Fragment Friday #5: The Maze Runner/The Scorch Trials

Today's all about James Dashner.

It's been a long time but it's Fragment Friday! FF is a meme started by James of Book Chic. Basically the goal of Fragment Friday is to share a little snippet of what you're reading. I'm going to share the very beginning of The Maze Runner with you.  (And a random piece from The Scorch Trials...)

The sequel, The Scorch Trials, came out Tuesday and James Dashner was in town doing signings.

Some friends and I  saw him Wednesday night in Braintree. These friends (aka BAE, Boston-Area Entourage)  are really local bloggers and authors  including Kim Harrington (author of Clarity, Mar 2011), Karsten Knight (author of Wildfire, July 2011), Leah Cypess (author of Mistwood, out now), the other Dani (of Overflowing Bookself) and Irish (of Ticket to Anywhere).

We got to talk a lot at the store since the crowd was small (because Borders does crappy advertising for everything!) and get some books signed. We went out to dinner after and talked book-ish things. He's a really great guy and so much fun! You should check out his books.

The original plan was to go Thursday and since I had no other plans, Irish and I went again Thursday night and saw him at the B&N in Burlington. We played in their new YA section--and I coherced her into buying a book so I could read it later. :) There was a pretty good crowd for the signing and James talked with everyone, did some q&a and signed books. It was a lot of fun interacting (and watching) him with them. Local students came and they were really excited.

The q&a was fun and I should've taken notes. The thing that I remember most (aside from him saying Minho was his favorite!! {He's mine, too!}) was a mini-discussion James about e-books vs. paper copies. He told guests that he is reading his first book on his i-pad and he really likes it. He said that the version didn't matter. "The words of a book are obviously what matters." I really liked that. He also said he's a big movie buff and loves The Lord of the Rings movies--and is nervous about The Hobbit. If you want a more in-depth recap, Irish did that. She's just better than me. I need to be more like her.

We met some other local bloggers (who may or not have been recruited to BAE) Nikki of Wicked Awesome Books and Emily of Dragons Ate my Homework. They were super, duper fun.

Also, just for the record--first actual book signing. I've been to a couple other things (and received a few books) but this was "technically" the first. So, it was memorable. You should check out the locations near you where James is doing a signing. It's definitely worth checking out and saying hi!

 

 

Oh yea...let's not forget the Anniversary Post of Awesomeness #3...which has nothing to do with anything at all but is quite hilarious. I love these!