The first day lasted about 20 hours, from start to finish. Granted, I happily added three hours to that, having dinner with Lionel Shriver after our joint reading.

In fact, I'm happy about the whole day. I saw TMP people at every stop -- I even did the secret handshake for Lois -- and Sandra's comments about pub date shook an idea loose in my fogged head. In the absence of old pub date traditions, whatever they were, why not create new ones? I would be inclined to go back to Book Crossing again. The day was often hectic, but there was only one stressful moment -- thanks, Yellow Taxi, especially for hanging up on me when, after calling for the third time, I dared to ask how you defined "shortly" -- and all the events were wonderful. Hard to single out any venue, but it was nice to see the SRO crowd at B&N, because it's where my sister works.

And Shriver and I, IMHO, were complementary readers, despite not talking beforehand how two such different writers might mesh onstage. She read from The Post-Birthday World, choosing the passages about contentment (which, as Shriver noted, may be one of the hardest things to write about) and I found much to admire anew in a book I already love. I read a dialogue-heavy passage about movies, including my -- um, Tess's -- rant on male weepies.

Off to New York.

ETA: This was, against all probability, a 2-W day.

I believe that WHAT THE DEAD KNOW has made the NY Times bestseller list for mass markets, at #19 -- but that means it's on the printed list.