Thursday, January 27, 2011

Cheap kick at lit fest

From Mail Today's Tuesday, Jan 25 coverage of the Jaipur Literature Festival

QUICK-WITTED AMIS

WHEN it comes to ready wit, you can’t fault Martin Amis. At his book signing, a cocky journo asked him to autograph a copy of The War Against Cliches with something unconventional.

“Please don’t sign that with ‘warm regards’,” she said. Amis obliged by addressing her as his “beloved” in the inscription. The journo has been showing the book off & Amis achieved what he set out to do: keep her friends “guessing”.

6 comments:

The Unbearable Banishment said...

Boy, are you lucky.

A fellow book collector and I use to hop around New York collecting signatures on first editions. (All author tours pass through Manhattan.) My friend would ask the author to inscribe the book to his (the author's) favorite deceased writer. He has books inscribed to Mark Twain, Hemingway, Joyce. It's a nice gimmick and most authors thought it was a fun thing to do.

Miss. Mystic said...

I never had a book signed by an author :(

Yohan said...

Haha. Very nice. I've never read Amis (father or son)

Didn't think I was the autograph-seeking type until I got Slavoj Zizek to sign my copy of "Violence". I even asked him a question. Good fun.

Nimpipi said...

Un B: Of that's a sweet idea, even though I myself can't imagine wanting an inscripiton to a deceased author. Dear Jane? Naah.

Myst: There there. Give me a few years to show you what the fuss is about:)

Yohan: Look who surfaced! How lovely!

I hadn't read Amis either till recently. Though some time ago I did buy father Amis's Lucky Jim and promptly passed it on with a happy birthday inscription.

I had no idea who Žižek was till he landed up in Delhi and someone in my now ex office called him the Shah Rukh Khan of philosphy. Nothing like arbitrary epithets to make you google a guy.

Yohan said...

Oh I've been following along. Under the surface, you might say. (Thanks to google reader.)

Nimpipi said...

Han: You always were partial to the slightly irregular ones:)