So, how did the first evening in the Baby Got Books Reading Series go? Pretty well, I’d say. The place was packed, Wordsmiths sold out of Rob Sheffield’s book, the reading was excellent, the band was great — it was a pretty amazing evening all around.

Wordsmiths’ new ad campaign

Rob Sheffield arrived at Wordsmiths about half an hour before the reading, which was enough time to get some shopping done. The hot item of the night was an USB drive with an old school casette case package for making a 21st century mix tape. Lillian brought them over from Criminal Records. Rob bought one. (See Beth’s post about the evening for a picture of what I’m talking about.)

Sheffield explains the mysteries of Ton Loc

The actual event part of the evening began when Wordsmiths’ Russ welcomed everyone and introduced — me. I got to introduce Rob Sheffield, which was pretty cool. The review that I got for my intro was “rambling…but in a good way.” Wikipedia mentions, for some reason, that Sheffield is 6′5″. That seems about right to me. That guy is TALL. Anyway…

Sheffield read from two sections of the book that were about equally hilarious. (”Sheena was a Man” and “Roller Boogie” if you want to follow along at home). I had forgotten how funny parts of the book were and was charmed all over again. Listening to Sheffield be a Pip while reading lyrics to Gladys Night and the Pips “Midnight Train to Georgia” was worth the price of admission alone.

3 out of 4 Swears

After the reading, The Swear took to the stage and brought the rock. The acoustics are fantastic in the store, and the band sounded great. As if by design, the band’s set ended almost exactly when the line to get books signed was nearing its end.

Me and the Sheff

There was an impressive showing by the blogerati. Among those present: Beth from Cup of Coffey, Paul of The Yellow Stereo, Lain and Amelia from The Wren’s Nest, Lillian from Criminal Records, Kim at Eskimo Bliss — am I forgetting anyone?

Thanks to everyone for coming out last night. I think that everyone had a great time. At least I did. I think that the powers that be will let us have a Second in the Series. The bar has been set pretty high, but we’ll do our best to achieve the same level of awesome next time around. Stay tuned for that.