Friday, February 25, 2005

Literary Awakening

Well, I almost had a literary awakening. More like I realised how lazy my brain is nowadays and how I used to enjoy being a student, sitting in circles discussing books at length. (Not that I did much discussing of books last night, but I got to laugh at stupid questions other people asked, which I recall is an echo of my behaviour in student seminars too).

Margaret Atwood last night was great. She's very small but you get the impression that behind her physique is a great power ready to unleash. It really surprised me when I arrived in the tiny bookshop to turn around and find she was right behind me in the corner sat crosslegged on top of a table surrounded by piles and towers of books.

I also got to meet Katia and Sierra which was great. I hadn't discovered Sierra's blog before and Katia has already posted a super photo of Margaret esconced on her table. Learnt that Katia's discussed fear of moving to the UK is more specifically about the prospects of Leamington Spa. As coincidences go I lived there for 2 years in my student years and tried to allay some of her fears. I also forgot to tell her the park there is fantastic - I will tell the story of the snorkelling duck one day.

Having already lined up a dinner date with the frog (to give him my free marketing consultancy on his champagne communication plans) I didn't get to spend more time with the girls, which I would have liked to have done. So will have to save those conversations for March 11th.

Will be offline for the next few days as we're back to Reims to sign papers and then Sunday I'm travelling to London for work Monday, Tuesday. No chance of escaping the cold there either!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was great meeting you too and I look forward to hearing the end of the story about Palin and Waterstone's. :-)

Rod Duncan said...

For once the [Next Blog] button has clicked me on to a gem. I knew there must be some out there. Great fun. Thank you.

Katia said...

It was a pleasure meeting you (even though you did scare me to death with your, "well... in England... there's Tescos")!
I really miss the whole book analysis thing. My university days are long gone, but this has inspired me to rethink the book club thing.

SuburbaMom said...

Those book signing events are great. I'm sorry I missed Margaret Atwood. I'm sure she was very interesting to listen to.

ruth said...

I enjoyed your blog on 'sideways' (why isn't everyone blogging about it) which gave us exactly the same urge but which we could luckily fulfil immediately as we live in the middle of the cotes du rhone region. however we don't get to go to book signings with atwood or blogmeets with petite. sigh.have a good trip in blighty.