October 19, 2002
about damned time...
I spent the early afternoon at a book signing today, at a bookstore I had never been to before, getting an autograph from an author and a book most people have never heard of.
The bookstore was Atomic Books, this wonderful little one room independent bookstore in Baltimore off of 36th St. and Hickory Ave. David Eggers was the author, his most recent work is "You Shall Know Our Velocity," but the one you MAY know him for is a book called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." AHWOSG was a pretty darn good novel by my standards: made me laugh out loud, and also shed some tears. Eggers likes to play around with language, and thats why I like him...he's taken some of the pomposity out of publishing and authoring and made the experience seem more real.
AHWOSG was about him losing both parents in the span of a week, leaving him to raise his younger brother with his sister Beth. Like I said, it ranges from heartbreaking to deeply hilarious, to just plain fun.
I haven't read "YSKOV" yet. I've started it, and am about 15 pages in, but just can't seem to get into it yet. Tomorrow maybe...
So anyway, it was my first signing, and I'm proud of myself for neither throwing up all over the author, or blubbering all over him and requesting his help in getting my own works read (although, I did submit a story to a publication that he runs, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and haven't heard back...) I stammered out something about being a fan, and then shook his hand. Pretty standard really.
Home was nice...had a good dinner out with the whole family: something that hasn't been done recently with my sister being sick and all. We went into Towson, and had dinner at a nice little Italian place there. It was good to see my sister talk and eat with us again, having heard her stories of the physical pain of recent memory.
Came back and watched "Dumb and Dumber." Funniest movie ever; Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey are perfect. I can pretty much recite the movie word for word, having seen it so many times.
Tomorrow is shaping up to be a decent day, assuming I can wake up in time for the movie. More on that later.
Posted by Matthew at October 19, 2002 11:43 PM