Atlantic City? No, thanks. (updated)

I don’t want to rubbish a whole city, especially when I was only there for a few hours, but Atlantic City is an erky perky bleah of a place. Friends warned me it was a shithole—I had no idea they were being kind. It’s ugly, full of the most hideous buildings ever built and populated by zombie gamblers, who are served by an army of twelve-year-old incompetent staff. Once you’re inside one of the casinos it’s almost impossible to get out again. All signs lead to more gambling areas. I’m convinced that hell will be nothing but Atlantic City casinos.

This is heresy for an Australian, but, I hate gambling. I love cards and I’ll bet on them, but not with money. Never for money. Betting with money turns people into glassy-eyed zombies, and call me old-fasthioned, but I prefer my zombies in Romero films, thank you very much.

So why were we in Atlantic City? To attend the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers book fair, which other than its location in a hellspawn casino, was a lot of fun. We met the fabulous Penguin reps, Holly and Todd, who looked after us excellently well and told great publishing stories; we hung out with fellow YA writers, Maureen Johnson and Melissa Kantor; we both signed a bunch of our books, Peeps and Magic or Madness, and we snaffled up many free books. The gems of my pile—other than Maureen’s and Melissa’s books—were:

Small Steps by Louis Sachar, which is the sequel to Holes! Woo hoo! I have the sequel to Holes and you don’t! Ha! Ha! Ha!

The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery. I adore Flannery. He’s frequently interviewed back home about science and enviromental issues and is the smartest, most interesting, and clearest explainers of such issues I’ve ever heard. He also writes really, really well. I can’t wait to read this one, not least because I know it’s going to help me understand what happened with hurricane Katrina.

Today, we go back to New Jersey:

7:00-8:30PM
Elizabeth Main Library
11 S. Broad St., Elizabeth
New Jersey

We’ll probably read and we’ll definitely chat and generally be our entertaining selves. We’ve only done one library event before but it was fabulous, so I’m really looking forward to this.

Oh, and if you’re from Atlantic City? My condolences.

Update: I am very stupid. I wrote a blog entry about casinos, but my spam filter is set to nuke any comments that contain the word “casino”. I apologise to anyone who had their comment nuked. You can post now. Though given the vast tide of casino spam I get your comment will go through to moderation, which I truly rooly honestly will check. Rooly soon.

Posted by Justine at 9:56, 19 October 2005 under Cons & Other Gatherings, Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Ranting, Reading, Science, Scott's books, State of the World, Travelling, Viewing, Whingeing, Young Adult literature, Zombies | 8 Comments »

Comments

Dave Schwartz Says:

Sequel to Holes?!? WANT.

October 19th, 2005 at 10:02 AM
2. Justine Says:

Mine!

October 19th, 2005 at 10:04 AM
Celia Says:

I think I liked Atlantic City better than Las Vegas, at least, because in the hideousness there’s at least honesty–no one goes there for any reason but gambling, so why bother dressing it up and making it ‘family friendly’? Plus, there is the ocean.

October 19th, 2005 at 12:38 PM
4. Justine Says:

I am no fan of Las Vegas, well except that I have a thing about neon lights and Las Vegas’ neon lights are fabbie.

Sadly, I saw no ocean—just casinos and bus stations.

October 19th, 2005 at 2:01 PM
roger Says:

Casino, casino, casino, casino.

My apologies, but it was impossible to resist.

October 19th, 2005 at 2:08 PM
marrije Says:

hahaha. that casino spam fiasco is hugely funny. enjoy the library event!

October 19th, 2005 at 3:30 PM
7. Justine Says:

Roger and Marrije: That’s right! Laugh at my spam-induced pain. Go right ahead!

October 19th, 2005 at 4:07 PM

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Justine Larbalestier