Grown up books

I typed the last post tonight while waiting, along with many hundreds of other people, to get books signed by my favourite grown up author, Neil Gaiman (who also does awesome children's books and an awesome blog). I got there much too late to be anywhere near the front, but even that wouldn't have guaranteed me an early spot in the signing line, since they did it by lengthwise sections. Since I was in section 7 of 8, I initially thought I wouldn't bother getting my book signed, since I've got books signed before when I was at the front of the queue, but the people around me were trying to convince themselves that there weren't that many people there and it would go quickly, so I figured I'd do my reading for the weekend while I was sitting there. Amazingly, the pile of papers I'd been slowly working my way through only occupied an hour so I started reading Anansi Boys and before I knew it, it was 3 hours later and I was finally at the head of the line. I can't believe he actually signs for that many people every night for weeks on end, and then goes to another country to do it all again. And still has the energy to be friendly and chat with each person. I felt kind of bad contributing to the long line and also kind of foolish for waiting for so long for someone to squiggle in the front of a book, but I walked away happy :) Everyone leaving the table at the front looked so happy and smiley. I should have taken photos of that, but instead here's one of people from section 8, still waiting:
Hmm, I guess I don't know how to do that, instead you'll have to go to flickr, if you care.

Added note: there's quite a difference between the signatures I got as person #30 compared to as person #500-and-something. My Wolves in the Walls (containing the real pig-puppet) and Endless nights have drawings of a wolf and the Sandman respectively, whereas last night I just got signatures. Of course, that could be the difference between 2003 and 2005, too and the newest book is already officially dedicated to "you", which probably made it easier on him :)