Day 4: Columbus

Up to this point in my life, everything I'd ever known about Columbus, OH was

1. Columbus is the capital of Ohio.

2. Columbus is home to Ohio State, the university that my brother-in-law attended. It is a big college and they love buckeyes, which are chocolates with peanutbutter in them that you can get at Trader Joe's.

3. The coolest neighborhood in Columbus is German Village. I don't know if this is a fact, per se, but I read Jon Skovron's book, Struts and Frets, and in it he mentions German Village in Columbus a whole lot, so it must be cool.

And that's pretty much it. After saying goodbye to Heather, Jeremy, and Elli, we hit the road to Columbus. We got there with an hour or so to look around before heading to the book event, so we headed to German Village. Hi Jon! If you're reading my blog, we went to German Village because your book told us to. If you're not reading this blog, WHY AREN'T YOU READING MY BLOG?

We parked the car and started walking around the historical neighborhood and it wasn't long before we came upon a bookstore. You'd imagine that we wouldn't be so keen to go into it--all we do on this tour is go into bookstores--but you'd be wrong, because bookstores are great and we want to see them all.

Entrance to The Book Loft

The Book Loft is one of the wildest bookstores I've ever been to (including my own beloved Walk A Crooked Mile Books in Philly). There are 4 levels (not floors, levels) 32 rooms, and a different soundtrack in each room. I was in book heaven. My only beef with the store was that it did not have any copies of my book. What's up, Book Loft? I chose (as I often do in these situations) to believe that all the copies of The Popularity Papers were sold out and that they had more on order. Right Book Loft? RIGHT?

After lunch and free cheese samples at Katzinger's Delicatessen we headed to the book event at Cover to Cover Books. As in Cincinnati, we ran into the Wimpy Kid popsicle van--

Please give to the Purple Tongue Awareness Fund. With your help we can fight this terrible affliction.

And yet again, I did not get a popsicle. I've got to stop eating lunch just before a book event if I see on the schedule that a Wimpy Kid popsicle van is going to be there.

Hi Jeff Kinney! I'm picking Greg's nose. Because I am mature like that.

Two things I love extra about Cover to Cover--first, the Wall O' Authors

I'm not sure that it's actually called the Wall O' Authors, but that's what I'm calling it.

Fellow Amulet writer, Lauren Myracle

Amazing writer and email buddy, Ingrid Law

If you give Laura Numeroff a pen, she's going to want to write on your wall.

It was really amazing to see all the fantastic writers and illustrators who had been at the bookstore before me. Maybe this is what an actor feels when they get to Hollywood and see the handprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. It's a little silly, but I was in happy awe.

The second thing that I love extra about Cover to Cover is that my friend, Jessica, came to the book event. Jessi and have been friends since we were in day camp and bonded over the mutual hatred/terror of the mean camp bus driver. We hung out constantly, our families used to have holiday meals together, but we drifted apart during high school and college. The last time I saw Jessi was on my last roadtrip to this neck of the woods in 2000 when my friends and I stayed overnight in her apartment. But thanks to the wonders of Facebook, we reconnected, and once a friend, always a friend. It was wonderful to see her.

Jessi is a ballet dancer. She's five inches shorter than me, but when I hugged her she was all muscle and I'm pretty sure she could break me like a twig. Fortunately she's very nice and wouldn't think to break me like a twig, but still, I need to get to the gym.

Another great thing about having Jessi there was that she could hold the camera while Mark was spotting me on the stepladder--

Li'l Bruce on a wall with Lauren, Ingrid, and Laura. Awesome.

After the event we got back on the road and drove to Indiana, checking into our hotel just in time to get to the baseball game. I haven't downloaded the pictures for that just yet, but tune in next time for Day 5: Indianapolis.