I went to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. (right on the National Mall) and with the help of a friend was able to purchase a copy of Frederick Pohl’s new book, “The Boy Who Would Live Forever” and get him to sign it for me. Cool! Pohl is a GrandMaster Science Fiction author. His new book is the fourth in the Gateway series – the first book, “Gateway”, came out in 1975.

Saw Neal Stephenson at Olsson’s Books in Arlington VA. He was giving a reading from “The System of the World: Volume Three of The Baroque Cycle.”. I waited around (ended up at the end of the line of about 70 people) and got him to sign my copy (and book 2 of the series).

I went to a reading by Susanna Clarke and Emma Donoghue last night, at Olsson’s bookstore in Arlington. Only took me an hour and 20 minutes to get there (drove to a Metro station: ~20 min, then took the Metro to Arlington: ~1 hr). Worth it though, since I like Olsson’s. I haven’t read Clarke’s book yet, but it’s now on the queue. Early in October Neal Stephenson will be at Olsson’s. I’ll get there early for that one. :)

From the blurb on the events page at Olssons’:

Spend an evening with two historical fiction authors appearing together. Emma Donoghue, author of “Slammerkin,” reads from her novel “Life Mask,” which turns the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust, full-bodied portrait of a world–and lives–on the brink of revolution of late eighteenth-century England. Susanna Clarke, a debut novelist, will read from her novel, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell,” which is an epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two very different magicians who, as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.