Autograph Worthy

Thanks so much for your compliments on the advent calendar. All props go to my Stampin' Up! demonstrator who designed it. I just cut and paste! ;)

Today the dude and I went to see the National Acrobats of the People's Republic of China. A-MAZ-ING! If they are coming to a venue near you, GO! (Buffalo, Detroit, Toronto, I'm looking at you.) 

Today's book meme is about signed books from Book Memes and Quizzes.


How many books do you have which are signed by an author or illustrator?  Four, but I think I used to have another one by a woman poet who visited Bryn Mawr College in the mid80s, obviously she made a big impression! {Anita Hill, Speaking Truth to Power; Laura Kipnis, Against Love; Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife; and T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Road to Wellville}
Which was the first one you got? The one that's missing. Then, the Amy Tan that I told you about last week.
Which was the most recent? Laura Kipnis signed Against Love for me. With love. (I arranged a reading by her at USC.)
Have you ever bought a book already signed by an author? Maybe for someone else.
Have you ever forged an author’s signature in a book? No, but you'd probably think I forged Tom Boyle's signature in The Road to Wellville.
Which of your signed books has the best story? I guess it's the Tan but since I already told that story, we'll go with the time Tom Boyle came to our contemporary fiction class. (He was on the USC faculty, still is.) We were talking about his book, which is always awkward, and then someone asked him to sign her copy of the book, that she had taken out of the library. Then everyone was getting their books signed by him. So I got in line. It looks like a giant scribble. I bet the library was pissed.
If you could pick one book you own by a living author to get signed, which would you pick? I think either Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye or Joyce Carol Oates's Zombie. Both are first editions. (I have others, but these are among my favorite writers.)
If you could pick one book you own by a deceased author to get signed, which would you pick? I'd get Dickens to sign something for the dude. 
Do you have a signed book which you haven’t read yet? Nope. I've read them all.
Have you ever gone to an author signing and not gotten your book signed? In college, I bought Jorie Graham's Erosion to have her sign it when she came to read, but I was too shy to ask. In fact, the one that's missing, I got a friend to ask for the signature. It's hard to believe I used to be that shy.