So on the second day of BEA, Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? and I had made plans to eat some truffle pizza in the East Village at one of my favorite little Italian restaurants, Gnocco. Sadly for us, we waited nearly an hour and a half in 90 degree heat and absurd humidity to catch a ride out of the Javits Center (this is the ONLY area in NYC where such a travesty has ever happened to me before). By the time we finally got out of there, it was almost time for the HarperCollins Celebration of Book Bloggers event at The Algonquin Hotel, so we decided to do dinner after the event. Rather than run all the way back uptown to my apartment to cool down only to have to hop a subway back down to midtown, I went back with Trish to her hotel where I met her roommates and fellow Book Blogger Con organizers Rebecca from The Booklady’s Blog and Michelle from GalleySmith. Meeting these three witty, fun, and all-around-awesome ladies was only the beginning!
We four moseyed on into The Algonquin and the first person I met there was Nicole from Linus’s Blanket. We both immediately bee-lined for the bar, and I knew right from that moment that we would become fast friends. I met some fabulous bloggers at the HarperCollins party. I spent a long time talking with Carey from The Tome Traveller, with whom I already knew I had a lot in common, since we both love historical fiction (can’t go wrong there!). It was such a surreal experience to have SO MANY book bloggers all in one place. People who had never met in person were jumping up and down with excitement to finally be able to physically reach out and hug one another, as opposed to sending cyber ::HUGS!::. I think all in all people were glad to be able to put faces to names, and just get together with some fellow bookish folk. The free wine and cheese didn’t hurt, either. 
Most people were pretty spent after two days at BEA, but Trish and I still hadn’t eaten dinner, so we headed down to the East Village to finally have dinner at Gnocco. Esme from Chocolate and Croissants joined us as well as Laura from I’m Booking It. How could anyone resist truffle pizza?
The next day I headed back to BEA and later attended the Book Blogger Con Author Reception. It was great to see some authors there whom I’ve met before such as Stephanie Cowell, and to meet some new ones with whom I’d only chatted online, such as Susan Holloway Scott. I also met Kris Waldherr, author and illustrator of the fun book Doomed Queens. Her books have recently been made into cute historical cards, which I will be posting about later, and may even have a giveaway in the works, so stay tuned for that. I also had the chance to meet Richard C. Morais, whose blog tour (for his wonderful upcoming novel, The Hundred Food Journey) I worked on for the agency. It was great to meet him in person, and to introduce him to some of the bloggers who will be participating in the tour. He posted a great article about his experience at the Author Reception on here on his blog.
Leslie, Me, Nicole, Jenn, and Jen at dinner
After the Author Reception, Jenn, Jen, Nicole, Leslie, Margie of The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, IL, and I headed out for dinner. It started down pouring rain before we could catch a cab, so we ran into the nearest restaurant we came across. I don’t even remember the name of it, but they had great sangria, so kudos to that.
If you missed the Post BEA Slumber Party featuring Jen, Lenore, Nicole and me on Nicole’s That’s How I Blog! BlogTalk Radio show, you can listen to it here:
I already posted about the 20 blogger dinner at Dos Caminos after the Book Blogger Convention in I Survived BEA 2010! Pt I, but here are some more photos from that night:
Heather (Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books), Amanda (The Zen Leaf),
and Amy (My Friend Amy)
Natasha (Maw Books) and Jen (Devourer of Books)
Me, Carey (The Tome Traveller), Trish (Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?),
and Lenore (Presenting Lenore)
That about wraps up the outside BEA/Book Blogger Con events I attended. The Last and final post in this I Survived BEA 2010! series will cover the goings on of the Book Blogger Convention and what topics/issues were discussed on the panels. I look forward to reading everybody’s Armchair BEA posts and catching up on all the online blogger happenings I have missed this past w
eek while I was busy with BEA festivities!
I am so glad you had such a wonderful time. It looks like it was a great experience. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to attend.
It was great meeting you, too, and thanks so much for not mentioning that I was in my pajamas the first time we met! At least you can attest to my superfast frub-to-fab transition, right?
I'm so glad you had an awesome time despite all of the weather problems!
I am so glad you put up pictures of the other bloggers. You have had a great time – so happy about that. Truffle pizza. Thats a new one for me.
It was great meeting you! Meeting people with similar bookish obsessions is such a wonderful experience.
You are so lucky to have met your blogging buddies in person!! I would love to meet some of my pals in the flesh!I know you are going to London in the fall and recently posted about the Grace Kelly exhibition and The Enchanted Palace exhibition at Kensington Palace. Come on over so you can plan your trip!
Allie-thanks for taking us out to Gnocco-that was a fun dinner. It was great getting to know you-have a wonderful Monday.
I had so much fun hanging out with you Thursday; and Friday night!
Everyone seems so happy…so beautiful…and…so young! I feel suddenly like a very old blogger!
Allie, what a great time! Thank you for sharing with us…
it is so lovely to see the faces behind the words! thank you!
how fun! sorry i didn't get to meet you though!
I'm just now getting around to all the blogs of people I met in NYC, but I wanted to come by and say hi! Glad to have met you!
Glad to see you had a great time. Too bad I didn't run into you at all; it would've been great to have met you.–Anna