12.8.2009

I love to collect books and so it's natural that I like to meet authors too. Last year, near my birthday, D and I drove all the way to Raleigh, NC (and back, in one evening) to see Orson Scott Card.

Earlier this year I thought we might attend WorldCon for our anniversary. Neil Gaiman was the guest of honor and we both like his stuff. The only problem was that the convention was in Canada. Beaucoup money and too rich for our pockets. Which is why D was especially animated the other day when he told me that Neil Gaiman was coming to Georgia. And thus it was that D and I spent two hours yesterday calling this little bookstore to get tickets. Busy signal. Redial. Busy signal. Redial. But persistence paid off and we have two tickets on reserve!

So, the first question D asked me was 'What are you going to have signed?" If I was a normal woman, it would have been "What are you going to wear?" But D knows me so well. My favorite Gaiman works are Stardust and Neverwhere, but my copies of both are mass-market paperbacks. Maybe it's the book snob in me, but I really don't like taking mass-market paperbacks to author signings. If I'm going to take the effort and time to go out and meet and author, and they're going to take the time and effort to travel to where I am, I want to present them with something nice to sign. So I began hunting for a hardback copy of Stardust.

I called our local Barnes & Noble and explained what I was looking for. The woman clicked away at her keyboard and then explained that Neil Diamond has no books called Stardust. Or albums either. So I spelled it for her. G-a-i-m-a-n. Then she laughed. "Oh, Stardust! I'm sorry, I haven't had any coffee today." And I'm thinking no coffee by 10:30 and you work in a Barnes & Noble? So she informed me that the database told her it was only available Used. I thanked her for her time.

So I called Mr. K's. The girl who answered sounded like she knew who Gaiman was. I started to relax, thinking this was going to be a better experience. Then she asked me if Stardust was "one of his children's books"? No. She said they didn't have their inventory on the computer so she would have to go look. I waited patiently. She came back and told me that they didn't have a copy. Then she said "He's a pretty popular author, you know." Really? So I thanked her for her time.

Then I called Books-A-Million. Probably my least favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore. The guy who answered the phone, again, sounded knowledgeable. He put me on hold for about five minutes. Then he came back and said "Who was that author again?" Gaiman. "Oh, yeah, I'm sure we have some of those." In hardback. "In hardback? Uh, let me look." So he clicks on his keyboard for a little bit. "Yeah. It says we have one. Want me to go make sure it's here?" Yes please! I started to get excited, but braced myself for the reality that it was probably the movie-tie-in edition, which I really did not prefer, but would take, if that was all they had. He came back on the phone and said it would be waiting for me!

So D and I went out on our lunch break to pick it up. And it's not the movie-tie-in edition, thank you very much. It's a beautiful illustrated copy. So the book snob in me is just completely and utterly beside herself and couldn't be happier to present it for Mr. Gaiman to sign on Monday.