A busy Sunday indeed! In which I buy a lot of books and have Benedict Cumberbatch walk past me just a few times. And yes, I did have a little freak out every time….

We went to LFCC a bit later than everyone else, again to avoid massive queues. There were a couple of panels, Fandom & Writing and Social Change, that I wanted to catch in the morning but ended up missing because I really needed a lie in.The first thing Sam, Lucy and I did when we arrived was queue for an ARC of Blackbird by ND Gomes at the HarperCollins stand. And while we were queuing, a wild Benedict Cumberbatch appeared, casually strolling around the YALC floor with his 3 bodyguards! I was genuinely so shocked to see him that early on, I didn’t attend the Saturday so missed him walking in on Non Pratt’s charity head shave. I mostly stayed upstairs on the YALC floor while Lucy and Sam headed downstairs for their photo ops, but before they headed downstairs, I did make them take my photo with cool things like the cartoon Tardis that was by the Penguin stand.

After that, the first signing line I went to was Ryan Graudin’s so I could get my copy of her book Wolf by Wolf signed. Ryan is absolutely lovely and she told me she liked my name, which made my day. My copy of Wolf by Wolf is quite old as I bought it shortly after it was originally published so it’s a lot taller than my copy of the sequel Blood for Blood, which I only bought last week and we talked about our ever growing TBRs. I’m usually more drawn to contemporary books but Wolf by Wolf is a truly brilliant take on alternative historical fiction. And after meeting Ryan and seeing how lovely she is, I can’t wait to start reading the sequel.

After the signing, I went to my last panel of the convention which was the Life Advice panel. The panel was chaired by Chelsey Pippin and featured Hannah Witton, Holly Bourne and Sara Barnard. The panel discussed giving advice in fiction books compared to non fiction as, like the panel I wrote about in my YALC 2017 Day One post, Hannah Witton is the only author on the panel to have written non fiction. The panel discussed how they give advice, which tends to happen over social media. All three authors said they would usually link others to resources that had way more valuable information on them, as they’re only human and they can’t help everyone! The panel also discussed feminism and being a good feminist with Holly Bourne making a really good point, in my opinion, that she’d rather people would be a bad feminist than one not at all. I completely agree with this, feminism is something that we are all still learning about, we’re constantly learning how to be a better ally. Hannah Witton added that it’s important to do your own critical thinking. You can still be a fan of something but can still recognise how problematic it is/can be.  And it was at this moment, I had my second Benedict Cumberbatch appearance of the day as he walked past the stairs to head back down into the LFCC floor. Trust me, every body at the panel was full on shocked.

And that was the bulk of my last day at YALC 2017. I spent the rest of the day chilling out or book shopping. And I did do a bunch of book shopping. But I did manage to get my hands on a couple additional ARCs that are due out next year – The Fandom by Anna Day & Wizard and Robots by Will.I.Am & Brian David Johnson. I hit up the Waterstones stall that sold the works of the authors attending YALC 2017. I found I had a ten pound voucher so decided to cash that in. I also stopped by the Penguin, Chicken House, Pan Macmillan and Quirk Books stand. I missed most of the extreme discounts because we were all so tired, we headed home before the trains got super packed. But here’s what I bought!

And that’s my YALC wrap up! And now to tackle my massive TBR until next year…

What should I start reading first?

If you went to YALC, link me your posts in the comments!

Until next time,