.One of the benefits of an Austin excursion is fantastic food (yummm...Trudy's) and the opportunity to visit Book People Bookstore. We had acquired a friend of Entling no. 2 at the store and she cheerfully tagged along with me upstairs to the kids' section. (My own kids speed away from me in a bookstore as fast as their winged feet can fly them.) We were perusing the shelves when a Book People person came by to offer his help. He told us he had not read ALL the books ther but he had read a lot of them and if we had any questions, just ask.
Hey, I thought, that is MY usual line.
Then it hit me.
That was TOPHER!
I know about Topher Bradfield because Rockstar Rick Riordan raves about him on his blog. Topher was a force in the creation of Camp Half Blood and a children's book evangelist at local schools and literary events in our capital city and beyond.
I chased after him.
"Are you Topher?"
He agreed that he was and asked (probably nervously) who I was.
He must have decided I did not pose an overt threat because we then spent a splendid chunk of time talking books. We share a grand enthusiasm for all things Percy Jackson. He pointed us toward a table of his current picks and we were treated to a series of wonderful booktalks that had passers-by stopping in their tracks to listen (and then pick up the books to buy.)
Then he began to read the first chapter of Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire
aloud to us. Wow! There is nothing like hearing a gifted reader share a book they love.Topher performed the book with enthusiasm and a whiff of James Joyce in his delivery.
As I left the store with my new stack of books, I was reminded of the famous last words I had uttered an hour earlier, "I'm not getting any books today."
I did not know I was going to meet Topher.