The Bean!

93.1 WXRT is always a safe bet when you're in the mood to hear Chicago's finest rock, but evidently, it's especially listenable at 4:30 or so in the morning. As we pulled away from our apartment at 4:24, a mere 4 minutes past our noble goal of being on the road by 4:20... ...they were playing "There She Goes Again" by the La's. There she goes again indeed.

The original draft of this tour had us doing a stop in Philadelphia on Thursday, February 19th, but there were limited indie bookstores available, and none of their schedules seemed to sync up with ours, so we had to scrap that plan in favor of a two-night stand in Brooklyn. The closest we came to Philly was changing planes in the airport this morning. But here is a picture of the City of Brotherly Love (or at least some heavy machinery in said city's general vicinity) as seen from my window, just before takeoff: So far, people on the East coast have been as nice as they were way out West, including the gentleman who offered me the window seat on the second leg of the trip, thereby giving me the opportunity to bring you state-of-the-art aerial imagery of what we saw below (water, land) and how we stayed so high above (engine, wing): As we landed in Boston, I was on the phone with Melissa King, my saintly publicist, working out the whereabouts of some books we'd shipped to Provincetown for tomorrow night's reading. Sarah Messer, author of Red House --which I remember selling quite a few of back in my bookseller days at the Museum of Fine Arts right here in Boston--overheard me, since she happened to be sitting in the row above. As we walked off the jetway, she expressed her well-wishes for the rest of the tour. Thanks, Sarah!

Because we are thrifty and efficient, here are some pictures of me... ...and Kyle eating peanut butter sandwiches on the MBTA on our way to John Cotter and Elisa Gabbert's house. That's where we are now, looking forward to seeing you at this evening's reading at Brookline Booksmith tonight at 7. What better way to celebrate Presidents' Day than by hearing excerpts from Live Nude Girl and In the Devil's Territory, plus whatever Steve Almond decides to read?