I attended Book Expo America for the very first time last week. I came a day late, and it still managed to be a whirlwind of logging countless miles on the showroom of Chicago's McCormick Place and meeting and greeting a slew of wonderful bookish people who (surprise!) do exist outside of the Internet. I did not take nearly enough pictures nor eat nearly enough deep dish pizza, but the trip was otherwise a great success!

I jacked Julianne's photo of me, her and Shannon because it's my favorite. I also met Katie, Michelle, Marisa, Catherine, Kristen, Beth, Jenna, Emily, Kerry, Rachel and Janani and had many other brief, exciting encounters. Beth wrote a spot-on assessment of the social aspect of BEA, and I'll defer to her to summarize my thoughts for you.