Books, Books, Books!

I have much book news. First and foremost, I am now the Vail Cataloger at MIT. I am one of two catalogers hired to catalog the Vail Collection, a collection of books on electricity, magnetism, animal magnetism, lighter than air transportation, lighthouses, and much much more! It was donated in 1912, and almost none of the 25,000(?) volumes are in the catalog, meaning nobody can find out what books are in the collection. We will be providing access to these masses of boxes of books that are hidden away in the Harvard Depository. So far, I love my job. The people are super nice, the books are interesting, and MIT is a great place to work. It took a while to get to this point, but I couldn't be happier with my new librarian position. It is a two year appointment, so I will be working in Cambridge until at least January 2012.

In other book news, I went to the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Conference exhibits today. The conference is in Boston this year, and it was only $25 to go to the exhibits, which my job will reimburse me for anyway. It was kind of staggering how much was there, and I spent about an hour and a half just wandering around and checking things out. I got fourteen free advanced reading copies (arcs), which are books that have not yet come out, but the publishers circulate them early to generate reviews and buzz. Two of them are books in series I've been reading. I got The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan, which is the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and Early to Death, Early to Rise by Kim Harrison, which is the sequel to Once Dead, Twice Shy. It will be exciting to get to read FOURTEEN books before they come out in bookstores! I also got a free audiobook on cd and a cool book on vampires for $5, cover price $12.99. That isn't even mentioning the pens, bookmarkers, sticky notes, and totes bags I picked up. All in all, totally worth my $25 admission. I may go back again this weekend, since the pass is good through Monday. Who knows!?


Additionally, I'm doing two book challenges this year. One is through The Story Siren, and it is a debut author book challenge. The challenge is to read 12 books this year by debut young adult authors. She does contests each month for reviews of 2010 published debut ya novels read as well.

The other book challenge is through a group on Goodreads. It's called 144 books in 2010, and the challenge is to read at least 144 books in 2010 (obviously). So far, I'm through 5. I'm trying to keep a pace of three a week, but it is tough. I'm aiming to read at least two during this three-day weekend. At least I know I won't run out of things to read, with my new 16 books I got today :-D