Jen Baker's ALA

My First ALA
By Jen Baker, Fiction Dept.

I was so excited to be invited onto RUSA’s Reading List Council, an ALA committee whose main objective matches my own: read everything. In this case what we read is genre fiction and as near as I can tell by my own experience so far, we really do need to read pretty much all the time in order to judge the best book in eight different genres for the current year. The genres are: Mystery, Horror, Adrenaline (suspense, thrillers), Women’s Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical Fiction. As the Annual conference in Anaheim drew near, I found myself skipping choir, not answering my phone, refusing to do any housework and sometimes staying up all night in order to fulfill our directive. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who didn’t finish every word of all 60 books we reviewed together at the conference, but no one admitted it! Our process involves each of the eleven members suggesting genre titles. We had about 400 accumulated by May. Then each person has to read all the books they suggest and either withdraw them from the list or nominate them. If nominated and seconded, everyone has to read the book and it gets discussed at the conference.

But back to my timeline account of Jen’s Adventure in Anaheim…

My boys (husband and 17-year-old son) came with me – they wanted to play at Disneyland and go surfing, etc. All three of us flew down together on John’s frequent flyer miles, so air ticket was free! When we got to the Fairfield Inn, which costs $149 per night, we were a bit disappointed. It was a bit of a dive – situated between two alleys full of parked cars and guarded by Security so the guests could park, since the Fairfield is pretty much AT the entrance to Disneyland. You can guess how crowded it was around the grounds! Not being a traveler, I was interested to note that the advertised refrigerator and microwave were stacked next to the television at the foot of our bed and the “Continental breakfast” served in the dive next door wasn’t bad (looking), though it was so crowded we had to fight surly parents (anticipating a full day at the world’s happiest place) for a seat. I think what really did it for me, though, were the crabby non-English-speaking staff and their friends hanging out in the “parking lot” (i.e. alley) at weird hours. We stayed a couple nights and then moved to a Marriott. It was better, but no Continental breakfast and no coffee… The coolest thing about being on the eighth floor facing the Matterhorn was that we could see the fireworks every night from our balcony (along with the rest of the denizens of floor eight) – just don’t lean on the railing!

So, the second day (Thursday) after I registered in the nearly empty Convention Center, the “boys” and I went to the California Adventure Park since we’d never been. I rode my first “scary” ride: the Grizzly River Run. My daughter had told me how fun it was – as long as you didn’t have to be the one who rode the huge inner tube raft down the “waterfalls” backward. Guess who went all the way through the bumpy and stomach-dropping parts backward? Sopping wet and shaking I still had to admit afterward that it was a blast! Note to self: be more adventurous. Then I watched Nick and John on the roller coaster, California Screamin’, which John emerged from rather green in the gills! We wandered around looking for lunch and feeling like eggs frying on the hot pavement.
That evening, I went to the Cheesecake Factory with several of the Reading List Council members, whom I had not yet met (with the exception of Joyce Saricks). We had a blast, and I just know how well-loved we were by the wait staff, who had to figure out at least 10 separated checks while we were ordering drinks and appetizers and passing our plates around the table! THEN I scurried out to go back to Disneyland for the fireworks, followed by Mickey’s Fantasmic, which was absolutely amazing. Only Disney could come up with the 40 foot dragon that emerges from the lake, breathes fire and then burns up. They also projected Mickey’s “dream” onto sprayed fountains that rose up out of the water. Now you are thinking, “Did Jen actually attend the conference?”

Of course I did. After staying up until 3:30 am desperately trying to finish the last five books I was supposed to have read by the conference, I presented myself at the Hilton for our refrigerated eight-hour discussion of 60 books (why is air conditioning so freakin’ cold in the small rooms and non-working in the auditorium?). Each person had to defend the books they nominated, one in each category, which meant that eleven people talked eight times. I had to go pretty much first, which was a bit daunting, given that Neal Wyatt and Joyce Saricks are on the committee and that I am new to the process. Neal was so kind and told me I was doing very well. I guarantee my notes will be more comprehensive next time! It’s hard to remember what all those novels are about. Anyway, we all ate lunch together and then closeted ourselves again for our top secret negotiations until 3:30. Note: if you want to look at last years’ genre winners, including all the top nominations, search the ALA website for “reading list 2008.”

After that I wandered aimlessly around the Convention Center and environs, admiring all the librarians wandering around with their bright orange ALA bags. Smart people really come in interesting packages!

That evening I attending a NoveList contributors’ dinner, hosted by Duncan Smith, where I saw David Wright, but sat at the older folks’ table. Still, we had great discussions about readers’ advisory work and books, of course. Dinner was quite good – it was in a small room with just two tables, our own private waiters and fabulous food, including prawns, salmon, filet mignon/tenderloin and three or four gorgeously presented desserts EACH.

The next morning at 8 am we were at it again at the Hilton – finalizing our top secret genre choices for midwinter (so far) – until about 11. While I was talking about books, John and Nick moved us to a better hotel – a Marriott, where we got one night free on John’s hotel points (finally his business travels are paying off!). After the Reading List meeting, I wandered around the exhibits for awhile, then met my boys for lunch and a quick trip to Seal Beach, where there was supposedly surfing. Well, there were a lot of sunburned people, including us, but no surfing. Nick took off on his skateboard for parts unknown and returned a couple hours later – just before we ignited from the heat! That evening, we dumped Nick off in Santa Ana (or some other Santa…) at a huge skate park in an “interesting” neighborhood. John and I were meeting Tracy Li (formerly of CHI and now a children’s librarian in the Orange County Library System) and her husband, Bob, for dinner at a restaurant we thought was nearby. Ha ha! After several frantic turnings of the map and a couple cell phone calls to Tracy and Bob, we discovered we were supposed to go to Mission Viejo (Veeayho? Vielljo?), which is basically down south near San Diego. Well, not really, but man were we late. And then poor Nick had to hang out at the Seven-Eleven near the park for hours until we could get back to him. Tracy is doing very well (she even learned to drive and got her California license) and Bob is ecstatic about his new job, despite a long commute.

Sunday was full of sessions I wanted to attend and I had great plans to sweep the exhibit hall clean of fiction! First, I attended the Literary Tastes breakfast at the Hilton, in honor of the Notable Books committee and the Reading List Council for their excellent work in choosing last year’s winning authors, a few of whom attended. The Notable Book authors who spoke were: Lisa Margonelli (Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank), Joyce Antler (You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother), and Jon Clinch (Finn). The Reading List winning authors who spoke were: Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Natural Born Charmer) and Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind). All these authors spoke glowingly of librarians and of their amazement and delight at being chosen by librarians as “best!”

Then … I learned about the conference shuttles (there were seven different ones, color coded, to all the different hotels). I snagged a seat on the one going to the Disneyland Hotel to take in most of the Readers’ Advisory Committee’s “Book Group Therapy” session. Unfortunately Nancy Pearl cancelled at the last minute, and the committee had to come up with its own content and speakers. I must say they did very well. David Wright’s portion of the program, “Why men don’t join book groups,” was the most interesting and entertaining! The committee used Linda Johns’ and my handouts from our 2007 “Book Group Tune-up” program. If you’re curious, you can find it at: www.readersadvisory.org/bookgroups.html

Another shuttle (after waiting through three other shuttles-worth of hot “dewy” librarians) took me back to the Convention Center for a quick bite ($8 snack wrap and water) and to attend an authors’ panel discussion of “Post – 9/11 Fiction,” led by Keir Graf, senior editor at Booklist and author of My Fellow Americans. The other authors featured were: Ellen Gilchrist (A Dangerous Age), Carolyn See (There Will Never be Another You), and Janette Turner Hospital (Orpheus Lost).

Afterward I wandered the exhibits finding basically nothing (not even ribbons from my editors to compete with David’s colorful badge panoply – they were out!), until Neal Wyatt spied me and introduced me to some people at the Random House booth and from Tom Doherty publishers. The only free books (4 of them) I got I ended up giving (except the Rothfuss) to the hotel concierge! I didn’t feel like shipping or hauling them. Obviously I need to learn the strategies involved in getting good stuff at conferences. Maybe Hannah can give me some pointers.

All in all I had a blast and didn’t suffer too much from being geographically challenged. I will be a bit more confident and purposeful in planning for the midwinter conference in January 2009 in Denver. Brrr.