It's been One Year...
About eighteen months ago, at a party held by ex-HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, in LA, on the Fox Lot, a nice lady named Riley Ellis came over to me, introduced herself, and explained that she had read an advance copy of The Graveyard Book and that in her educated opinion it would be at least 53 Weeks in the New York Times bestseller list. I took this, at the time, as amiable Hollywood Hyperbole indicating that she had liked it. While I'd had books on the bestseller lists -- I...
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So weird!!! On a whim, I bought my copy on Wednesday. The weird part: as I was buying it, I was thinking, How many people out there are deciding to buy this book today as well? If today is the day that I finally get it, is there some mass psychological force that is driving others to buy more of it on the same day?
I thought I was being silly at the time. I guess not.
As for Banned Books Week, this is just as important to Australians like me who aren't protected by a First Amendment in our dodgy and unreliable Australian constitution. So dodgy, the Queen can sack our Prime Minister if she pleases (This actually happened once, if you don't believe me).
I'm still trying to figure out why video games are being banned in Australia, let alone books that pose no real threat to any adult. Children's books are more controversial because of the "subverting the youth" element, but when I was a kid I was bloody disappointed that until Harry Potter many books I read that were for my age group weren't subversive ENOUGH.
Good to see your tireless crusade against censorship is still going strong, and congrats on The Graveyard Book being a bestseller for a year.