Readercon, Part 1: Thursday

I'll start with general notes and Thursday. I know it will take more than one entry. First, general thoughts, in bulleted list form:

• This was my fourth year at Readercon, and I finally felt like I knew most people, if not by name, by sight. It was a good feeling, and not a place I really expected to have it. Also, I took Friday off, and it was totally the right call. Not doing so would have caused me to miss like half the con. As a came-Thursday-and-took-Friday-off person I was really glad that Saturday and Sunday were a little more chill; if I had showed up Friday at 7 PM I would have been rather miffed.
• It was my first year as a "pro" and I think I actually did a good job of giving other people things to think about the way that they've been giving me things to think about. So that's a win. Readercon does value some type of credentials in a way I don't fully understand and I should probably explore more at some point, but it was really nice that no one cared that I didn't have a PhD.
• As veejane  notes in another con roundup, there were not that many people of color, and most of them were panelists. The sad thing? I had also been prepared to remark that it felt more diverse than last year. (I do think there was more representation of gender variance than in previous years, but I might just be primed to look for it. Come to think of it, that could be going on with race too.)
• I actually only bought three books, mostly because my budget is still smarting from the Anthrocon art show. But the Anthrocon posts don't require as much memory, so I'm writing them later. :)
• Two cons, two weekends, too much. I never want to do anything social ever again, ever. I'm hoping this fades by like Thursday and I return to "I'm an extrovert whose friends are introverts and I'm loooonely" as per normal. :)
• A lot of people have been criticizing the plan for Readercon 21 and, while I don't like "This is your father's Readercon" either, I actually think there's a lot of potential. This might be at least in part due to my I-guess-no-longer-secret plan to help out and do a bunch of organizing to make sure it's awesome. Of course I have to somehow combine that and "thesis!!!" and "moving!!!" and maybe also "wedding!!!" So we'll see. EDIT:  Lots of interesting commentary here.
• I literally took more than 100 pages of notes. I filled most of a 5x8 Moleskine. My right arm still hurts, fingers to shoulder. It was worth it. I won't be retyping all of the notes here; I am hoping that summarizing will actually provide a better reading experience, but that depends on me translating things well and choosing the interesting bits, I suppose. :)

OK, now onto panels, one by one. Only two in this entry.
( Long, with long sauce. But also awesome. )

[1] My notes say "writers" but I'm pretty sure that "readers" was both said and meant.

Readercon, Part 2: Friday I

Here are the first two panels I attended on Friday. It's going to take me a few days to get through all of this, holy good lord is there a lot of information. (In case it's not clear here, most of this is transcribed from notes and cobbled together; if something has my original ideas in it, it's probably in parentheses.)

The Literature of Things: A Panel.

( A detailed summary of this panel. )

Catharsis of Myth, Shock of Invention: Panel

( And another cut tag so I don't eat your friends page. *chomp* )