The ALA Experience: Irvine Welsh

For those of you who do not know about ALA, American Library Association, it is the professional organization for libriaries. I am currently serving on a committee so I need to attend the conferences.  This is an amazing event for several reasons. Meeting authors, networking, finding out about what is trending in the library world, and previewing new books are just a few of the experiences, I have had. This conference in Chicago that I am currently attending has been especially enlightening.
     Over the next several posts I will highlight some of the big events that have occurred for me. The first, is meeting the author Irvine Welsh who wrote Trainspotting. While I have not read the book, I did see the  movie. In fact, I am embarrassed to say I didn't realize it was a book until after I met the author. Anyway, I was in awe of meeting  him because the  movie had such an impact on  my life. It is a dark novel about  a group of friends who are or get addicted to drugs and how it impacts their life. The movie was the first real experience that I  had with that dark side of life and I knew that I wanted no part of it. Anyway, it  was gritty and real and meeting the author brought that experience all back. I highly recommend checking the movie or book out but I am warning you it is not a fun light read!