Book Signing Adventures: Giada De Laurentiis

Nov19

What did I say about the book signings right? This one was slightly different, I was joining my friend S in order to make sure she got some photos, but I didn’t get a book myself.

It was still such an experience!

So this book signing by the amazing chef Giada De Laurentiis, which was held by Williams-Somona, the location at Bellevue Square Mall (WA of course).

It was held for up to 400 people!

Here is my friend staking her spot in the queue, she got there at 4pm when it started at 6pm! There was still 60/80+ people ahead of her!

I popped off to see how long the queue was.

It went on.

And on.

However, since WS was hosting the signing, there was free food being handed out! It was all mini versions of Giada’s recipes in her book! SO GOOD!

Yum!!!!! Then it was suddenly S’s turn! I tried to take as many pics as possible, for the amount of people, it was one of the quickest signings I have ever been too! It was very conveyor belt-y, but she was super sweet to S!

We also made sure to get the money shot of S smiling with the book and Giada! Then we were out of there and off to taste samples at the fancy popcorn place.

A truly delicious book signing! I don’t know about you, but I’m going to keep my eye on Williams-Sonoma book signing events from now on!

Book Signing Adventures: Allie Brosh

Nov16

November is going to be one fantastic month for book signings!

There is a little home for one of the funniest, wittiest and extremely talented blogs on the Internet: Hyperbole and a Half.

If you’ve never read it, DO SO IMMEDIATELY!

Anyways, the amazing author/creator/illustrator Allie Brosh has complied some old and new web comics into a fantastic book!

My friend K and I were lucky enough to snag tickets to the reading and boy howdy I made sure we got there early! The event was put on my University Bookstore and they sectioned groups of people into signing groups according to letter. 30 people were in each group. K and I were in group B, SO WORTH the wait! They ended up going to P there were so many people!

After being introduced, Allie came up and read one of her comics with a presentation. For us she did ‘God of Cake’.

Hilarious! After, it was time for Q and A. Some questions were moving, others were funny and some, well, there’s a reason it was only 30 minutes.

Then we played the waiting game. University Bookstore staff handed out blank pieces of paper for us to draw pictures for Allie. K did a ‘Not so scary dragon’. I folded mine into a thank you card with a Space Needle that looked like a Christmas tree.

We truly didn’t wait too long, and it was such a fantastic experience. K went first. She had Allie sign one for her with a doodle of her dog Jude.

She hugged people! SOOOOOOOOO COOOOOL!!!!!!!

Then came my turn. I was a bit excited.

She hugged me too!

AND SHE DREW ME A UNICORN!!!!!!!!!

Please support your local bookstore so authors can do such fun and spectacular events like this! It was such a fun, light-hearted and engaging evening! Thanks so much to University Bookstore, Allie Brosh and my friend K for joining me for the event!

November Reads

Nov2

World Book Night’s USA 2014 book titles have been announced!

My books to read in November are a bit influenced you might say….

What I’m going to try to get through this month:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowe

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story

By Diane Ackerman

The Weird Sisters: A novel

By Eleanor Brown

Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

My reading challenges are nearing the end! Therefore I’m indulging in some much needed adult fiction! I can’t wait!

Anyone else reading some exciting titles this month? Or all we all avoiding the daily word count of NaNoWriMo?

Take Part: All Hallows Read!

Oct29

It’s nearly Halloween! Neil Gaiman is back for another year of leading the fantastic All Hallows Eve event of All Hallows Read!

Give a scary book to your best mate or someone at work! Spread the love of spooky stories! As October is the best month to enjoy being scared out of your wits!

If you could give any scary book to anyone, which would be the title you’d always go to?

My Favorite Book for October: The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin

Oct22

Has there ever been a book that reminds you of someone special?

Before I moved to England I worked in childcare for seven years. Two of them were spent at an on site after school program down the road from my Uni. In the early evenings, the routine for the head teacher and myself would be to gather the remaining kids and have story time before combining to one of the larger rooms and locking up ours.

I don’t know if it was one of our kids or if it was myself or my head teacher that found The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, but it made for fantastic October reading.

Usually I was the one that did the reading aloud, I really enjoyed reading to the kids. For Spookley, my head teacher took the lead, which allowed me to be the peanut gallery.

It was one of the best moments at work with my head teacher. We grew to be great friends once we moved on from the after school program, and Spookley was one of our fond memories of working together.

Our kids enjoyed it too. We all cheered at the end for Spookley. Such a heartwarming story.

When October rolls around, I’m always looking forward to paging through Spookley.

October Purchases – Gold Found at Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair

Oct19

Hi all!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to do some browsing at the annual Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair! Over 100 vendors where there, mostly from Washington but there were at least over 20 from others states and even one from the UK!

This of course meant that I couldn’t many of the books. $2,000 for a first edition of Stephen King’s The Shining? Or how about the 1st edition The Great Gatsby with the original dust jacket? (over $13,000).

Lots and lots of pretties!

There were books that were affordable, there was a lovely little booth of vintage cookbooks, but I choose to spend my money of this little gem of a first edition children’s book!