Meeting Alton Brown at Sur La Table

When I found out in addition to being at the Smithsonian, Alton Brown was going to have a book signing at Sur La Table in Arlington, Va., I had to attend both while in the Washington, DC area. And I am so glad this was on my list. Every time I converse with AB, I learn something or get an interesting tidbit.This time I found out about the book club version of I'm Just Here for the Food. But I'll start from the beginning.

When I walked up to Alton, he had turned around to greet me with, "Don't you get tired of coming to these things?" I laughed and told him something dumb about needing to get others involved to justify buying books. Then he was concerned that my trip was far. I told him just the next state over, West Virginia. He said I know, that's why I asked. We talked about big city driving a little bit. After that, I had to confess I was attending the Smithsonian show as well.

We chatted about something, then he saw my copy of IJHFMF. I pulled a sneaky thing by going to the car after buying the copies of the Good Eats book and getting a place in line. I wanted AB to see my copy, tabbed up and well used. This was a copy I bought used on half.com to use in place of my real copy. Since I love this book so much, I needed a backup! ;)

When AB saw the book he told me these are hard to find because it was a book club edition printed on cheap paper, a not too good binding and they aren't made anymore. He said they fall apart. I told him that it was my working copy, thus the tabs. When he signed it, he placed it over for the ink to dry while we talked a bit more. Thanks to the cheap paper I got a little longer chat with him. ;)