« One Night Only | Main | Baby Names »

November 03, 2007

The Morning After

As threatened, we had a reading last night. In fact, we had three.

We arrived at Bookplate around five to see the place had turned into an Idiots' bonanza.

In addition to our usual display...

...there was a table for displaying prints from the calendar...

...and another table for displaying the prints that wouldn't fit on the first table...

...and yet another table for displaying various best-selling titles and a bowl of caramels.

Blurred for intentional artistic purposes, of course.

Bookplate proprietor and friend Tom Martin put out quite a spread of wine, cheese, and other tasty things.

In addition, he got us each a turkey dinner from the church on the corner of Cannon and Cross Streets.

It was fabulous and all homemade: turkey, stuffing, mac cheese, slaw, oyster fritters, green beans, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, a roll, and a slice of pound cake. Just the sort of sustenance one needs in advance of a reading.

Our good friend Sarah Myers was there, taking care of things, taking care of us.

People started to trickle in. Including our new friends Kate and Nick, two very fine people who like windmills and work at Washington College. Nick and I are scheming on how to erect a windmill in the middle of Fountain Park in the center of Chestertown. But I digress.

At five minutes to 6:00, when the reading was to begin, we began to worry. The number of customers, at four, was less than the number of Bookplate employees and Idiots, at six. Given the lack of success of our Memorial Day reading, we were not unprepared for the possibility that Tom's bountiful spread might go uneaten.

Our concerns proved premature.

By 6:10 or so, we had a full room of eager fans.

I realize that the room does not look "full" of eager fans above. This is because I took the picture above during the period of pre-6:00 worry. By 6:10, when the room was full, I was too preoccupied doing my pre-reading crunches and windsprints to take photos. But imagine all these seats full. That, my friends, was the glory of last night.

We began the reading and Tom gave a very nice introduction about the pleasures of owning an independent bookstore and the fun he has had working with us over the last year. Last night's event marked the 11 month anniversary of our first-ever public event as Idiots'Books, a signing at Bookplate last December. (The link is worth checking out, if only to see the Facial Features of French Explorers/Death of Henry cake that Tom and Sarah had made for us.)

The reading was a decidedly Eastern Shore-themed event.

Robbi read St. Michaels, the Town that Somehow Fooled the British. As you might not know, copies of this beautiful, hardcover book are available for purchase from www.idiotsbooks.com.

I read from George Washington Slept Here.

The crowd found both books quite hilarious. I will make a mental note only to read in the presence of bottles of wine in the future, and only when a lengthy reception has preceded the reading. After the reading, we mingled and signed books and felt gratified. We were ready to go home and put up our feet when Tom asked if we would do another reading. It seemed another crowd had gathered. Were we game?

We were.

Here is the second crowd gathering.

Note the woman with the lovely blue hair. She is British and bought a copy of The Town that Somehow Fooled the British for her British Mother, which is kind of like buying Facial Features of French Explorers for a French explorer. A potentially combustible situation, in both cases.

The second reading went very well. In fact, one woman in the audience stayed for the second show and laughed even louder the second time through the material. We like this woman.

After the second show, we mingled and signed and were just about to go home and put our feet up when Tom noticed that another crowd had gathered and would we do another reading?

Well, the sheer hubris associated with a second encore trumped the fatigue and we gamely returned for one more show. The woman who had sat through the first and second readings returned for a third, laughed louder yet, and even added some helpful editorial comments. After the third reading we mingled and signed and then...

Tom pulled out the coup de gras, another personalized cake.

It was delicious. We all fought over who would get to eat Washington's face.

Tom pointed out that the cakemakers had misunderstood the apostrophe in Idiots'Books and had originally made it a comma. He insisted that they move the offending piece of punctuation. Evidence of this editorial oversight is written in the icing.

Our good friend Ken Castelli was there, on a one-night visit to Chestertown from his new home on a tiny island where there are no other people. He needed a bit of urban pulse, apparently. We were happy to be able to provide it.

Thank you Tom and Sarah for giving us a place to hang our shingle, for the wonderful cake, and for your unending support. We couldn't be idiots without you.


Posted by bogenamp at November 3, 2007 09:55 AM