Philadelphia in the Books
Posted on June 7, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Photo by E.C. Myers
Last night was the first public night of the tour, at the Barnes & Noble in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. The place was jammed, which makes me happy, although I suppose that’s no fun for the people who had to stand. Sorry, folks.
As Philadelphia is the first stop of the tour, the folks who showed up got to be guinea pigs for me as I tried out a new short story (for which I swore them all to secrecy), and then also tried out a comedy piece related to Redshirts, for which I enlisted the able help of Paul Sabourin, of Paul & Storm fame. Both pieces went over very well, so I’ll probably keep them in the rotation.
I also read a piece that will be exclusive to the Philadelphia stop: “There Will Come Soft Rains,” by Ray Bradbury. It was important to me that I mark the day by reading something of Bradbury’s, and thankfully the audience went with me on this one. Thank you, fans of Philadelphia, for indulging me on this one. I really do appreciate it.
In all it was a really wonderful way to start the book tour: Good people, good bookstore, good time. Dear rest of the tour: You will have a lot to live up to.
wish you would read it in Minneapolis too. Had to stop listenung to Redshirts today when I heard the news and find Dandelion Wine. Couldnt remember if I’d read it yo my younger kids. turns out I haven’t. We will be correcting that this week, then I can finish Red shirts before your arrival.can’t wait.
Dude, don’t you make me cry!
Wish you were coming to Huntsville, AL.
Lovely to meet you. Robin howled (quietly) with laughter when she saw the ripped page with the O.M.F.G. cooment.
It was our pleasure. I had to leave reasonably quickly after your readings. As I was checking out at the register last night, one of the clerks showed up with another case of books. She said they were hiding under (ex-) Governor Rendell’s books. (He will be appearing at the store for a signing soon.) So I hope all the attendees who couldn’t find a copy at first managed to eventually get one.
I was there. It was so much fun! The comedy piece, so great. John did almost make me cry in public during his Bradbury reading.
Sounds like a wonderful evening. Hope you’ll be in Toronto some time this year!
We have an anthology of children’s stories that was given to my daughter as a baby. One of them is Switch on the Night by Ray Bradbury. A wonderful story about the magic that happens when we turn off the lights.
Sadly, I couldn’t make it to Center City, but you should know that I was home re-reading the drill sergeant sequence from Old Man’s War at the time, so the evening wasn’t entirely Scalziless.
The event last night was awesome, and it was especially great of you to pay homage Ray Bradbury with that reading. I think everyone in there was a little misty eyed afterward. It felt good to take a moment with fellow sci-fi fans to honor him.
@Todd: As the last person to get a copy of the book, from the box that was hiding under Rendell’s boxes, I can confirm that everyone did, indeed, get a book.
@Scalzi: one word: HILARIOUS. Totally worth the $8 parking cost. You might have even been worth the $20 parking cost, but since I didn’t part there, I can’t confirm that absolutely.
You’re wearing a red shirt in that picture. My inner 12-year-old is giggling madly. =)
A lot of folks wore red. Future tour location participants: take note!
I was moved by the Bradbury, identifying the author within a sentence or ten. Then enjoyed it and was saddened and happified by it.
Great excerpt which I CAN’T TELL YOU ABOUT BUT IT WAS AWESOME and the Q and A were way enjoyable. The Humor bit with Paul worked, but I’m a lawyer and most of it wasn’t as funny to me. Cuz I’m a lawyer. Got some good laughs with that though.
Thanks to JS for posing for laughs in the fan-photo, for the autograph, and for being yet another great opportunity to introduce my wife to the world of geekery. took her to White Dwarf books in Vancouver in Dec and we saw Avengers on the big screen.
Also: Redshirts is a very satisfying read so far, and the free chapters I read online did NOT prepare me for the ,-7-‘=•]!,, [NO CARRIER
That was fun! Then I came home and started Redshirts. Eventually noticed it was 2 AM and I was out of pages.
Also, if the script for the comedy piece were to appear online, then I could re-read it and laugh some more. Just saying.