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RJYH back from the road

It was a whirlwind couple of weeks: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Dallas, Austin, Kansas City -- back to Birmingham and Tuscaloosa -- St. Louis, Chicago and Portland, all for Rammer Jammer. Caught a couple of football games along the way, some great bands, listened to a lot of Son Volt on the iPod, and on the airplanes, had a chance to re-read The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, which I picked up because I felt a need to connect to lost New Orleans. It's a beautiful and haunting book under any circumstances, but especially so when you know that the city and life it depicts are gone, for now anyway. I recommend it.

The thrill of the tour was having the chance, and the excuse, to meet people, and talk about books and music and yes, every now and again, football. I heard lots of good (and some frightening) fanecdotes; Dennis Brown, for example, a St. Louis actor and writer who knew Cary Grant, told me along the way that Grant changed the time of his wedding in New York so that he could take advantage of some free Yankees tickets. It's reassuring to know that someone as suave as Cary Grant was a sports nut too.

And not that I needed reminding exactly, but I came away from two weeks on the road (or, mostly, in the air) with a renewed appreciation for independent bookstores. I was truly astonished at the reflexive energy and enthusiasm shown for RJYH by folks at the Alabama Booksmith, the University of Alabama Supply Store, Book People in Austin, Rainy Day Books in KC, Left Bank Books in St. Louis, the Book Cellar in Chicago and the great Powells in Portland. Thanks folks.

Probably the most heartening thing I heard along the way was from people who stood in line to tell me, "I hate football but I really liked the book." When I wrote RJYH, it actually never occurred to me that I was writing a "football book," since there's hardly any football in it; I aspired to write something about the much broader phenomenon of sports fanaticism, which always seemed to me a tinctured version of the us vs. them mentality that characterizes life on earth, for better or worse. The goal of the paperback tour was to try to reach out to folks -- curious fans and just generally curious readers -- to let them know that you no more have to be an RV-ing football fan to get RJYH than you need be in a motorcycle gang to relate to Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. I think the word's getting out; when I walked into Powells in Portland, the bookstore had placed a 'recommended' card on the shelf in front of RJYH that began, "This is not a football book!"

I was lucky to get a lot of support from some very cool and generous folks during the last couple of weeks. So here's the RJYH paperback tour shout-out. Many thanks to:

Brian Belfiglio, Jay Sones, Dan Coppens, Jake Reiss, John McGaugh, Bonnie LaBresh, Paul Finebaum, Pat Smith, Glenn Mitchell, Lahoma and the gang at BAM Tuscaloosa, Dreamland Ribs, Taylor Watson and Ken Gaddy, John Ed and Brenda Belvin, Chris and Paula Bice, Sarah Edmonds, Austinist, Jake Dobkin, Kristin Holland, John Thompson, Courtney Nichols, Sally Brown, Mark Harris, Bert's BBQ in Austin, Saint Arnold's Brewing Company, Adam Rice and the gang at Book People, Dick Brown, Vivien and Roger Jennings at Rainy Day Books, Dennis Brown, Bill Young, Jay Barry, Scott Eden, Matt Peck, Benjy and Rachelle at Chicagoist, the Four Moon Tavern, Suzie, Steve and everyone at the Book Cellar, Mark Roberts at the U of A, alumni chapters of the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Louisiana State University, the University of Arkansas, Ole Miss, Georgia, Oklahoma and even Tennessee (!), Patrick Klesius, the folks at Left Bank Books, Al Yellon, Ivars Embrekts, Katy at Hornfans, ChiefsWarRoom.net, Jason Huckaba, Chris Crymes, Brian Rhodes, Mike Benedict, Huston Stewart, Richard Edwards, Annie Flettrich, Ric Seaberg, Bob Carlton, Rufus Griscom, Bowman Hastie, James Frey, Matt Baldwin, Dave and Beth Mlodinoff, Brett at TideFans, the BoiFromTroy, Kevin Donahue, Brian at MGOBLog, Brian at College Football Resource, Dan Shanoff, and "Orson Swindle" at EveryDayShouldBeSaturday. Thanks to everyone who helped spread the word, and of course, thanks mostly to those who made the effort to come out and say hello. I hope you enjoyed it.

September 19, 2005 11:18 AM | Link

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