Steven Hall: The Road Blog, Part II

May 10, 2007

Steven Hall

Steven Hall ends his U.S. tour for The Raw Shark Texts (Canongate), an April Book Sense Pick, with visits to several independent bookstores, including Elliott Bay Book Company, Powell's, Books & Books, and Porter Square. Along the way, he's denied beer, causes floods, and draws enthusiastic supporters. If you're just joining the tour, here's a link to the first installments, which appeared in last week's issue.

Friday, May 4

May 2 was my birthday, I am now 32. Something happened to me that day that hadn't happened to me for 12 years.

Charlotte and I flew into Seattle about 3:00 p.m. after our original flight was cancelled. Because we'd lost a big chunk of the afternoon, and because we'd had more than enough of sitting indoors, we decided to dump our bags at the hotel and go straight out and explore. We wandered around the city for a while (it was raining -- it had rained on me in every city so far, including L.A., but that's okay because I love the rain. I'm strange like that. Charlotte, not so much -- something to do with her hair and the dangers of it getting very big). We were hungry, thirsty and tired/stressed from the plane problems. We needed a beer -- it was my birthday after all. We went into a restaurant.

The menu looked great, so great we couldn't decide what to have. A waitress came over.

"This all looks great. I'm going to need a little longer to decide," I said. "But could we have a couple of beers to be getting on with?"

"Sure," the waitress said. "Can I see your IDs?"

We laughed at her funny joke, and then we realized she wasn't laughing.

"Er, what?" we said, a bit confused.

"I need to see photo ID before I can serve you a drink."

This last happened to me when I was 20 and, being two whole years over legal beer-buying age, I was pretty annoyed about it all the way back then. This time, it was just -- weird. Except for my passport, which I try not to carry around with me more than absolutely necessary (I lose things) I don't own photo ID. I never have. I don't drive.

"But. I'm 32," I said.

"Sorry," she said.

Normally, it wouldn't have mattered but it was my birthday and we'd been thinking about nice cold beers all through the day's airport stress. Even if we'd have been less confused by what had happened we might have stayed anyway. We just said, "Okay then" and wandered out into the rain.

I read that night at the fantastic Elliott Bay Books, I've been once before, and it's an amazing bookshop. Anyway, it was a really engaged crowd, and I had a great time and enjoyed the event. Afterwards, Charlotte and I and four people from the reading went out for a beer to celebrate my birthday (Hi guys, if you're reading this!).

And it happened again -- twice in one day! "Can I see your IDs?"

This time I had it covered. I just kept saying "But I'm English," over and over while looking confused.

We got our beer.

Monday, May 7

Charlotte had to fly back to the U.K. on Thursday, the third of May, and I carried on to Portland [Oregon] alone. I love Portland, I love the way it looks from the air, as though the buildings are fighting their way out of the forest. I love the greenery and the weather (I've already said how much I like the rain!)

My reading at Powell's was great -- a nice crowd and most people seemed to have already read the book so the after-reading chat went on for quite a long time with some great questions. People added to the ever-growing list of books and films and music I should check out. I might well scan this list for my MySpace page and post it up so people can keep adding to it -- it's a great way to find new things!

Also had a good time at Books & Books in Miami a couple of days later (a very cool bookshop built in a square around a courtyard and with some really interesting rare books -- you should def check it out if you're ever in town). The great and very nice Mitch Kaplan took me out for dinner after the reading. I stupidly mentioned that it had rained in every city I'd visited in the U.S. so far, so the ultra-warm, almost tropical weather was a nice change. Mistake. The skies opened in a torrential downpour soon after and it didn't stop until most of the streets had turned into rivers. Mitch told me that this just doesn't happen in Miami. When I signed his book, I added, "Sorry I flooded your city."

It took a while to adjust to being on my own on the road again. It feels like I've been away from home for months, although it's really only been three-and-a-half weeks. Still -- onwards and upwards!

Thursday, May 10

So I did my final U.S. reading here in Boston last night. They provided a very respectable audience at Porter Square Books (I mean, it was a nice size -- whether the people themselves were actually respectable, I couldn't say ... although they all seemed very nice!). The folks at Porter Square are really into The Raw Shark Texts, and it's great to visit when people are so behind what you're doing (thanks, guys!).

I fly back to the U.K. in about 10 hours. It seems very strange to be leaving. I've got used to this plane-in-the-morning reading-in-the-evening lifestyle, but it'll be nice to be home and not to be rushing/trying to find somewhere!

America -- thanks for having me. It's been really great. The people here are so friendly and generous and even though no one here knows what a biro is (it's a disposable ballpoint pen), and no one thinks that Ian is a particularly odd name for a cat (!), the support for my book and the enthusiasm from all the bookstores I've visited has been everything I could have asked for and more. It's been a really great trip for me and my novel. Thank you all so much.

I'm flying from Boston straight to Scotland to read at the Aberdeen Word Festival with the brilliant Mr. Dan Rhodes. After that, I get to go home for a week. Then Australia. Then Finland...

Hopefully I'll get to come back to the U.S. if and when I get chance to write another book!

Bye for now...

S

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