Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Book Tour (Chattanooga & Atlanta)

Now that The Family Fang has officially been released and getting generally nice reviews from places, I'm starting the book tour. Yesterday, the release date of the novel, I read at the Barnes & Noble in Chattanooga, TN. My mom and dad came with me because they love me a lot. They would come to a four hour ceremony to watch me receive a third place trophy for "Most Comic Book Figurines". We got there and we looked at the Nooks, which look very cool, and then it was time to read. Besides my parents, there were eight people there, which is so much better than the first reading for my last book, when two people showed up. A couple asked my mom and dad if they had read the book and if it was any good and my parents, who were pretending not to be my parents, said it was very good. Then I walked over to them and asked if they could hand me my galley copy of the novel because I was about to read. My mom just stood up and walked off. My dad admitted that he was my dad. It was awkward. I read the prologue from the novel and then answered questions and everyone was really nice and the Barnes & Noble people were incredibly nice and I sold some books and then my parents drove me home.
Today, I read in Atlanta, GA. I was ten minutes late to the reading at the Buckhead Barnes & Noble even though I had left my hotel (which was 2.5 miles from the bookstore) 45 minutes before the reading started. I got lost, I got stuck in traffic, I called my wife and cried. Then I got there and ran into the store and read for a nice group of people who had waited for me and answered lots of cool questions and then signed book. My cousin-in-law Chip and his mom, Peggy, came to see me read, which was very nice. And my cousin, Joe, who just moved to Atlanta, came to the reading. And a former student from Sewanee, Will, came to the reading. And Nicole, who is studying creative writing at Vanderbilt and worked with Tony Earley was there. And Vanessa Escobar, who I've talked to several times by email when she was writing an English paper on me, was also there. If every reading was like this, aside from the crying and being ten minutes late, I'd be very, very happy. I was excited to go to The Varsity Junior, an offshoot of The Varsity (one of my favorite food places in the world) and was then informed by a staff member at the bookstore that it had closed. I thought I was going to start crying again.
I'm reading tomorrow at 4:00 pm at the Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham.

4 comments:

Charli Henley said...

I can't imagine only 8 people being there! I will be at Harvard Book Store next week to hear/see you read and I'm getting there two hours early just in case. I hope there are chairs and I want one.

I stared at a calendar all summer long waiting for August 9th and I wasn't disappointed! The Family Fang is an amazing book. Congrats on the good reviews in Time and Entertainment Weekly too!

So - both of your books are on my Kindle. While I plan on buying something at the bookstore to support the local business, it won't be a book by you. Can you recommend something else for me to read? And also, will you sign my book journal instead of my Kindle?

I'm going to try to think of some challenging and profound questions for your reading but chances are, I will just get all Beatles-mania on you and scream and cry. Just kidding. I am really excited, though. Thanks for coming to Cambridge.

Unknown said...

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Svetlana said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Svetlana said...

I wish I could have been there. I have just finished reading your book The Family Fang and I loved it. So clever, so absurd, so witty and so funny at the same time, how can all these qualities be part of one book? Thank you so much for it.
I will surely try to get hold of your other books soon.
Svetlana, Czech Republic