It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and two Follow Friday Features Bloggers each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
- Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
- Follow the two Featured Bloggers of the week - Mab is Mab and Dear, Restless Reader.
- Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
- Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
- Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
- If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
- If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
- If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
I have never attended a dedicated reader convention, and haven't ever really considered attending one. I suppose if I were to go to one, I'd probably go to something like BEA, which is in New York, and as a result is relatively close to me. This question (and my answer) seems to me to be yet another indication of how out of the mainstream of book bloggers I am. Before I started writing this blog, I had no idea that reader conventions like ALA and BEA even existed. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know they existed until well after I had been blogging, and to figure out where they were to respond to this question I had to look them up.
That doesn't mean that I don't have plans to go to conventions that involve books. I'm just not really enthused about "reader" conventions. On the other hand, I have gone to, and will go to, several science fiction oriented conventions. I've been to Dragon*Con, InConJunction, PhilCon, CapClave, and so on, none of which are dedicated book conventions (although CapClave is the closest), but all of which give the opportunity to interact with authors and pick up books. I got to meet Catherine Asaro at InConJunction, to meet Cory Doctorow and Joan Slonzewski at PhilCon, to listen to Terry Pratchett and meet Lawrence Watt-Evans and Michael Swanwick at CapClave, and Robert J. Sawyer, Terry Brooks, and Mercedes Lackey at Dragon*Con. These conventions have a lot more going on than book related stuff (such as the panel with Felicia Day, Amy Okuda, and Robin Thorsen at Dragon*Con), but they all have at least something of a literary bent.
Right now, the only convention I have firm plans to go to is GenCon, in Indianapolis, and that's a gaming convention so any book related material that will be there is likely to be gaming related. I'll probably go to CapClave later in the year, as that is near where I live and it is explicitly focused on written science fiction, as opposed to science fiction in film or television. The convention I'd really like to go to would be WorldCon, which is where the Hugo Awards are presented every year, but I seriously doubt I'll be able to go in 2013 when it will be held in San Antonio. And I doubt I'll make it to WorldCon in 2014, because that is set to be held in London, and that would be a little bit too far to go. Oh well, maybe 2105 will be the year that I go.
Go to previous Follow Friday: The Ice Truck Killer's Calling Card Was the Number 103
Go to subsequent Follow Friday: The Trajan Bridge Was Built in 105 A.D.
Follow Friday Home
I guess, if you are out of the mainstream, I am too. I venture I knew there were reader conventions out there before I started blogging but never attended or even thought about them. I have to admit, without further information,I'm not drawn to one either.
ReplyDeleteI would love to attend any of them. Since I live in Sweden it´s kind of hard though =)
ReplyDeleteNew Follower!
http://ratherbarefoot.blogspot.se/2013/04/follow-friday_12.html
WorldCon will be in London next year? As in Europe? *runs to get plane ticket already!!*
ReplyDeleteWOW, that would be totally awesome :) I would really love to go to BEA one day, though, as I love NYC, and there are panels both with authors and bloggers.
I'm an old follower via Linky and Bloglovin'. I hope you'll have a fantastic weekend.
Here's my FF post for this week.
@greg: Now that I know about events like the BEA and ALA, I'm curious about them. I may try one of them out at some point in the future, but it won't be for a few years at least.
ReplyDelete@Lexxie Lin: That's what the WorldCon site says. It is scheduled for August 14-August 18, 2014 and is to be named Loncon 3. Here is the Loncon 3 website.
ReplyDeleteSadly, due to his announcement of his terminal illness, they won't have Iain M. Banks as their guest of honor for the convention.
@Sandra Pedersen: I don't know if it will come to pass, but one of the cities bidding to host WorldCon in 2015 is Helsinki. I know that's in Finland and not Sweden, but it would definitely be closer for you than Orlando, Florida or Spokane, Washington.
ReplyDeleteThese conventions seem to be very fun~ Hope you have fun at them. Totally jealous. ;D
ReplyDeleteNew GFC follower~
Cindy @ http://bookaholicfaggots.blogspot.com
I'm hoping to go to BEA in 2016 :)
ReplyDeletenew follower: my FF
@Cindy Mai: I've never been to GenCon before, so I'm really looking forward to it. I hope it is as fun as I think it will be.
ReplyDeleteI've been to CapClave once, and it was great, so I'm sure I'll have a good time there.
@siriusyareader: By 2016 I may be able to arrange to go to BEA, so I may see you there.
ReplyDeleteOLD FOLLOWER.
ReplyDeleteI am going to the BEA...went last year for the first time. Going to all four days this year. I will be staying with my son to save money on lodging. It is a lot of fun.
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My Blog
@Elizabeth: Of the three dedicated reader conventions, I'm probably most likely to go to BEA, because I have family and friends in New York I could stay with.
ReplyDelete