>On Saturday I visited Keene, New Hampshire’s Toadstool Bookstore for the last reading of my trip north. It’s a wonderful, sprawling store — just the way I’d want my bookstore to be. They had the reading area set up and when the chairs filled I started. For the first time, I had to deal with competition — a customer of the store was oblivious to the reading and continued to talk in a loud voice while standing right behind our section. It was distracting, and I kept hoping someone would say something to the woman, but . . . no.
Anyway, it was fun and we had a lively discussion after the reading.
I then managed to squeeze in a little tourism. We visited a sugar house in a nearby town and watched the process of making maple syrup, and also bought some. Then I went to dinner with my friends in a wonderful little restaurant in another small town, where I ran into a friend and fellow writer whom I met a couple of years ago at VCCA. Amazing.
Pictures to come.
>Reminds me of another bookstore we hit, only it was the owner making all the noise. I think in the future it will be OK to stop and turn to the distraction and say something like, "I'll wait."