as well, so there will be a mix of knitting and crochet ranging from garments and afghans to toys and accessories.
In fact, I e-mail her yesterday and she said I should have them today or tomorrow! So you can expect to start seeing my reviews soon.

Why should you listen to me?
Because I'm a blogger!
And bloggers type with authority!
Everyone knows blogs are the future.
(Actually, don't believe that at all. As a professional journalist the idea of citizen journalists makes me feel lightheaded and break out in a cold sweat. I believe in the authority of the neutral observers. Fortunately, reviews can express an opinion, so this should be fun.)
As with any critic/reviewer, I suggest you figure out how my views/tastes line up with yours.
Wander my blog and look at my project. If you belong to Ravelry, take a run through my profile.
If you don't want to work that hard, I can tell you my tastes seem to run to traditional/classic/timeless. So if you like trendy/cutting edge/high fashion you might want to do the opposite of what I say. :-)
I also stopped by the Storey Publishing booth and told the nice lady there my Top Down Alpaca Mitts pattern is in Luxury One Skein Wonders. She was amused and said she'd pass my greetings on to the editors.

No, You Can't
I ended up bringing home a half dozen books.
On the bus ride back to Grand Central, Boss Man and I compared our loot.
(That picture above right is out the bus window. It's actually a reflection of the building across the street. Well, I thought it looked cool.)
One book I had snagged is about making your own all natural cleaning products.
Boss Man said something along the lines of, "Since, by your own admission, you never clean house, can I have that for my wife?"
I was like, "Nooo" in a snotty tone of voice, of course, and snatched it back. I would like to point out my self-restraint in then not whacking him with said book. But he is my boss and I think that would fall under the "violence in the workplace" poster in the break room.
The bus stopped cold a block from GCT. Eventually someone convinced the driver to let us off.
There were police cars lining both sides of the street and blocking traffic.
We heard people saying Prince Harry was in town, but we didn't see him. Of course, this information was backed up by news reports later that evening about his visit.
All in all, it was a pretty exciting day.

In Current News
I worked on Nell a little last night.
Today I mailed the Heart Harf away for the contest, the Damn Doilies away to my MIL's friend, and the Frothy Yellow Thing away to my mom (whether she wants it or not).
The guy at the post office asked the standard question about fragile, liquid, or hazardous items. I wanted to say the Frothy Yellow Thing is kind of blinding and obnoxious, but it didn't seem appropriate.