It's All About Causality

There's a schedule change coming my way at the end of this month, and it's shaking up the shape of my world. I'll have evenings free, which translates to a need of things to do in the evening. I've literally never had a job that's left me with free time before 7PM. This felt like a problem until I looked at our February author events, and was reminded how awesome, varied, and (often) free our events are.

Since I like to assume that my tastes are universal, or maybe just need to make myself accessible to stalkers, I'm going to tell you about the events I'm most jazzed about. And mind you, this is the jazziest I've felt about events. While there is a steady stream of awesomeness coming down the pipeline, sometimes we have a perfect storm situation. Interests dovetail, authors rock the house with Appalachian buffets, and people admit interesting or awkward things (depending on your perspective) during their face time with the author(s). This February is just such a month.

Going in the order of release dates, which actually matches up with their chronological order, we have an event with Jamie Ford at the Bellevue Regional Library on February 3rd. The event with be an installment of the library's Meet the Author series, where he will read a passage from Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, his debut novel, in addition to discussing the work that went into it. For anyone who has already read the book, which, if sales are a fair indicator, would be a lot of you, I don't need to explain why this event is well worth the potential trek over to the Eastside. For the rest of you, Jamie Ford is one of the nicest people you could hope to meet. He is a soft-spoken, down to Earth, and insightful individual that everyone should go see at a reading or literary event of some kind at least once.


The following week, we have Jane McGonigal showing up at our U-District store to discuss Reality is Broken. My love of video games is well-noted, and as you can read in my little questionnaire profile thingy, I love video games as a delivery mechanism for stories. However, another interest is in the way video games alter our thinking. While there is quite a bit that's been written about video games as an industry, this is the first book I've come across to really touch on what I'd call big picture issues in the fields of psychology or neuroscience. It's interesting to think about the way playing video games can shape our consciousness and the way we interpret and respond to our reality. In her book, you'll find scientific evidence supporting the notion that games are good for us. If you'd like to know more about how games can make us happier, more creative, and more resilient, this isn't one to miss.



Last, but certainly not least, we have an in-store event on February 17th with local author Jonathan Evison! I'm very unabashed about my fanboy-ism here, so I don't mind telling you that I totally hero-worship Evison. Which isn't to say that I've built a small altar with pictures, offerings, or burning candles. Instead, it means he's an acquaintance that I've come to admire and respect to the point of thinking he's one of the best people ever. And that's a thought substantiated by my analytical mind. You're unlikely to meet anyone more encouraging, genuine, or charismatic than him.

All of that aside, West of Here is an absolutely outstanding addition to his body of work. In this novel he shows what a truly amazing talent he is by adopting a style that will come as a shock to those who loved/read All About Lulu. It starts off with prose that feels much more in line with the early pioneers of the novel, with a story of life in an untamed land that would make Jack London jealous. Mind you, I don't say that lightly.


Part of me wants to keep this ball rolling, but there's probably enough here for you to consider. However, a short list of the events of March looks like another perfect storm month is en route. Among others, we've got T.C. Boyle (!!!), Adam Corolla, Michael Showalter, Suze Orman (my mom will be front and center), and Michio Kaku.

--Griffin

Black and White Make Gray

As readers, we all have gaping holes in what we feel we ought to have read by now. It's this constant feeling that we're behind that, for me at least, causes us to read when we'd rather sleep, eat, socialize, or otherwise relax in some mindless way. Perhaps instead of playing a video game. We all have different routines.
That said, we all have these gaps. I'm saying it's universal, and by reading on you're agreeing with me.
You know what this is building toward, right? My own literary shortcomings.
As I've said before, I'm not particularly strong or current when it comes to books of a series. This would include any of the most beloved series of the past century, but seems to resonate with people in a different way when I say that I've never read the Harry Potter series.



Before you ask how I work at a bookstore, how I'm alive, or any of the like questions, allow me to explain. When the first book came out, I had already jumped the region between Young Adult and Literary Fiction, and I was reading the likes of Twain, Swift, and Hawthorne. In my own mind, I had left that realm and had no reason to look back. Fantasy has never been of particular interest to me, either. Sci-Fi, sure. Technology and aliens receive a reasonable intellectual investment because I grew up in a Star Wars household. Children training to be wizards and witches didn't really appeal to me as a child, or as an aging child (what others might call an adult).
It didn't help that I was in high school when the first two movies came out, and being a white dude with a fair complexion, scruffy brown hair, and slightly rounded glasses earned me the comments along the lines of "oh mah gaw, you look like Harry Potter!" Then 'Griffindor' stuck as a nickname, and all signs pointed to avoidance with a side of disinterest.

Around the time of the sixth book was released, I remember many friends giving the series a push and telling me I had to read it. Fresh off of not seeing the third Lord of the Rings movie on principle (no title could warrant that amount of Oscars, a stance that I maintain), I felt "what could it hurt to miss out on this?" Working at a bookstore for the past four years, I'm sure you can imagine this series has been recommended to me more than once. More than a few dozen times is probably accurate. I did work the midnight launch of The Deathly Hallows, after all. And yet I felt completely comfortable with my ignorance.
Someone very close to me, however, had planted an interest in the movies deep down in my heart. They were fun and light. Nothing revolutionary, but a better way to spend my time than with the latest Michael Bay flick (eat it, Bay!). Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, it wasn't until the sixth film that I really started to feel like there was more going on in this world than the films were conveying. This thought hadn't previously occurred to me. In my head, they were always "those kids books." How complex could they be, right? I've heard about books/series like the Hunger Games trilogy, Going Bovine, His Dark Materials, the Chaos Walking series, and etc. so I've had some idea of how mature YA lit. is getting. Harry Potter had just always seemed on the light, fluffy side of things to me. Ohh, what a fool I was...
As you might imagine, I'm officially reading these books now, and beyond the sheer enjoyment of the prose itself, I'm enjoying the conversations these books start. I recently had the misfortune of spending some time in the hospital, and had two conversations that went a long way in both distracting and comforting me. Talking to the nurse at the registration desk about the series after she called me 'Griffindor' was a departure from my high school response of "yeah *forced smile* likeI'veneverheardthatbefore *mumble mumble mumble*." Then, when the anesthesiologist saw that I had one of the books in my hand, the conversation stopped being all business, and instead he wanted to tell me about his strict ritual of seeing the films in theaters with his best friend, and the pact they made to do so. He also gave me some encouragement and advice in regards to the the fifth book, The Order of the Phoenix. He said that I "just need to get through it, because it's about to get so good." It has also led to conversations with co-workers that have been a ball. I'm not sure I've ever discussed any book or series to this extent, and never can I remember it being this much fun.



Basically, I feel like I'm on the inside of something where it's worth being on the inside. The diehards are much more fun than those taking a principled stand against the series. So if you think it's something you may not hate, give it a try. In fact, even if it's something you think might not be up your alley, you should still give it a try. I'm proof of the "what do we know?" factor. Here I thought I was too adult or too high-brow for this series, ultimately above it somehow, and now I can't wait to go to the Harry Potter: The Exhibition over at the Pacific Science Center and my eventual pilgrimage to the Harry Potter theme park in Universal Studios.
In the meantime, I think I'm just going to walk down to Kids Books and let Anna punch me in the liver.

Griffin