Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Met Dave Eggers. Seems generous and friendly to his…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Met Dave Eggers. Seems generous and friendly to his public. He packed the house (the relevant house being Cody's Books) and gave each attendee personal attention.
Did I mention that I finished American Gods? I finished it and don't mind that I spent the time on it, even enjoyed several turns of phrase, but couldn't follow its sweeping pseudo-epicity. I got lots of the mythological references, so it's not an Eco-style problem; rather, the narrative failed to sweep me up in its many epiphanic moments. I liked Pratchett's Small Gods (on the same topic) better.
Note to self: the outfit that I think is "too Gappy" is the one that three coworkers will compliment.
Read UC Press's Hey, Waitress!, which didn't knock my socks off. You'd think that a book compiling experiences in the service industry would automatically interest me, but somehow the lengthy interviews go for Turkelian and don't make it -- too much boring detail, not enough insight and anecdotal nuggets.
