Book signings

2006 has been a great year for book signings. Earlier in this blog I mentioned that I had the opportunity to hear Taylor Branch and that he signed all three books in his history of the Civil Rights Movement during the King years.

Since then I have heard Nicholas Basbanes and George Pelecanos. I missed most of Basbanes talk at the Library of Congress, but was fortunate enough to be first in line for the signing. He signed all four of his past books as well as his new book, Every Book Its Reader. Basbanes was very attentive and took a lot of time personalizing the inscription on his new book.

Pelecanos was at Politics & Prose -- the best independent bookstore in the country -- promoting D.C. Noir, a noir anthology that he edited for Akashic Books. Pelecanos, who also has a short story in the anthology, was joined by 10 of the authors whose works appear in D.C. Noir, including Laura Lippman. In addition to having my copy signed by the 11 authors, it was also signed by cover photographer Jim Saah and Akashic publisher Johnny Temple.

Kudos to Temple for his fine Noir series (it includes Dublin Noir, Chicago Noir and Lone Star Noir). In addition to featuring established writers, like Pelecanos, Lippman and Jim Fusili, the series has attracted many authors who are being published for the first time.