On the eve of BookExpo Canada (or “BEA Canada,” as it was called in today’s Publishers Lunch), why not look back into the mists of time to the three-weeks-ago BookExpo America?

The Seattle weekly The Stranger has an entertaining overview from a bookseller, Paul Constant. He may in fact be a BEA regular, but the piece reads like it’s his first visit (it’s big! there’s a carnival-like atmosphere! there are goofy quasi-celebrities!), and he seems to particularly enjoy mythologizing the off-site debauchery. Of one bookseller gathering, he writes: “There is impromptu sex in bathrooms, there are people grabbing at each other’s asses, there is blind drunkenness — everything you wouldn’t expect from a bunch of people who work in bookstores.” Clearly, In Other Media hasn’t been going to the right parties.

For the audio-inclined, BEA has put up a podcast-collection covering various events and interviews that took place at the show, including a discussion between Publishers Lunch‘s Michael Cader and The Long Tail author Chris Anderson.

Related links:
Click here for the piece in The Stranger
Click here for the BEA podcast listings