Sparkly Pen Attack!

Hey, dudes, guess who got to talk to Laurie Halse Anderson yesterday!

Yes, I went to a book signing for the simultaneous tenth anniversary of the spectacular Speak and the new release of Wintergirls, which I hope is as funny and heartbreaking. (I have yet to read any of her others, but the good news is after Speak she really doesn’t need to write any others for me to think she’s fabulous.) I was, as I often am, very chatty with everyone else around me, including the author. I told her that Speak was an unusual book for me as a kid because I normally read science fiction, and it was cool to find a book I liked outside of my accustomed genre. I also commanded her to admire another shy reader’s duct tape high heels. She was very gracious, even to loudmouthed patrons like me.

Also, there were a bunch of other local authors there. I asked around for a sci-fi writer’s group that wasn’t run by Orson Scott Card, Colossal Douchebag, but they didn’t really have much of one. Most wrote more realistic fiction, but there was one author, James Dashner, who sounds like he writes the sort of book that’s right up my alley: young adult fantasy/sci-fi hybrid fiction. We bought one of his books to see what it’s like. So did another patron.

JAMES DASHNER: (to the other patron) This is my book! It is a signed copy. Since I am here, I would personalize it, provided I can find a pen. The only pen I see is the one the featured author is using to sign her books.
AMELIA: I have a pen!
JAMES DASHNER: Thank you, citizen!
AMELIA: It is a sparkly pen.
JAMES DASHNER: … I see.

Don’t tell him I had a normal pen in my pocket as well. I wanted to see what he’d do with a sparkly blue one. He handled it with aplomb.

And now I have a whole stack of books to read. Good god I need a Kindle, or I will need a storage locker.

More Book Talk!

Speaking of books! I stole this from tay421. I couldn’t limit most of my answers to just one book, but it was the best a bibliophile could do.


1) What author do you own the most books by?
An interesting question—I’m not entirely sure what it’s meant to measure, since Terry Pratchett has written WAY more books than, say, Stephen Hawking, but I’m a fan of both. Add to that my tendency to read Giant Epics, and it’d be a list. I have large numbers of books by Pterry, David Eddings, Tamora Pierce, Roald Dahl, Dave Barry, and of course Marissa Moss.

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
Probably The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, since my brother and I keep getting each other copies.

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
No. That’s an antiquated notion introduced by somebody who thought English should be more like Latin, whose grammar makes preposition-ending impossible. English grammar allows it, despite what other know-it-alls may tell you.

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
SECRETLY? That’s hard. Pretty much everyone knows of my undying love for Hank McCoy. Perhaps less widely known is my desire to be Sherlock Holmes’s nonromantic companion …

5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?
Possibly A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I reread it every Christmas. Though Roald Dahl’s Matilda is up there, too. (What? I started both of those young.)

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old.
Now the lack of question mark does bother me. Also, pick a favorite book? I couldn’t do that back then, either. Although I was fond of Bruce Coville’s Book of Aliens, though that was more of a short story collection. Also, JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

7) What is the worst book you've read in the past year?
You know, someday I will tell you all about these awesome “Tea Shop Mysteries” my dad got me on account of I like books and tea. Oh, how they cry out to be sporked.

8) What is the best book you've read in the past year?
Either Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men, although comparing them presents a lot of difficulty.

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
Force? No. But if I could be guaranteed everyone would read it, I would go with Mark Twain’s Letters From The Earth. I really wish he’d finished that.

( The rest under here! Also random point where I lose my shit! It’s fun! )