Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Authors@Google: Armistead Maupin

Google's really good about bringing in fabulous and interesting people for their Authors@Google series. I feel like I never take advantage of it though. I get so consumed by work sometimes. I'm going to make it a point to carve out some time to go to more of them, or at least watch the YouTube videos of the talks.

Today, I did take advantage of it. Armistead Maupin, a writer famous for his 'Tales of the City' series, stopped by Google today. And the 'City' he writes about is San Francisco, in case you were curious. I actually didn't know who Armistead Maupin was, until maybe 6 weeks ago.

A Quick Anecdote:
In Mid December I made it to Washington DC to visit my friends Brent and James. A bit of the time I had to keep myself occupied. One thing I did is go to Kramerbooks and Afterwords, a famous bookstore in Dupont Circle, the historically gay district in the beltway. I was wondering around the bookstore aimlessly. I read a bit in the 'dating books' section. Then I roamed around and picked up this book called 'Micheal Tolliver Lives.' The cover was so attractive to me. I found an instant connection somehow, even though you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. So I read a bit and find it pretty witty. I also read the flap, to get to know the author a bit better.

I didn't by the book, but it's been in my mind ever since. The artwork is so distinctive and I could tell that I would actually love reading the book. I will pick up the book and the rest of the books in the 'Tales of the City' series. I am sad though, that I didn't show up in time to get a free copy. It would have been nice to get his autograph.

It's just funny that it was that one book that I was drawn to, in a massive bookshop, you know? And who knew the author would be visiting Google shortly?

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