Last night, David Mitchell gave a reading at my store. I was nervous about meeting him to be honest. Would I babble too much, what if he wasn’t cool at all, what if he looked down on ‘bookstore’ people (some authors do, trust me—not a good way to endear yourself to a store and get your book prominently displayed)? He turned out to be a most charming and friendly guy, looking very English in his grey ‘jumper’ and black pants. I had no idea how handsome he is! He read from 2 sections of Cloud Atlas: first the Cavendish section where he’s hiding in the hedge spying on the house, and second, from the Hawaii future section where Noah tells the story of the slaughter of his family. Then David took requests from the audience. A man, who may not have been paying attention, asked for more Cavendish and Mitchell obliged, reading the section where Timothy realizes where precisely his brother sent him to hide out.
After reading, David fielded questions from the audience, which had shown up in droves by the way, considering the terrible weather outside. Questions ranged from ‘how did the idea for 6 nested novellas come about’ to ‘how did he come up with the dialect in the Hawaii novella’. He lived in Japan for 8 years and cited the Japanese authors he read while there are huge influences on his writing. He named Mishima, Oe, and Murakami (duh!). And his favorite Beatles’ album is revolver. He considers Abbey Road ‘too embroidered’. What an intelligent and well-spoken man!
He signed books for everyone and chatted to each person waiting in line. After that, several of the booksellers, Mitchell, his driver and I went out for drinks. We went to a bar down the street and ordered some food. It was after 9 at this point and we were all famished. Topics ran amuk at the table. We went around and listed the most famous people we each had met (sounds like summer camp doesn’t it?). At the end, we played the game from the David Lodge book (I can’t remember which one) where you name a famous book you haven’t read and get points for each person who has read it.
All in all, the night was great. Mr. Bookdwarf had a wonderful dinner waiting for me when I got home. David Mitchell is not only a brilliant novelist, but a genuinely nice person to meet. The kind of guy you’d love grabbing beers with after work. I can’t help but hope he wins the Booker next month.
P.S. I took some pictures with my camera phone. They suck, but what are you going to do?

David Mitchell signing books

David Mitchell behind a giant pile of his book Cloud Atlas