Volunteered at the cash at a school book fair all day.
On one hand it sucked that I had to wake up early and I didn't get paid, but on the other I just got to sit around and read for most of the day. It evens out I suppose.
Also I read Raina Telgemeier's Drama (though my copy was in French) and was totally surprised at the openly (somewhat) gay characters and a full-on boy-on-boy kiss (with one of the boys in a dress) (long story). It was good in a way that the situations were all presented as casually as one would with a hetero couple, which was brilliant. Also the fact that the summary on the back never even alluded to any gay characters in the story.
My first reaction was to be surprised that the publishers had gotten away with it. I have never seen gay characters in junior-high/YA books and their storylines treated like this (like it was perfectly normal) and it was great. There were gay characters going through their own story arcs that didn't revolve around their being gay (despite the romances involved), so that was a breath of fresh air.
And then I came across some of the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.com (specifically the 1 star reviews) and discovered all the homophobic arseholes who will no longer be recommending this book to children they know. Of course.
There was also a scene where one of the characters went to a bookstore and asked an employee about finding manga and IT WAS PRETTY MUCH EXACTLY LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME ONE TIME AND IT WAS AWESOME AND IT WAS LIKE SEEING MYSELF IN A BOOK (except for the part where I've never been a gay teen boy, but there you go)!!!
ALSO A CHARACTER READING MANGA WHO ISN'T DEPICTED AS A CREEPY NERD!!! OR A LONER AND A LOSER!!! SEE WE'RE NORMAL TOO!!!!
