BookExpo America

So BEA was in New York this year and although it's in no way directly related to my job, my boss got us passes. I've never been before so I figured it would be interesting to see it. Also, I was told that there's lots of free stuff, and I'm always a fan of getting free stuff. Unfortunately I'm always rather nervous about taking free stuff. What if I pick something up and it's not actually being given away? What if I look greedy? Etc. Etc. I was also trying to limit myself to what I might actually read or use. I ended up with:

• 1 14 oz. Nalgene bottle (microsoft provided it seems)
  
• 5 postcards from National Geographic (advertising Journey's of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips)
  
• 3 madeleines in a package (advertising Proust was a Neuroscientist)
  
• 1 box matches (the box says, "Dare to be a Heretic")
  
• 1 catalog (Princeton University Press--I liked the whale on the front of the catalog)
  
• 1 free sampler (It's All About the FOOD!"--took it for the recipes)
  
• 1 Excerpt booklet (for Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier)
  
• 3 ARCs (Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race, Women Writing Africa: The Eastern Region, and The Uncommon Reader which is a novella by Alan Bennett)

So really quite reasonable. Particularly as there were people walking around with bags and bags of stuff. Although they probably have jobs that are more closely related to the expo. After all, that's why they're there. Still, it was pretty neat to see.