bookpeople.

dave eggers was at bookpeople last night. it was cool.

"this is like--dude--i'm nervous--it's like, i'm trying to think of this musically--it's like, meeting, jeff tweedy or something, you know, dude? you know what i'm saying, right? like, dude, yeah. it's like--i don't even know. i'm like, freakin' out man. i need to use the restroom, but, aggghhh, duuuude..." -- paul banks

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dave read from zeitoun and talked about that story for a bit. he also talked about 826 and austin bat cave, which is a joy to hear him get passionate about. he does good.

the q&a was fantastic--right out the gate with a firecracker of a young lady asking him about being such a young author and what advice did he have for young authors trying to make it. you could almost see dave physically recoil from the perceived verbal onslaught and sort of go--whoa--easy.

he went on to talk about not being that young, how he was not that young when he got his first work published, and to not be in a hurry. "it's writing--not, pro basketball, you know. though a lot of comparisons are regularly made between the two..." he spoke to needing some life experience before you have something to say--he told the girl to join the merchant marine. he was only half kidding.

next, someone brought up the panorama and asked why they don't keep it going. for himself and his staff, it was unsustainable, but he was pointing to the importance of print media and long-form journalism in print form. he only reads the newspaper. he needs a serene reading environment and likes to know his news is coming from someone who is employed to investigate and report the news to keep things accountable, etc. "give the guy a dollar, and he gives you the news--you know, a dollar." he does not have an internet connection at home..."i tried the high speed, super-thing for like 3 months, and it's like two clicks and you're on cat porn or something...doesn't work for me."

he encouraged people to ask relationship questions, and one woman asked about her partner not supporting her in her writing endeavors, and one of the opening readers told her something about projecting her feelings of self-doubt on her partner, etc. it was a burn--great audience reaction. dave agreed to call the woman's girlfriend and find out what was going on.

when someone asked about the motivation for adapting the wild things novel, he took exception, "you mean like, what a stupid idea, why would you do something like that? no? you didn't mean that? yeah--i heard it in there--i saw it behind those doughy eyes...it's always been a goal of mine to make a furry book."

he also said he was likely done with screenwriting. "it's not as fun to eat the sausage once you've been in the sausage factory." he would leave that to toph.

it was a good night. paul and i got some books signed by him. he said earlier in the night that he had recently been drawing mammals with epic slogans written across them, so i asked him if he could do an elephant--an animal we had brainstormed earlier in the night for paul's cover art.

"i've never done an elephant."

"yeah, we were thinking because, it's called 'secrets and lies' and elephants never forget and, you know..."

"yeah, and elephants lie a lot."

"right. exactly. so, would you like to sketch an elephant real quick?"

dave looks up blearily--going on 3 1/2 hours at this event--we being 4th from last in the signature line.

"no."

i laugh to myself thinking--surely i will be chastised somewhere in his forthcoming writings.

"but, if you contact me through mcsweeney's--you know how to do that right? it's easy enough--i will draw you an elephant and send it to you."

eureka.

(pictures/video to come)