Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

This week’s theme was the ten bookish events I’d like to attend (or something like that) but I decided to twist this a bit and talk about past experiences at bookish events and my top reasons why I love attending them!

First of all, the events I attended are RARE London and Paris (Paris as an author assistant) and YALC London (twice).

RARE is centered on romance with indie and traditionally published authors while YALC stands for Young Adult Literature Convention.

I wrote several posts about my experiences and tips for attending such events that you can find HERE (attending as a volunteer)  and HERE (tips to prepare) and HERE (RARE 2019).

Now about my top reasons for attending!

1.I get to meet my favorite authors!

Nothing beats meeting them “in the flesh” and exchanging a few or many words with them! It’s like being starstruck sometimes.

Emma Scott gives the best hugs and Alwyn Hamilton loves meeting her readers and is uber friendly (I love her!).

2. I meet many people sharing my interest 

There is a real energy and enthusiasm at being in a place with so many people sharing the same love for books. It’s infectious. It’s exhilarating! You also get to see that even if it’s romance, you have some men reading romance and even if it’s “young adult” you can have people over eighty going to meet their favorite authors! Books bring people together.

There is nothing better than to chat in a queue with someone you’ve never met about your favorite books while waiting for the author to sign it!

3. I got to meet “face to face” people I had only chatted online with!

Twice for RARE I got to meet other bloggers. We got to fangirl together around a cup of tea or coffe or have a drink somewhere else. That creates lasting bonds and when you’ll chat online after this it will add an extra dimension as you’ll have bonded over an event!

4. I discover new authors

There are so many authors attending these events that you want to take a chance on some of them. Either ordering and reading books beforehand, either buying the books at the event after some friend recommended the book to you.

5.I visit another place!

That’s an added bonus, if you don’t live in that place LOL. But I got to visit London (my second home) and Paris! We also spend some daughter/mother time when we get together and that’s quality time that we adore. Not only do we attend the event but also we do some shopping, sleep at a hotel, go to restaurants, visit etc.

6. I can buy books at a really ridiculous price!

Usually you have big bargains and can buy 2 or 3 paperback for 10£ or 2 hardcover for 20 £! At that price you can try new authors too!

7. I can win ARCs or buy books before they are in the bookstores!

YALC organizes contests to make you win ARCs and last year I even could buy The Dragon Republic before it hit the shelves!!!! As an international blogger it’s often the only mean to have ARCs.

8. I can buy lots of book merch!

Especially at YALC you have shops selling artprint, candles, booksleeves, soaps etc . I swear my luggage are not only filled with books but with merch too. So heavy we need to be two to haul them in the train or metro. 😀 

9. You have discussion panels and debate about the latest hot topic!

I always try to attend as many panels as I can. Authors discussing some bookish topic, or explaining how they were published is really fascinating! If you are an aspiring author you learn many useful tips or feel energized again when you learn that some of these big names had had countless rejections before being published!

10. I got to meet Jason Momoa or other international actors!

YALC happens at the same time as the London Film and Comic Con , in the same building and for two years in a row, Jason Momoa did a “flash appearance” while we attended some discussion panel! We all screamed and called “come back” LOL

Your ticket also gives you entrance to the ComicCon and you can go have a look at tons of merch and fanart ! That’s also highly entertaining as many love cosplaying and some costumes are simply brilliant!

You recognize Aquaman, Jon Snow, Gandalf etc.

Now reading all this, do you want to attend one of these events? Can you feel how much I am missing YALC this year?

Thanks for reading!

Sophie