I Just Read About That…

Thursday I went to BEA–Book Expo America.  I wasn’t all that thrilled to go this year as last year was kind of a drag (and publishers were stingy).  But this year I had a very good time.

By the time I got there it was already 11.  But I was thrilled to see that at that moment Mo Willems (we own all of his books, and my kids are huge fans of Pigeon and Elephant & Piggie) was signing posters for his new book.  He signed a poster for Clark (only one per person, sorry Tabitha).  And then over the course of the day I managed to lose the poster (sorry Clark).

While I was looking to see who else was signing, I saw that the editors of Going Rouge: Sarah Palin – An American Nightmare were signing their book.  They were super nice, even if they were out of copies (but good for them).  They promised they’d have more at their booth later on (and they did).  I’d like to read the book, but at this point the less I hear about Sarah Palin the better.

From there I jumped on a line for Gordon Korman (author of Son of the Mob among other great books) signing his new book, Framed.  Framed is a children;s book (as you can tell by the cover).  I asked him to sign it for “Sarah” and when he asked how old Sarah was and I told him she’s my wife he said that she wasn’t really the target audience.  He was super nice, especially when I told him that Son of the Mob is one of my most frequently read posts!

Then I stumbled upon the author of America’s Great Delis: Recipes and Traditions from Coast to Coast signing her books!  I hadn’t heard of the book, but it looked fantastic (the display of u-bet chocolate syrup helped as well).  Sheryl Bellman was very nice, and I can’t wait to see some of those recipes!

And then I saw Jon Stewart!  Well, actually just a cardboard cutout, but close enough.

There were a few lines that were outrageously long: Melissa Anderson (of Little House on the Prairie fame) has some kind of book out.  Sarah’s a big fan of Little House, but even for her I wasn’t wiling to wait on that enormous line (I’d no idea what her book was even about–a memoir of course).

Similarly for Rick Riordan.  I have not read any of the beloved Percy Jackson series.  And I wasn’t prepared  to wait on a 200+ person line for his autograph.

Tim Gunn (yes, that Tim Gunn) was there signing something.  One needed a ticket just to get on his line, but fortunately his neighboring author was very unpopular (sorry Kwame Alexander) and I was able to sneak up really close and take some pictures.  He sounded just like he does on Project Runway.

Before I left, I managed to stop off at the Random House booth and get an autograph from David Lipsky (author of Although Of Course You End Up Being Yourself).  I was amazed at how nice, friendly and chatty he was.  Now, normally authors are very nice when you go to these signings (even if it must be exhausting for them).  But I just expected that Lipsky–a busy guy (what with Rolling Stone duties and all)–might be sort of, efficient.  But he chatted with me.  We talked about when I first read DFW and he even asked me to tell him what I thought of the book.  It ended my BEA on a high note!

BEA is a weird experience.  It’s where you meet people who are obsessed with book as much as I am.  Some of them are waaaay too into it (like the woman I met who might just be a stalker of certain authors, or the librarian who had more opinions than most books have pages), but most people are just thrilled  to meet authors (and get free stuff–of which I must say there was still less than my first year.  Come on economy!).

It’s only when I see that most of the books that there are piles and piles of are by James Patterson and the like, that I remember that, yea, I don’t really read the big authors.  But with this in mind, I didn’t think that Lipsky would garner much of an audience, I mean, it’s a book of stream of consciousness from DFW.  But he had as big of a line as many other authors.  Which was kind of cool (and good for him).

And, we’ll have to see if marketing works.  A new author has a YA book that was getting a massive push: free copies everywhere.  Her name is Kody Keplinger and the book is called The Duff (which stands for The Designated Ugly Fat Friend). She evidently had a pretty big autograph line, so i don’t know if there’s buzz out there already about the book, but I;m putting it out there now to see if she becomes a sensation.

I also saw the Penguin Mini Cooper (a 75th anniversary promotion) where I was able to score a Martin Amis novel (strangely the 1986 paperback of Money), as well as two other books that look interesting:  Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter’s (can that be her real name?), and Light Boxes by Shane Jones.

There was also the Naked Author who I saw and tried to avoid the whole conference, who wound up walking several blocks down 10th Avenue next to me.  I neglected to strike up a conversation with him.  His url (which he Sharpied on his chest and back) is indeed those two capital words .com but his website crashed Firefox on my machine so I’d just avoid it no matter how enticing it may sound.

This gives me hope for next year’s BEA. But next year I must remember: bigger bag for posters!  And, of course, have a camera handy.