This is being written on Tuesday night, May 27, the night before I leave to attend the annual trade show for the publishing industry—Book Expo America—which is being held in Los Angeles this year.

I would be busy with the usual preparations for any five-day trip, but a trade show has special demands that meeting with publishers, authors and other professionals involves. At least, though, I have my hotel. I made my reservations the moment I could, 50 weeks ago. It was a good thing since those who didn’t think ahead are scrambling for rooms in the outer reaches of the downtown area.

BEA is where publishers exhibit their new books and their authors to entice bookstore buyers and librarians into ordering. Four days of industry-focused panels give participants a chance to sit down, a good thing given the enormous size of the show. Nearly 2,000 vendors, two general and several specialized pavilions and a lot of networking await the more than 35,000 attendees. I am happy to be one of them.

Of the vendors, I have identified 225 that produce books in which BiblioBuffet’s readers would likely be interested. (I left out genre publishers due simply to time and energy limits.) I intend to meet each of them and pass along a packet of information on us. Between the networking and seminars and the parties in the evening, I anticipate coming home perhaps even more tired than I am leaving. The truth is I already know that come Sunday evening I will possess just enough energy to pet the cats, post this new issue, take a shower and fall into bed.

But I’ll come home with more than exhaustion. There will be gifts for you too. Advance reader copies (ARCs) of upcoming books are often handed out and occasionally other gifts too. Expect some to be offered up here after I return.

Despite the fact that I will be surrounded by books, I plan to take at least two. I’m not sure what I’ll feel like reading so I cannot say for sure which books will go with me. I probably won’t know that until I toss them in the suitcase. But books there will be. And a bottle of wine too because I will be meeting some old friends and some new ones. What could be better than all that?

This week . . . 
The Arts Journal describes itself as “the daily digest of arts, culture & ideas.” They cover dance, ideas, media, music, people publishing, theatre and visual” with a (thankfully) not overwhelming number of new articles each day. Founded in 1999, Arts Journal is a round-up of “some of the best arts and cultural journalism in the English-speaking world” that they cull from more than 200 English-language publications. Their site now includes prominent writers on culture, blogs, and upcoming group debate blogs. This is an absolutely wonderful site if ideas and culture appeal as much to you as they do to me.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren