What’s the greatest problem of our age? The stripping of civil liberties? No. The troubling situation in Iraq? No again. The unilateral atmosphere? No, no, no! No kewpie doll for you! You ain’t connected, babe. The heavy issue, which involves the writing of 1,000 word essays for the Voice, is book signing, dammit! To which one can only reply, if you don’t want to put out, don’t spread ‘em!
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious. 
I think he makes the point that verve for book collecting can impact good old fashion book reading in a negative way. But he did spend most of his 1000 words complaining about his book tours. Very whiney. Still, he’s not as bad as Harlan Ellison in that regard.
Well, if you’re a writer of course it’s annoying when people treat your books as collectible objects, and seem to care less about their *content.*
If you built cars, it would annoy you if someone refused to buy your car unless you signed it — and then locked it into a garage and never drove it.
Then there is the sneaking suspicion that collecting signed books is an “arbitrary obsession” — that is, the collector might easily replace that hobby with any other obsessive-compulsive behavior, such as collecting garden gnomes.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
-A.R.Yngve
http://yngve.bravehost.com
C’mon, Ed, that’s a pretty reasonable rant. The encounter with the ‘dame in Charlottesville the other day’ obviously prompted it, and you can see why. Signing for genuinely interested readers is one thing, but feeling as if you’re just making money for middlemen is quite another; and when placing books at stores hinges on whether or not they’re signed, it must be hard to avoid that feeling.
The solution, of course, is to have an illegible signature that’s easily imitated by trained monkeys in Lawrence Block masks.
If some jerk shows up at my book signing, drops five copies of the same identical book on the table, and asks me sign each one, I’ll do this:
I’ll whip out a big rubberstamp with my name on it, and stamp each one: THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
Then I’ll hold up another rubberstamp and ask, with my nicest smile: “You want a dedication too?”
;-P