David Sedaris at Sam Wellers!

Only 4 days left until David Sedaris's appearance at Sam Weller's Bookstore, and boy are we excited! Come check out his latest, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.

The reading is un-ticketed and will begin at 7:00 PM. After the reading, Mr. Sedaris will sign everyone's books. We are issuing free tickets for the signing in order to keep the signing line manageable. Tickets are available now with the purchase of any David Sedaris title from Sam Weller's Bookstore. Tickets will be available without a purchase on Saturday, November 27th.

Book Cover of the Day

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk
By David Sedaris
Little, Brown & Company $21.99

You can't go wrong with a David Sedaris book, and this cover is so cute.

Buy a Soul, Bitch

On Saturday night, 10/24/09, David Sedaris had a reading at the Capitol Theatre here in Salt Lake City. John, Jason, and I represented the store and sold his books in the lobby. Along with his own numerous titles, Sedaris was recommending Our Dumb World from The Onion so we were selling that too. We got there early, set up, and waited for the masses to arrive. We sold a few things pre-show and, as usual, Sedaris did a small pre-show signing to cut down on how long we'd have to wait around after. Since we all had seen him read before, the three of us stayed in the lobby, flipping through the fabulously offensive Our Dumb World and talking about videos we like on Youtube. We could semi see/hear the reading on a closed-circuit television hanging on the wall near the auditorium entrance, and the crowd was eating it up. They absolutely loved him; it's hard not to. I think the best part was the fact that the stage and lighting was still set up for Macbeth, the Capitol Theatre's current show. On the television, with the spotlight on him washing out his outline, Sedaris looked like some kind of hat-less pope on a very dramatic blue stage preaching to his hundreds of disciples. As soon as it was over, we got slammed. His books were flying off the table left and right along with Our Dumb World, which no one bought before the show but we couldn't keep on the table after. No one can sell someone else's book quite like David Sedaris. Then it was time to wait while Sedaris signed books for everyone. One of my favorite things about him is that he will sign for as long as it takes for everyone in line to get their book signed, no matter how long that takes. He told us later that he once signed for seven hours straight, it's amazing he doesn't have some severe carpal tunnel going on.

It was the last girl in line's birthday so Sedaris gave her a lesbian iPod holder from his bag of goodies. The bag generally contains hotel shampoos and soaps, travel packs of ibuprofen and Advil, and condoms. After the birthday girl left, we got some stock signed and Sedaris asked us out to dinner. We said yes. We went across the street to the Bay Leaf. Dinner was filled with delicious food and great conversations about the book industry and how digital readers could change things for us booksellers who like a good old fashioned hold-in-your-hand, real live book. I need to mention the food for a moment. We had black eyes peas and fried pickles (yum!) for appetizers, Sedaris and John had blackened catfish, Steve had the meatloaf, and I had corned beef hash. Then it was dessert time. We got peach cobbler and apple brown betty, both a-la-mode. When Sedaris, Steve, and I were waiting outside while John was making his way out, a youngish guy walked past and told us we were "buying into a lesser society". Sedaris and I looked at eachother in surprise with perfect O faces as the guy kept mumbling things at us. I rather sarcastically told him "thanks, have a good night" to which he responded "buy a soul, bitch". I then asked Sedaris if I could borrow some money to buy a soul and he said that maybe if we hadn't ordered dessert, we could afford one.

An Evening with David Sedaris

When I woke up on Monday morning, I had no idea that by the end of the night I would be eating at gay Denny's with David Sedaris. That particular Denny's is known as "gay Denny's" due to the fact that if you go there on the weekend at two in the morning, it's full of the most fabulous people in town.

At 5:30p.m., Adam and I arrived at Abravanel Hall to help set up our spot where we were going to be selling books for the David Sedaris reading. We met up with Cat, Shari, and John and got everything ready for the 6:30 door opening. People slowly began to filter in, stopping by our little gift shop area just inside the door as the Hall employees were still trying to figure out how to set up the line for the table where Sedaris would be signing.

One of the funny things about Sedaris is that he will just sort of quietly show up without notice. I was selling some books and I turned around and there he was. He sat at the table set up by the employees and began to sign some books before the reading. The lobby started to fill up as it got closer to "show time". Now, I had never been to Abravanel Hall before, so when I heard what sounded like a submarine preparing to submerge, I had no idea that it was a call for people to take their seats. Apparently, everyone in the lobby had no idea either, the beeping went pretty much unnoticed. People only began to go inside when someone got on the loudspeaker and announced that the reading would start in five minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when Cat handed Adam, John, and myself a ticket to go inside and watch. I wasn't sure if we'd actually be able to listen in on the reading, at best I thought we could take turns going inside, or maybe watch on a closed-circuit t.v. - which is what Shari and Cat did, but we got to sit in the front row.

When he took the stage, Sedaris was met with wild applause as he stood shielding his eyes from the audience, asking the booth to turn down the house lights. The booth person complied and as the lights went down, he was visibly more comfortable, explaining, "I can do this just fine as long as I can't see you.". As he was reading from not only his new book, but an essay that didn't get published and a story from "Holidays on Ice", I thought about how much funnier these stories were because he was reading them. They're really funny on their own, but with his inflections and emphasis on certain words, and occasional pausing, it was so much funnier. I don't know how many times I had to catch my breath from laughing.

About an hour and a half in, after reading some diary entries, he said "Thank you" in a way that made us think he was finished. The three of us made for the door to get back to the book selling area before the mass of people emerged from the auditorium, only to find that he wasn't, in fact, finished. Instead of going back inside, we stayed in the lobby and tried to listen on the closed-circuit t.v., which just wasn't the same. We only missed about fifteen to twenty minutes, I think, at the end.

Then we were surrounded. It was a mad rush for books, and just as soon as it had begun, it was over. Everyone was in line for an autograph. And we waited. Every now and then, someone would come up to buy a book to read while waiting for someone who was in line, a line that went down a set of stairs and curved a little, but mostly we waited.

It was midnight when the line was gone. Sedaris walked over to us and signed a few store copies and our own books that we had brought for him to inscribe. None of us had eaten since lunch, so we decided to go to gay Denny's. Adam asked Sedaris if he wanted to join us, and I don't know if it was the intrigue of a gay Denny's, or just the fact that he too was probably really hungry, or a combination of the two, but he agreed to join us.

We drove the books that we didn't sell back to the store and Cat went home. Shari, Adam, John, and I made our way to the gay Denny's, unsure if he really was going to join us. He did. If you're curious as to what David Sedaris ordered from Denny's, it was a Moons Over My Hammy with hash-browns, exactly what I had ordered.

A Juggling Act

Thanks to an upcoming event, two book clubs, and my own want to read something fun, I am currently trying to read four books. Usually it's a feat for me to finish just one book in a reasonable amount of time, but four? What have I gotten myself into?

First, the event. David Sedaris is coming to Abravanel Hall on October 20th for his newest book, "When You are Engulfed in Flames".

I am part of the little crew from our store working the event, so I am trying to finish that book by then. I'm not complaining, by any means. The man's a comic genius, the book is great.

Next, book club one of two. The newest book club meeting at Sam Wellers is queereads, a book club focusing on LGBT literature. Created and moderated by Adam Streeter, the first book is Sarah Schulman's "Rat Bohemia" to be discussed on Wed. Oct. 22nd.
Adam and I read this together in one night. It's a quick read and a great one. Even though this book was written thirteen years ago, I found myself relating to a character I didn't expect to, and reading about situations I've recently experienced. It was almost startling how familiar some of the emotions were. This book is a true gem written in beautifully simplistic, yet sometimes poetic prose. I'm really looking forward to discussing this at queereads.

Now for book club two of two. Zach's book club, the Hardboiled Book Club, is reading Ryo Murakami's "In the Miso Soup" to be discussed on Tuesday Oct. 28th.

I've only gotten about twenty or so pages into this one as of now, but so far, I like it.

And because I like to torment myself, I'm reading an advanced reading copy of "Fool" the newest novel by Christopher Moore, due out in February of 2009. It's Moore's take on Shakespeare's "King Lear". I'm a little more than halfway through this and all I want to do is lock myself in a room with no distractions and finish it. I'm loving it. I was unable to find a picture of the cover. I'll post a review with a picture closer to the book's release.

So right now, my reading schedule is like a juggling act, or perhaps something a little more scattered and inconsistent, say a really old intoxicated clown's version of a juggling act.