Books Are My Bag Readers Awards ; the evening!
I
was so delighted and honoured to attend the first ever Books Are My Bag Readers Awards event, in one of my favourite London
bookshops, on Thursday 24th November.
I wrote about these awards, specifically the Childrens Shortlist, when
they was first announced a while ago. And the beautiful humans at
BAMB sent me all of their shortlists in each category! Those babes. I
have since been enjoying some wildly varied fiction and hard-hitting
non-fiction – breaking each tough read up with a gorgeous picture
book, obviously.
The
buzz in the room when the award winners were called out was brilliant; I found myself bouncing on my toes as I silently
rooted for the authors and books I'd voted for online...but then at the same time I was totally psyched for all the
other shortlisted candidates, all of them excellent and worthy of the win.
There
are so many awards these days that are judged by a panel, and subject to just a
small group of opinions – but these awards were perfect in that
they were voted for by readers! Good work, BAMB. Giving the loyal and loving readers a voice
– and no doubt the authors appreciate their wins more when they know
it was a mass vote that people took time out of their days to submit!
I certainly would, anyway.
The
evening was packed full of lovely moments. Seeing Stacey again after
so long – and after she'd been on several European adventures –
was lovely. And while hugging George Lester (often for longer than
strictly necessary) is always a treat, this time was extra special
because we were all dressed up and feeling important as we were both
featured bloggers for these awards, thank you very much.
Then of
course chattering my head off with authors is always a highlight of a
book event for me – even after doing it for over a year, I still
freak out and babble excitedly and lose my cool (if I even
had it in the first place) when an author looks my way.
I
was thrilled to meet David Litchfield, author of 'The Bear and The Piano'. That picture book is so beautiful that I read it twice in
quick succession – and it made me weep a little. I may have
panicked the author slightly when he went for a handshake and I
pulled him in for a hug...
I
was so heart-wrenchingly happy when Matt Haig won the award for Non-Fiction; his book 'Reasons To Stay Alive' brought the most insane
clarity and relief to me and my silly brain when I discovered it a
while ago, and I have lent/gifted it to everyone I know who I feel
would benefit from his musings and stories as much as I did.
Then
after the awards were all presented, and approximately 3 glasses of
wine were consumed on my part, I strode up to him to tell him just
this, all of this, plus deliver a huge thank you of course. We ended
up chattering for a while after he recognised me from Twitter, I gave
him my business card and then postponed my excited freaking out for
the train home. Phew.
When
Max Porter's 'Grief Is The Thing With Feathers' won the award for
Fiction, I lost it a bit. Because hell yes,
this book (which I devoured in 4.5 hours one sunny Sunday sitting in
an independent book shop) (and have since bought for about 5
different friends) just made me feel everything. It reminded me of my
time studying Creative Writing at uni, when I'd happily unleash all my messy thoughts onto a poor unsuspecting page and afterwards edit and see what worked. His beautiful tangles of words and emotions were just...something else. Congrats, Max.
But
it was when Julia Donaldson and Sarah Ogilive's book 'The Detective Dog' was announced as the winner in the Children's shortlist that I
squealed the most. Because I was so happy their gorgeous and genius
picture book won – it was up against some stiff YA and MG
competition, not to mention its picture book rival 'The Bear and The Piano'! Congrats again to Julia and Sarah, and to Pan Mac.
Also, mad props to the writers of 'The Good Immigrant', you all smashed it and yeah, obviously you won the Readers Choice Award. I mean, c'mon.
I
could ramble on about this wonderful evening forever and a day, but
I'll leave it there for now. If anyone wants to know more, like how
many glasses of wine I managed to consume, or how overcome with joy I
was when they presented me with a goodie bag as I left, or how
magical it was walking to Charing Cross station with the one and only
George who was my very cheeky guardian angel at those awards...well then DM me,
perhaps.
I
haven't actually been able to attend many book events in the big
smoke recently, and I felt that this was the perfect one to pull me
back into the excitement of the bookish world. I'd missed it. Let's
hope I have more time to attend these events in the new year. I may
make it a resolution...
Wanna win the entire list of winning books? Click here!
Oh also, today is BAMB's Civilised Saturday; the perfectly chilled follow-up to the wicked Black Friday! Check it out.
Other blogs I have written under the lovely Books Are My Bag umbrella:
Looks like you had a really great time and glad to see so many books I've read and heard about too
ReplyDeleteMel ★ http://www.meleaglestone.co.uk