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It was 6:40 p.m. and felt that I was quite early. William Gibson was slated to start reading from his new novel, Spook Country, at 7:00 p.m., so I ambled across Manhattan to Union Square, assured that I'd arrive in time to snag a seat. How naive I was! Upon approaching the fourth floor, I stopped at the sight of a large crowd, a solid wall of bodies, people craning their necks and rising to their tiptoes in order to get a peek of the cordoned off area beyond. Heart sinking, I approached and realized that the two hundred or so seats set out before the podium were already taken; standing room only, ladies and gentlemen, and the crowd was already six bodies deep!

I observed mildly panicked looks. Apparently I should have arrived about two hours earlier, but it was too late for regrets and besides, us Penguin employees are cool under the collar. I ducked off to the right, burrowed my way through the people thronging the Architecture aisle, and then hung a counter intuitive left past Interior Decorating. Rounding the corner, I realized my gamble had paid off—the very far right of the cordoned off area was but sparsely populated, four yards of near empty aisle cut off from the main crowd by a table of discounted hardbacks. Grinning, I turned to survey my view of the podium.