Sorry for the lack of interesting posts. Baseball has been controlling my evenings lately. But I have to admit that I find it easier to read and watch the game than just to watch them. Too tense! I can’t take it. So I read a magazine (I have an ever growing pile) and watch at the same time.
Last night I brought home a book I was thinking of reading. It’s a memoir called Paper Daughter by M. Elaine Mar, who was born in Hong Kong, emigrated at the age of 5, and grew up in the back rooms of a Chinese restaurant in Colorado. It sounded really fascintating, so I started reading. And finished it. Of course I had to stay up until 12:30 to do so and am now paying for it with the yawning. She wrote about her experience being very intelligent but unable to express her intelligence at school in America. In Hong Kong, she had already learned to read, add, subtract and mutliply. But even though she knew the answers here, she couldn’t express them until she learned English. But her classmates were not welcoming. In fact, they sound like they were pretty brutal to her, calling her all sorts of names. And she also writes about race a great deal, since she became a member of a minority upon entering America. Plus there is the conflict of her growing up, becoming willful in a country that allows willfulness in contrast to Hong Kong, where the children are obedient and respectful of their elders. Elaine and her parents grow increasingly apart. She ends up at Harvard and according to the back of the book, lives somewhere here in Cambridge. This is a really fascinating account of childhood, one completely different from my own.

The lovely HarperCollins rep sent me a galley of Michael Chabon’s new book The Final Solution: A Story of Detection yesterday. I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay several years ago and found it a completely engrossing read. So I have high hopes for this book. Chabon seems to have many devoted fans too. But this book is only 130 pages long! Kavalier and Clay came out 4 years ago, so he’s had plenty of time to work on a new novel. I know he wrote a children’s book and helped McSweeney’s put together some anthologies. He’s been busy. I probably should not complain I know. Maybe he is working on something bigger? I just thought that his other books seem meatier, you know? I’ll shut up now.

It’s sad when you are reading someone else’s blog and they alert you to a really cool event happening at your own store. (In my defense, the event schedule I get is in this shitty Excel format—difficult to read) Even worse when someone on the other side of the country alerted that blogger. Apparently TEV alerted Maud Newton about the Graham Greene event we are hosting here. Michael Gorra and James Wood will start discussing Greene at 6:30 on Thursday Oct. 28th. I’ve mentioned before, we have a great schedule this Fall. So check it out here. We have stuff with Maria Tatar, Susan Orlean, Stephen Elliott, Stephen Mitchell, Billy Corgan (yes, the Smashing Pumpkins guy), Dubravka Ugresic, Ha Jin, Corey Robin and Cornel West all before the end of October.

Wordsworth now has a sign on their doors saying they are going out of business. They will be having a sale and closing by the end of the month. I think Curious George Goes to Wordsworth will remain open. But Harvard Square is losing a great store. (I take comfort in the fact that the Abercrombie & Fitch which I had to walk by everyday, closed months ago. But a new Citizens Bank is going in there. Now its all ATMs. Its right next to 2 other banks, plus a Fleet right across the street {or whatever they are calling themselves these days. Bank of America? Don’t get me started on them.} And the Pacific Sun closed too. But I miss the square’s quirkiness. Wow, this is a long aside. I should end it. Ending….now.) I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything else about Wordsworth.

If you couldn’t tell by my glowing report of David Mitchell’s visit to Cambridge, I have a bit of a literary crush on him. And today, the Independent has a profile where John Walsh visits him at home. The best part is learning that he writes in a small bare shed.

Anyone in the Boston/Cambridge area tonight might want to come see Stephen Greenblatt read from and discuss his new book Will In the World at the Sackler Museum on Harvard campus. The event is free and should be pretty interesting.
Plus I am proud that my store finally updated the website design. I think it looks great. And check out the upcoming events. We have tons of good authors coming–Oran Pamuk, Susan Linn, Maria Tatar, Susan Orlean, Stephen Elliot. And these are just a few from October.

The NYT Book Review, in their new bigger better format, have an article on the new craze, blogging about books! Am I mentioned, of course not. Sniff. I am trying not to be offended. Maybe it’s the name?
As I am sure it is going to be mentioned everywhere else, I wonder about a few of their choices. I mean, Mobylives has not been updated in over a year! And the all the fan fiction stuff? A few of the sites on my left hand column might have been better choices, such as Tingle Alley or TEV. Whatever. When has the NYT been on the cutting edge?

Blank over at the Morning News makes some snap judgements about new books. Anyone who says this about Mitch Albom, is a woman I will trust: “Then came the made-for-TV movie that showed a dying Jack Lemmon teaching Hank Azaria how to live. That only made me want to gag, also alone and quickly.” (links stolen from the Bookslut Michael Schaub)

Beatrice has the goods on David Mitchell’s NY appearance. I imagine if I had not gone out for beers afterward, I might remember more clearly what was said during his reading. Alas, the lure of the beer was too much for me to resist.

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