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 |  If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true? |
| So I went to my first book signing the other day, and met one of my favorite authors, Christopher Moore. Years ago, my sister-in-law kept telling me that my husband and I had to read this book called A Dirty Job. I remember seeing it in bookstores (back when there were book stores in my county) and others of his. They were easy to pick out as they had a distinct font and bright colors. I don't know why, but I kept putting it off. Then my sister-in-law started telling me about more of his books. I found one, You Suck, in a clearance section at a bookstore, but it didn't really strike me as anything fantastic (probably because it was a sequel to a book I hadn't read). Years later, my sister-in-law finally bought one of his books for us to read, Fool. That's when I fell in love with Moore's writing. I had studied Shakespeare in college, of course, so I could really appreciate Moore's re-telling of King Lear. (To be clear, though, you don't need to have read Lear to appreciate Fool) Just this past Christmas, she bought another of his books for us, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, which is probably the funniest and most inspiring book I've ever read. It made me want to study Buddhism.  At this point, I started telling everyone I knew about this author, and my sister was soon hooked on his writing, too. So when Moore announced a book tour for his newest work, Sacre Bleu (a book about the color blue and the story of how Vincent van Gogh died) I knew I had to go to the signing when he came to my area. It was almost a 2-hour drive, but it was well worth it. Moore spoke for about an hour (telling us stories of how he was inspired to write Lamb - "I was watching something on the History Channel about how none of the Gospels covered Christ's life from his birth to about age 30, and I thought, 'I don't know a thing about religion or history - I should write it!' " and other random things), then took some questions (one woman requested him to sing Happy Birthday to her, which horrified him, and he repeated, "NO!" for several minutes.), then signed books. My sister and I, because we pre-ordered our books through the bookstore's website, were #23 and #25 in line and we waited about half an hour until our turn. I felt bad for the girl sitting next to us, she was #144. It was going to be a long night! I didn't want to take up too much of Moore's time, since I knew he had a long night ahead of him. I brought 2 of his older books with me, and I had 2 copies of his newest book. (My sister-in-law couldn't make it to the signing as she was too busy with work and I thought it would be a travesty for her not to have a signed copy since she was the one who introduced me to his work!) I told Moore that my sister-in-law asked me to tell him that she thinks he's brilliant and that I agree. He looked flabbergasted and said something about us being discerning in our judgment and he doesn't think he's brilliant because he often doesn't know what to say. I'm more than a third of the way through his new book, Sacre Bleu and I love it! Some have been saying it's not quite his style or that they're disappointed with it. I think they're just not interested in the subject matter. As an art history minor, and someone who is married to a painter, I find it pretty fascinating.
A really cool thing about the book is that the author has provided a Chapter Guide online (https://www.sacrebleu.info) with paintings and photos to enhance the story and provide some historical accuracy. The book can be purchased for an e-reader, but I recommend the hardcover. It's printed in blue ink and includes color photos of many of the paintings discussed in the book. And, of course, it's hilarious! (And an FYI for Moore fans: He's currently working on the sequel to Fool which will combined many of Shakespeare's other plays including Merchant of Venice and Othello. Moore first tried writing it in iambic pentameter, but when it took him three days to write one page, he abandoned the style. Next, he's going to be writing the sequel to A Dirty Job.) |
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