Two of my favorite current authors will be visiting Seattle, Richard Russo at Elliott Bay on Tuesday for Bridge of Sighs and Tom Perrotta at the University Book Store on Oct. 29 for The Abstinence Teacher. I’ll be at both, for real this time, as I punked out of Orhan Pamuk’s lecture. If anyone has a link to a writeup, I’ll be happy to post it.

A question remains: will I finish Bridge of Sighs before Tuesday night? My sources say “unlikely,” especially because I just bought (another) copy of Straight Man and accidentally read the first chapter, which may cause me to read every subsequent chapter. It especially resonates because I initially read it a long time ago when I was a lifeguard, and I tore through much of it in the guard shack. The other guards couldn’t understand why I would laugh out loud—or, as they would type, LOL—at a book. When I told them it was funny they looked at me as though I had prophesied an alien invasion. Straight Man was so good that I probably recommended it to the person who absconded with my paperback copy. This being in pre-Delicious Library days, I was prone to letting out books I would never see again. To fill this gap, today I was in Ballard at Cupcake Royale and after wandered into my new favorite bookshop, Abraxus Books. It’s in the old Ballard Library and still feels more like a library than store, complete with luxuriant foliage in front and a secluded feel different from the shouting signs of most city businesses. The chief problem with Abraxus Books’ location is that if too few people know it exists, it might disappear. In the meantime, however, they had a hardcover copy of Straight Man for eight dollars. Score! Signed, it might be worth $10 in 20 years if I don’t cover it in highlighting—something that is improbable but possible.

Back on point to authors: Ursula K. Le Guin is appearing in Seattle as well, promoting her new book. A post describing her appearance at the Seattle Public Library was among the first I put up when I began this blog a year ago. Happy birthday to us!