Books are my Bliss

Last night I finally meet one of my all time favorite authors, Nicholas Sparks. He is one of the only authors that my sister and I both read and like. He also is a local author and my sister has met him twice on tour in Tulsa and she told me to show up two or three hours early. So I left work 30 minutes early and went straight over to BN. I almost didn’t find a parking spot. Apparently, people from all over the state drive to see him in whichever town he goes to in North Carolina. One of the booksellers told me that people started coming in at 10 am for a 7pm advertised reading.
So what is a NY Times best-selling author like? He’s very nice. He posed for countless pictures and signed thousands of books. He just sat there smiling and chatting and sipping Mountain Dew. When it was finally my turn, I approached his table and I seriously thought I was going to melt like the Wicked Witch when I shook his hand and told him how great his books were. I am convinced that he is a literary rock star and the people’s writer. He is really smiley too and it’s a real smile, not a fake one.
Even though I spent three hours in line, and I was tired and hungry, it was all worth it. I had Saffron my itouch with me, so I could surf the web and look up his books when my new found friends in the line and I couldn’t remember a certain plot point or wondered which book came out first. There were moms and daughters and grandmas and even a few guys. I had so much fun. I would definitely go to another one of his signings again.

Meeting authors and poets is one of my favorite things. I love to meet the person behind the page and find out what inspired them.

Beyond books, I am still working on the Pink Poodle shawl and I have no clue what I am going to take with me to knitting group. I think I am just going to end up hauling the Pink Poodle to the mall with me. I made a new cozy for Saffron out of the Red Heart Eco Cotton in Denim. This time I made it a little smaller so it fits her nice and snug and she won’t slide out of it like she did with the other one.

I discovered a new show this week too. It’s called Spain On the Road Again and it follows Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow and friends on a culinary road trip through Spain. It is so fun. The first episode features the windmills in la Mancha and cheesemaking and all kinds of local cuisine. Mario and Gwyneth have a really good banter and watching it is like being a road trip with your friends. It makes me wish I had a Mercedes Benz convertible because that’s what they drive in the show. I keep hoping that they will play some Coldplay on the show.