Even better than coming upon a Sempe drawing is stumbling upon a Sempe scene: a quiet, private moment in the middle of public tumult, or a humble soul dwarfed by a grandiose setting.
Saturday at Books & Books' 30th Anniversary party I walked from a packed Aragon Avenue - where celebrity chefs were offering food to hungry multitudes - into the jammed courtyard, squeezed through the east door and worked my way to a crowded room where a father and daughter stood in a corner, their backs to the bargain hunters, each lost in a book.
I was in Miami yesterday so I checked out the new bookstore, Biscayne Books, in the MiMo district. The owner told me that, not long before my arrival, someone had walked in and bought 300 books.
"Another bookseller?" I asked.
"No," the woman said. "A designer. She wanted them for show."
This morning, reading the Herald's People page, I saw the headline "Author," which immediately drew my attention. Under it was information about Anderson Cooper's appearance tonight at the Hard Rock Casino.
Ah, the world of belles lettres.
I've started swimming my evening laps in goggles, but the moment I feel I have the most in common with the Olympians is while watching that commercial (I have no idea what it's for) that shows parts of athletes' bodies in training with a voiceover listing the numerous things they've had to give up because of their dedication to their sport.
At one point we see an arm on a handlebar and hear: "That bestseller that everybody's talking about? I haven't read it."
Me either.
Holden Caulfield wished he could call the author up after finishing a wonderful book.
Sunday I finished The Trouser People, a vivid portrait of modern-day Burma piggybacked onto the alternately harrowing and comic account of a journey in the footsteps of Sir George Scott, the doughty, charismatic Scotsman who explored, studied and chronicled the country and introduced to its inhabitants the game of soccer.
Sunday evening I googled the author, found his website, learned he lives in Bangkok, clicked on 'Contact,' and sent him an e-mail, expressing my admiration for his book.
Yesterday morning I had an e-mail of thanks from the author.
I haven't watched an entire episode of The Newsroom; occasional glimpses have been enough to show me that it's overly dramatic and overwritten. But I'm glad it's been approved for another season, because - who knows? - it may help me get my book about a year in the life of a disintegrating newsroom published.
My coverage of a newsroom is less dramatic (inevitably) but it still has narrative tension (how could a book about a newsroom in 2007 not?). It is infinitely more realistic than the TV show (I lived it) and a whole lot funnier.
Publishers?