I’ve just started reading Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (out April 24), and while skimming through the promotional materials, I saw that the author, Leonard Mlodinow, will be appearing in person here in Seattle next month. Should I go? Should I go and have him sign the book and write a personal message to me?!

Actually, I’ve never been to an author reading/signing at all, I realized. Seattle gets our fair share of big-name authors coming through to promote their books; often, these events are even free. I love free things — I even have a blog about them! So why is it that I haven’t gone to a reading, ever, in my life?

On some level, I think, it’s about my connection to the book itself. Unless it’s a memoir, or in some other way deeply intertwined with the author’s personal life, I engage with the story as a separate and distinct thing from its author. In some cases, I like an author’s work but don’t particularly like them as a person, but mostly I just want to experience the book one-on-one and interpret it in a way that’s meaningful to me. I skip author readings for the same reason I skip over the suggested-book-club-discussion-questions at the back of the book: I don’t necessarily want other people telling me what a book means, or should mean to me.

What about you? Do you enjoy the behind-the-scenes glimpse at the author’s writing process and inner workings? Does it thrill you to have a first-edition book signed by your favorite author? I’m willing to be convinced…

Stephanie Perry
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