When I was a sometimes-lonely college freshman, I often took refuge in the basement of Powell's Books in Hyde Park -- I'd sit on the concrete floor and read old used SF novels, and it made me happy. Powell's now has a store near UIC, and I was really delighted to have a chance to read there last night. (It's the space that used to be Barbara's Bookstore -- I'm sorry Barbara's is gone, but glad that it's still an independent bookstore space, and that there's also an awesome cheap Indian restaurant in there now; the chili chicken with parotha for $3 is a great and delicious deal.) It was a small but enthusiastic audience, and I enjoyed listening to my colleague Christina Pugh's poetry (my favorite was the poem about the glass flowers and the glass eyeballs), and then reading chapter two from Arbitrary Passions. I think people liked it. :-)
Thanks to Simone and Dipika for coming out last night -- it was awesome to have dinner and chat with you, I'm looking forward to Dipika helping me get Jaggery off the ground (she's my Associate Editor), meeting Dipika's husband was also awesome, and all around, I love being a writer and getting to do fun events like this. :-)
Enjoyed the reading immensely. I could sit an listen to you read for hours on end.