True first edition of "The Dragons of Eden" signed on the first blank page in red marker. This one was a surprise. A few weeks ago when I ordered this book, I wasn't expecting it to show up signed - especially since it was advertised as in "very good" condition with no mention of the inscription. I'm not entirely sure it's genuine, but I'm leaning that way. Most of the words in the inscription appear to be characteristic of Sagan's writing. While most of his signatures I've been able to find don't include the "a" and "n" in Sagan, the few that do are dead ringers for the one in this book. I'm trying to get outside opinions at the moment - so we'll see what others think.
5x7 photo signed in black marker. I sent a letter and a photo to Mr. Williams in April 2013, and received this back in the mail this morning. I've been a fan of Mr. Williams' music for a long time - the first album I ever bought was "By Request: The Best of John Williams and The Boston Pops" on cassette. I played it so often that I wore it out. I replaced it with a CD (the first music CD I ever purchased), and eventually wore that copy out as well. Now I'm on my third copy of the album. Since it's on my iPod now, hopefully I won't wear it out again. I had the chance to see Mr. Williams conduct the Boston Pops in June 2013, but unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to meet him afterward. I wanted to have a chance to speak with him, not just because I love his music, but because I'm friends with a former student of his who was my accompanist throughout undergrad while I was working on my music degree. Hopefully I'll have the chance to see him conduct again sometime soon.
Voice Actor
4x6 color photo signed in black marker. This one made me laugh when I opened the envelope! I wrote to Mr. DiMaggio back in July, not really expecting to receive a response. Futurama is a favorite show of mine (I grew up watching it in high school), and Bender has always been one of my favorite characters from the show. More recently, I've really enjoyed Mr. DiMaggio's work on "Adventure Time" as "Jake the Dog."
True first edition of "The Prince Lestat" signed in black ink. I went back to Barnes & Noble this morning after the crazyness yesterday to see what was left. As expected, all of the Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush books were cleaned out, but they still had quite a few signed editions left. Some were from some well known people, like Brooke Shields, Cameron Diaz and Martin Short. Browsing around, nothing really interested me that much, but I did decide to pick up this copy of "The Prince Lestat" signed by Anne Rice. I've never read any of her books, but I know she has quite a following in the LGBT community and that her writing has had a major impact on vampire fiction.
43rd President of the United States
Two true first editions of 41: A Portrait of My Father signed in black marker. I picked these up this morning at a Black Friday sale at Barnes & Noble in Augusta, ME. I had originally intended to just purchase one. I grabbed two off of the shelves to double check that they weren't autopens. As a did that, someone pushed me out of the way and grabbed all of the remaining copies, as well as all of the signed copies of Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices (which I was considering getting a copy of as well). Long story short, I couldn't get back to where Bush's books had been, so I ended up buying the second copy, along with the book by Neil Patrick Harris in the previous post and a signed copy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods for my girlfriend. I now have signatures from all of the living presidents except for George H.W. Bush.
True first edition of Revival signed in blue pen. Back on September 15th I got an email from StephenKing.com - Stephen was going to be stopping at Books-A-Million in South Portland as part of his book tour promoting the release of Revival! I decided to try and get a ticket.
On veteran's day, my girlfriend and I got up at 1:30 AM and drove to South Portland to stand in line. by the time we got there around 2:30, there were already nearly a hundred people waiting. The first person in line had gotten there at 10:00 the previous morning! While my girlfriend slept in the car, I staked us out a spot. Waiting in line was an experience. I was sitting next to several extremely sketchy people who were being paid to get tickets to be resold (I checked online later, it looks like they were going for around $300). When I got there, they were smoking and talking about the reasons they were losing their teeth. One thought it was because he was doing hard drugs. Another said it was "'cause someone knocked them out in a fight." An hour later, they were taking about their experiences with Venezuelan strippers. By 4:30 I was freezing (it was about 20 degrees out), and they were discussing theology and Martin Luther. An hour after that I ran across the street to McDonald's to use the restroom and find something warm to drink.
My girlfriend joined me around 6:00, and we chatted until the store opened. By that time, the line stretched around the store and across the parking lot. We were quite lucky - we managed to get tickets. There were only 400 guaranteed tickets available and nearly a thousand people in line!
Jump forward a week - the day of the signing. It was cold and wet. Luckily, we didn't have to wait outside for long. We got in line for the signing at about 3:15, and our group was called inside at about 3:30 (15 minutes ahead of schedule). The actual signing was fast - 15 minutes later we were out of the store. When I got up to the table, Mr. King smiled and cracked a joke:
"For a bunch of people who've been scared to death, this is a pretty lively group. It's kind of like 'The Walking Dead.'"
And that was it. It may have been fast, but it was a thrill. I started reading Mr. King's books just a few years ago, but he quickly became one of my favorite authors. Today was an experience I will remember for a long time.
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