February 21, 2005
I met one of my favorite authors this weekend, and suddenly turned into a turtle
I know, I know: With the weird angle and puffy jacket, I look like that girl in Willy Wonka who eats the defective chewing gum. But look who's next to me! It's Dave Eggers! It's Dave Eggers! One of my very favorite authors! And because I love when someone I admire turns out to be a really nice person, I'm now going to dote like a giddy schoolboy:
My girlfriend and I just went to see him read in western Massachusetts on Saturday -- about two hours away from where we live -- at a benifit for a local student writing program that he helped get off the ground. We scored front-row seats, loved every minute of it, and then afterward bought a McSweeney's book to have him sign. While he was scribbling away, I told him I've written for mcsweeneys.net, and he asked my last name.
"Feifer," I said.
He drew a blank.
"My last piece was 'Leaders of the hip-hop nation,'" I said.
"Oh, yeah! That was funny!" he said. He could have been lying, but I didn't care.
Then he pulled a copy of "The Best American Non-Required Reading 2004" out of his bag and asked if I wanted it. "I'd love it," I said.
The line to get to Dave moved extremely slow, and by then I knew why: He seems to want to spend some time talking with everybody, which is really annoying when you're at the back of the line but fantastic once you've gotten to the front. We talked for a minute about the features on the site, and he said they're going to be putting together a book of the lists. Shamelessly, I told him to keep mine in mind. Then, as something of a backpedal but also entirely true, I told him I really admire what he does for independent publishing. He said thanks, then we took that extremely goofy photo you see above.
"Nice meeting you. Keep 'em coming," he said
"You too. Keep 'em going," I said. It was the first thing that came out, but I think it made sense, right?
Dave Eggers: What a guy!
Posted by Jason Feifer at February 21, 2005 08:15 AM
Comments
I met Dave Eggers too, a little over a year ago in Champaign! He was so nice. He talked to my friend and I before the reading, signed two books for me, and talked to me at length while he signed them. Then, later that night I was at work at the school newspaper, where he had worked while he attended my college. He came in to look around and talk to the editor, etc. AND HE REMEMBERED ME. My name and everything, that I was at the reading. I was so ridiculously giddy about that. But Dave Eggers is definitely a class act.
Posted by Kristin at February 21, 2005 11:19 AM
I used to hate Dave Eggers specifically because you and another mutual friend of ours would talk about him so damn much. Now I really like the guy after you showed me that thing he wrote putting the smack down on that college kid who asked him about selling out.
Posted by Berto at February 23, 2005 09:40 AM
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