Sometimes, I get very uncomfortable watching movies or tv shows, or reading books, about awkward people, basically freaks and geeks, because I feel a connection to them, a deep understanding of what they're going through and how they feel because I'm secretly, and okay, mostly not secretly, a very awkward person. I'm a big geek. It's got a lot to do with my confidence in myself, which I wouldn't say is unhealthy, but though I hang out with people I think are very cool and very smart, I just don't think I'm on that level of cool and smart that everyone else is. I'm not in high school anymore, it's not like I'm trying to desperately fit in. It's just that sometimes, I'm faced with a situation that's a little above my head and I get all tongue-tied and stupid and whatnot and I know that someone else in my situation would be way smoother and cooler, or at least not act like a ridiculous teenager about things.
What I'm trying to say is, Jasper Fforde was in the store today and I was just blubbering and blubbering and now I feel dumb. Actually, a lot of things happened today, all of them vaguely connected, mostly through me, that illustrate my point above.
3:30 pm.
I am on my knees at the front of the store fixing the books on that damn spinning rack by to the left of the front door when Randall Kennedy comes in and starts perusing the Remainders section. This in and of itself is not that strange. He comes in all the time. He's a distinguished professor at Harvard Law School with many books under his belt, one of those academic celebrities that I've come to accept, and we usually just quietly acknowledge one another. But not even an hour before, I had put out his latest book Interracial Intimacies in my section. (In case you don't know, I'm in charge of the Remainders Dept at the bookstore. Remainders are "discount" books; basically, publishers sell their overstock to us at deep discounts for a variety of reasons, hardcover's going over to paperback, book sales not as high as print run, returns from other bookstores because they're damaged, different editions coming out, different covers, many many reasons, all of them legit, but generally, authors don't really want their books to become "remaindered" because they don't get any money for them. I don't think it's so bad, not because I deal in them, but because they get a wider readership from it, but that's just my optimistic take on it. Anyway.) I hear a kinda chuckle and I look up to find Randall Kennedy looking at his book on the table. I give him a weak smile and ask him if that's a little awkward for him, to see his book there. He's pretty gracious about it, saying that he just hopes they sell well over here and I laugh self-consciously. I don't know what else to say though a million reassuring things pop into my head but I know he's a grown man and he can take it. I tell him that most authors don't like their books getting remaindered and he says that he's knows how it works and you can't be thin skinned about things like that. I smile. This was a slightly better interaction than when that kid who wrote the Radical Reader came in and I didn't know it was him and he asked me why books get remaindered and I told him as much as I knew and then he told me he wrote that book and I felt kinda bad, like I should've maybe softened the blow since I think it was his first book and he was so young. I know it hurts, even a little, when your book get remaindered. Anyway.
3:45 pm.
I walk by the info desk and there's a big pile of Jasper Fforde's books up front and my eyes widen. He's coming, Mike informs me. Jasper Fforde? Really? Really? I exclaim. At 4:30, says Mike. I squeal.
Okay, you have to understand. I love Jasper Fforde. I wrote a rec for his first book The Eyre Affair like a month ago and this is like the clouds in heaven parting and the sun shining through and dammit, Jasper Fforde is going to be at the store in less than an hour to sign his book.
Jocelyn asks me to go get coffee with her and I do because I really want to kill time and get to the point where I can meet Jasper Fforde. Right before we leave, I see someone signing books at the front and I think, oh my god, is he already here, but he looks kinda young so I kinda hop up there and peak over the stack of books to see who it is. It's Chuck Hogan (beats me) and he's signing his book Prince of Thieves. I smile and start talking to him because I'm already pretty hyper in anticipation of Jasper Fforde and I ask him if it's his first book (no) and if I can look at it. I start reading the jacket blurb when I realize that it's the galley I found a couple of weeks ago that was so funny, I ran around making everybody read the back of it. The book's set in Charlestown and it's about a bank robber falling in love with a bank teller. Yeah. And they were even going to make a movie out of it. (Figures.) So it dawns on me that this is the same book and I flick it up at Mike without thinking and say, hey, it's that galley I showed you a couple of weeks ago and I stop myself before I can go on because I realize that, whoops, the author is RIGHT THERE. Mike laughs I think out of sheer amusement at my lack of ability to filter my thoughts before they come outta my mouth. Anyway, I laugh a little at myself too and tell Mike that if Jasper Fforde shows up before I get back from coffee, he is to stall him at all costs, tie him up if need be because I better not miss him! Then, Jocelyn and I go to the Dunkin' Donuts down the block.
4:10 pm.
We're about to leave when Churchill comes through the door, sees me and tells me that they're looking for me at the store. I gasp, "Is Jasper already here?" He shrugs and goes, I think so. I grab Jocelyn's hand and we race back to the store. I pass a man standing by the mailbox and I think, that's him! but I look inside first, just in case my skills of recognizing authors from their book jacket photos is not that sharp. It's busy inside but I get gather enough information from the booksellers that it is him at the mailbox and I tear into the third room to grab my book rec, pitch my bag behind the info desk and calmly run up to Jasper Fforde, casually leaning on the side of the mailbox.
I'm a little flushed but I manage to get out that he's Jasper Fforde (yes!) and that my name is Vicki (Hi. Nice to meet you!) and I shake his hand (sigh, I hope I don't give him my cold, it's only contagious in the first couple of days, right?). I tell him that I wrote a rec for the Eyre Affair and ask him if he could sign it (god, I'm such a dork), and then I chat excitedly with him about his books and how much I love them and how my friend (Rachel!) recommended them to me in the first place and how she has my galley for the latest one and he tells me that it's about Hamlet escaping out of the book and I say that sounds very exciting (which it really does). And then I stand there a little star struck and mute, self-conscious of how hyper and childishly excited I must sound and then I ask him some more questions and giggle happily at standing next to a mailbox talking to Jasper Fforde. His ride comes and he leaves me feeling like a groupie at a rock concert (you know, if authors were rock stars, which they are, in the bookstore).
Randall Kennedy is just about to leave when I come back in the store and he waves a cheerful goodbye to me and I give him a big smile and say, I'll see you again. Afterwards, I kinda bound around the bookstore like a little child. Yeah, I'm a huge dork.
I just finished reading World War Z by Max Brooks and I have to say that it has been the most accurate account of the Zombie War since the UN's Postwar Commission Report. As one of the few survivors of those who fled North past the freeze-line after the Great Panic, I was out of the dark on many of the events that took place, especially on the other continents. I read everything I could get my hands on after things started to calm down. There were so many different books about the war afterwards but this was by far the best. The personal accounts of not only civilians but many of the movers and shakers that shaped the war were enlightening and heartbreaking. I admire that Mr. Brooks took the time to so thoroughly seek out these individuals and give voice to their stories, be they good or bad, and give us a fuller understanding of the greatest disaster in human history. We may never know why it started but we will fight these zombie motherf***ers till every last one of them is wiped off the face of the earth. I know many of you may not want to relive the nightmare of the Zombie War but to completely understand our experience, I believe the human elements in these stories will lift us up through it.
