PowellsBooks.Blog

• BEAing There: Dying to know all the juicy details about last weekend's BookExpo in L.A.?

  Well, you could read the Los Angeles Times' account or USA Today's summary — or you can get it directly from the horse's bookseller's mouth!

  Herewith, I'm pleased to present Danielle's report from the Expo. Take it away, Danielle!

  ÷ ÷ ÷

  Aside from the back-to-back meetings and marching across the convention show floor all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, let's face it, folks, BookExpo is about carousing. Once a year, us bookish types get our party on and spend a little quality time drinking networking on the publisher's dime.

  (Click on the images to see larger versions.)

  
  Convention Center Entrance

  
  On the Floor

  
  Book People Move Too Fast for the Naked Lens to Capture...

  
  Batman Watches Over the Crowd

  This year's highlights? Celebrities! This is L.A., people!! Apparently famous people write books, too.

  
  Famous People Do Not Ride the Bus!

  
  View of the Convention Center from the Bus

  I started off my celebrity trolling with George Hamilton, who was announcing the release of his book this fall, Don't Mind If I Do. That's right, I'm referring to the tanned one. He was surrounded by his celebrity posse, a virtual who's who of '70s and early '80s television. Loni Anderson, Diahann Carroll, Linda Gray, Michelle Lee — half the casts of Dallas, Knot's Landing, and other nighttime soap yumminess were there. I truly wish that last week's blogger, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, had been there, as he would have LOVED it, judging by the teleplay Dallasty! featured prominently in his book Candy Everybody Wants. I have never had so many hors d'oeuvres and bellinis shoved into my face as I did at that Beverly Hills fete for ol' George.

  Other stars peddling books? Mary Kate and Ashley celebrating their upcoming title, Influence, and Alec Baldwin, who insists on giving us his take on divorce in America, pithily named A Promise to Ourselves: Fatherhood, Divorce, and Family Law.

  But the highlight of my BEA, by a drunken mile, was the little event known around the show as, A PRIVATE PARTY/CONCERT AT PRINCE'S HOUSE in honor of his upcoming book 21 Nights. Why I was one of the 80 or so booksellers invited, I will never know, but I took it as a sign.

  Or a symbol, I should say.

  

  I was at his home, in his backyard, hanging at the pool with P. Diddy, Babyface, Cameron Diaz and her ilk, while waiting for the Purple One to play his hour-long set. It didn't look like Prince actually lived there (if he does, he should fire his decorator immediately — the photos in the frames looked as if they were clipped from Us Weekly), but I couldn't resist the urge to snap a photo of myself in his guest bathroom:

  
  This is Prince's bathroom mirror.

  
  This is Prince's handsoap.

  He did have a very ornate custom made piano with the ubiquitous symbol painted on the top.

  
  Prince's Piano.

  When he came out to the small stage poolside to play with his band, I was standing a mere five feet from the guy. The man is a genius. He played a bunch of covers from the '60s and '70s, including the Beatles, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Rolling Stones, along with two Prince hits, "1999" and "Purple Rain." I can say without a hint of irony that I wept with joy during "1999."

  The rest of the weekend was a blur of fine dining, drinking, pool lollygagging, and a bunch of meetings just to keep things spicy.

  
  Pool Lollygagging

  
  The View from the Pool

  Phew! It's very hard eating and drinking that much; I just want to make that perfectly clear...

• Much Love: The Baltimore Sun's "Read Street" blog asked readers to recommend a great bookstore. We're flattered that a reader named Andrea mentioned Powell's.
  

  The main store is just gigantic and you can tell how passionate they are about books and about remaining independent. You could spend an entire day here without a problem. They also maintain perhaps the best independent website if you're unable to visit in person.

  In particular, I like the ongoing story of Fup the store cat. Though Fup passed on in 2007 you may keep up with Fup online here.

  Thanks, Andrea! (And Assistant Managing Editor Dave Rosenthal, for the heads-up.) We're blushing — and somewhere in cat heaven, Fup is nodding with approval.

÷ ÷ ÷

Brockman is the head writer for the daily Book News posts on the Powells.com blog. In his free time he's hard at work on his fictional memoir, which changes titles daily.

The views and commentary posted by Brockman are entirely his own, and are not representative of the whole of Powell's Books, its employees, or any sane human being.

Books mentioned in this post

1. 
   $11.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

   Don't Mind If I Do

   George Hamilton
2. 
   $9.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

   Candy Everybody Wants (P.S.)

   Josh Kilmer-Purcell
3. 
   $17.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

   A Promise to Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood and Divorce

   Alec Baldwin and Mark Tabb
4. 
   $30.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

   21 Nights

   Prince
5. 
   $25.00 Used Hardcover add to wish list

   Influence

   Ashley Olsen