This year for YALC i ended up taking a lot more books than i had bargained for with me to be signed by the attending authors. I really over-estimated how many authors would be attending and how much i’d actually have to read to complete my TBR pile (HERE is my YALC TBR if you didn’t see that). Needless to say, i didn’t complete my TBR pile, but i did get a whole load of books signed!
Considering we were there for the whole weekend this year, it made sense to make the most out of the signings. There are so many authors there that are so easy to meet and get your favourite books of their’s signed. Luckily for me, a lot of the authors that attended i had already owned their books and loved them, so i carried them all the way to London and back in order to claim ‘yes, my favourite Juno Dawson book is signed and i’m proud of it.’ Or even the more shameful, ‘I haven’t read a Laini Taylor book yet, but look how pretty her signature is.’
I ended up taking 17 books with me, most of those i have read or started reading. And most of all i was determined to get every single one of those signed (was i carrying them all the way to London to not get them signed? No).
So the books i’ve added to my signed collection and the authors i met were:
- Hannah Witton – Doing It
- Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivision – Freshers
- Katherine & Elizabeth Corr – The Witches Kiss
- Emily Barr – The One Memory Of Flora Banks
- Juno Dawson – This Book is Gay & Mind Your Head
- Katherine Webber – Wing Jones
- Jennifer E. Smith – Windfall
- E Lockhart – We Were Liers
- Laini Taylor – Strange The Dreamer
- Sarah Crossan – We Come Apart & Moonrise
- Brian Conaghan – We Come Apart
- Penny Joelson – I Have No Secrets
- Simon James Green – Noah Can’t Even
- Karen M. McManus – One Of Us Is Lying
- V. E. Schwab – A Darker Shade Of Magic
- Sara Barnard – A Quiet Kind Of Thunder
- Patrick Ness – A Monster Calls
As always, the authors that i met were absolutely lovely. I had a wonderful conversation with Simon James Green having not read Harry Potter and the promise that i can hound him via Twitter to read it for next years YALC. Also, me and Katherine Webber spent a good three minutes fangirling over Hannah Witton together. If that doesn’t sum up a YALC experience i don’t know what does. Authors fangirling over other authors.
Whilst at YALC i managed to pick up a few extra books that i got signed, either ARCs or already published. These were:
- Sarah Crossan – Moonrise (ARC)
- Juno Dawson – Mind Your Head
- Lisa Drakeford – The Crash
- C. L. Taylor – The Treatment (ARC)
Overall i’m really pleased with the amount of signings i managed to fit in to the whole weekend. Lets face it anyone who knows me well will know i’m most pleased with a signed ARC of Moonrise. I was really worried about the queue length this year after some of 2016’s queues were ridiculous sizes. Luckily the crew put in place a much appreciated and well organised ticket system. Everything worked out for the best!
Keep an eye out for my book haul from YALC!
The Little Contemporary Corner 