For Me?

Chaz and I went to Book People last night where Neil Gaiman held a book signing for his new novel, Anansi Boys. It was a nice event. Gaiman was charming and funny, and genuinely seemed to enjoy the audience questions. (One girl even asked a question about the Dolphin Hotel in a Haruki Murikami novel, which seemed to surprise and delight him.) He signed books from 8pm until nearly midnight. (We got ours signed about 11:15, and there were still about 50 people in line.) We found AEBL there, and so we spent some waiting time catching up on the goings-on in her household.

I had forgotten my camera in my other bag, so we don't have any photos of the author himself, but I thought I'd share a photo of the signature (- not that you can actually see anything in it.) He signed the dedication page, which reads (in part): "You know how it is. You pick up a book, flip to the dedication , and find that, once again, the author has dedicated a book to someone else and not to you. Not this time.... This one's for you. With you know what, and you probably know why."

He even added a nice personal note in the copy he signed for Chaz's friend, who is an aspiring writer. I enjoy these little personal touches. I still smile when I think of how Douglas Coupland signed my copy of microserfs when he heard I was interning at Microsoft, "This is your life. Live well."