John Green Tour: Don't Forget To Be Awesome

Tuesday, January 7, was a very exciting day for John Green fans.  Not only was it the much anticipated release of his new book The Fault in Our Stars, but also the kick-off of his book tour.  This first stop was in Massachusetts, and was GOING to be held at my school, but very sadly for us, due to John Green's rock starness, we lost him because our auditorium wasn't big enough.  It was very sad.  However, because they were very sorry that they had to move it means that we got preferential parking, seating and were the first to get books personalized, which made us all feel very special indeed.

This was like no book signing or author talk I have ever experienced before.  It was crazy.  It was like going to a concert.  It was a show, really.  When I arrived with a van full of VERY excited teenager girls (SO excited.  Like, seeing a celebrity excited), we parked directly behind The Fault in Our Stars van and beheld a line of teenagers stretching out the doors down the sidewalk.  It really quite warmed my heart to see all the young people so incredibly excited to see John and Hank Green.

John Green is coming!

John Green will soon begin his 2012 tour for his new book The Fault in Our Stars and guess where he's starting?  AT MY SCHOOL!  Squee!  So exciting!  And it's already sold out.  It's crazy.  John Green has been to my school before, just after Paper Towns came out.  However, he was not a HUGE DEAL yet.  Now he is a total HUGE DEAL, so much so that he can sell out fairly large venues like a rock star.  Yay John Green!  Something about you just makes me want to tousle your hair and tell you you're adorable.

Tracy Kidder

Tracy Kidder spoke at the school where I work the other day.  This was a pretty big deal.  It's Tracy Kidder!  Pulitzer Prize winning author!  I was looking forward to hearing him talk.

I have not read anything by Tracy Kidder, shame on me.  I actually have Strength in What Remains, his newest book, sitting on my bookshelf.  I totally meant to read it before I saw him speak.  Really I did.  But there was always a YA book I wanted to read first getting in my way.  I swear, as soon as I'm done with Sapphique, I will read it.  It's good to read an adult, nonfiction book every now and then.

The talk, I'm sorry to say, was a disappointment.  Tracy Kidder is not a good public speaker.  Not at all.  And I was surprised, which isn't really fair.  I guess I just assumed, that being Tracy Kidder, he must have to give speeches and talks and lectures and do interviews all the time.  And if he wasn't a good speaker, he'd take lessons and learn how to be one so he could present himself well.  This was not the case.  The speech sounded very canned.  He was reading off a paper the whole time, and despite this, it felt disorganized and confused.  He kept going off on tangents and then getting back to his shaky main point.  How could he be reading from a script but still be totally disorganized?  It just didn't make sense.