rusty_halo

I met Chuck Palahniuk! And he said he really liked my hair!

Actually, it was really cool. He gave this fascinating talk, which included stuff I'd never expect to hear over a loudspeaker in the middle of the oh-so-civilized landscape of a Barnes & Noble. It was about how our weirdest, darkest secrets can define us. (And included anecdotes about people dying in a porn theater and having their bodies photographed, and a girl learning to masturbate with her sister's electronic toothbrush, stuff like that.) He was really funny and clever, and friendly.

He also read a segment from his new book, Haunted, which was really cool to hear him read.

And he ended by throwing fake body parts into the audience.

I didn't actually get to see him during the talk, because I was standing in line in the back hoping to get an autograph once he finished. He was really cool; he announced that he would stay until every last person got to meet him. So I waited in line for a couple of hours and read the first 100 pages of the book. (Very good so far.)

So finally I got up there, and had nothing to say, because I never managed to fully read Fight Club (though I love the movie and what I've read of the book), and I read another of his novels but can't really remember it. I mainly went there because Fight Club is my little brother's favorite book, and I wanted to get a signed copy to give him for his next birthday.

So he said he really liked my hair, and I blushed and said thanks, and then I babbled about my brother: Fight Club is his favorite book, it's the first book he ever really got into, etc. And he was really chatty, he asked how old my brother is (20, but 15 or 16 then) and where he is (Northwestern. Chicago? Yeah. Must be nice. Yup.) And I said how I was always the bookish one in the family so I was really proud when my brother finally got into reading. And I said thanks, and so did he, anyway, it was really cool, he was very friendly. So now I have to read the rest of the new book, and I guess I should read Fight Club in its entirety, too, since I finally have a copy. :)