Collum McCann answering questions
Sorry no book reviews again, like I said, I’ve been in a slump, and while I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, there just hasn’t been a lot of reading going on. However, I did go to a fabulous book related event last week, so I thought that would be appropriate to share with you all.
My friend Jen is the best!!! At the cookie swap last week (re-cap coming this Wednesday) Jen and I were chatting about having one last “hang out” before she heads down to Florida (her home) for two weeks over the holidays (lucky duck!) We agreed on last Wednesday with no set plans of what to do. I had my last work related event of 2009 on Tuesday so Wednesday plans seemed far away. Jen however, stumbled upon an event listing in New York Magazine, and saw that Colum McCann would be doing a reading for his new book at 192 Books, a small independent book seller in NYC. She called and got us standing room only reservations! Don’t you love it, when things just pop up like that and they turn into amazing experiences?
If you remember I attended the 50th Anniversary of Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” in 2008 and that was were I was first introduced to Colum McCann. I was so blown away by his talk or speech that evening, that I added his books to my “to-read” list. Back in March, I chose, This Side of Brightness by Colum McCann for my book group pick. Everyone enjoyed the book and it just kind of stayed with me. Needless to say I was thrilled to hear him talk about and read excerpts from his newest book, Let the Great World Spin, the 2009 National Book Award Winner.
We got there just before 7PM, when it was scheduled to start, and ended up actually getting seats because people were late. The bookstore was tiny but probably fit about 50-65 people and it was packed!!! Mr. McCann started out by speaking a little bit about what Let the Great World Spin is about and why he wanted to write it. Then he spent 20-25 minutes reading excerpts from two characters in the book. Afterwards he answered questions for about 15-20 minutes. It was really interesting to get an author’s perspective on why they wrote the book, what their writing process is, how the characters and ideas came to them, etc.
Me, Collum McCann and Jen!
The thing about Mr. McCann is that he is so incredibly intellegent (not surprisingly), I wanted to literally scribble down all the quotes he was quoting, books and authors he was mentioning, etc and just absorb it all. Yet at the same time he is so relatable. Sometimes when you meet authors, or “famous people” they seem to be on another plane or a different level. He struck me as someone I would love to meet at a pub and share a beer with. He stayed around to sign copies of his book. He was so nice, apologized for taking so long to get to everyone (we were kind of towards the back of the line) but yet, took the 5 mintues to really interact with us on a personal level asking us what we did, etc.
All in all it was an incredibly enjoyable. Jen and I both agree that we want to take advantage of events like this more often in NYC in 2010! I’m adding it to the list…Afterwards we walked over to Azya Wine Bar for big glasses of red wine, Jacques Torres chocolates and great conversation! It was a perfect NYC night with a good friend.
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What author would you most want to meet? Personally if I could go back in time I’d have a drink with F. Scott Fitzgerald!
Laura Ingalls Wilder!
But if it had to be someone living…Ann Patchett, I think.
[...] blog post last month, my friend Jen and I had the pleasure of going to one of Colum McCann’s book readings for Let the Great World Spin. This was the first book that I finished in my 2010 quest to read [...]