Some Cons are like carnivals. Other Cons are like bazaars. ReaderCon is like a small liberal arts college without exams or grades, where the only available major is English with a Minor in Speculative Fiction and no one has to worry about doing laundry in a disgusting, communal basement facility.
In short, it’s heaven.
This was my first year attending, and — as such — I made a few rookie mistakes in planning the trip.
I decided to save money on the hotel by arriving Friday morning. I decided to save money on air fare (and avoid taking off work on Monday) by leaving at the crack of dawn Sunday. In retrospect, I should have just splurged. Flying out from the Midwest to Boston for two days and back, with the expectation of being back at my day job on Monday was overly ambitious and took a toll on my immune system. I contracted “con crud” and had to spend a day and a half convalescing.
All things considered, though, it was worth it. The Con’s informal motto is: “We support the subversive notion that thinking is fun.” In that sense, ReaderCon is the most subversive event I’ve ever attended. Too often, Con panels can be rehashes of the same old discussion. ReaderCon goes out of the way to keep things smart and lively. In fact it was soo smart (with all the bright people there) and soo lively (with all sleep deprivation), that it was like attending a gathering of the Mensa cocaine special interest group.
While there, I picked up some fantastic books in the dealer’s room book store. Wanna read what I got? Well, do you?
Of course you do.
- Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli (I enjoyed Pic’s story in Dark Faith, saw many positive reviews for this one, and just couldn’t resist picking it up.)
- Monstrous Creatures by Jeff Vandermeer (because I enjoyed the non-fiction in Booklife, and there’s a cute monster on the cover).
- We Who Are About To… by Joanna Russ (because I’ve read a lot about Ms. Russ since her death, and her first page sold me.)
- The Narrator and The Great Lover by Michael Cisco (because Pope Ligotti blurbed both books, and the Dark Pontiff is infallible.)
- October Dreams — a Halloween anthology published back in ’02, edited by Chizmar & Morrish (because it had a story written by Pope Ligotti that I’d not had a chance to read before, and because I’m a sucker for short horror fiction these days.)
I’ll likely return there next year. Yep, it’ll be my regular mid-July thing.
