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On the road "with" Charles Frazier by John Clayton

Many writers will tell you

how miserable the book tour is. And while it certainly has its trying times, I have long reflected on the journal kept by novelist Charles Frazier as he toured in support of "Cold Mountain" in 1997. (Can you believe: ten years ago?)

Frazier wrote that he came to a great appreciation:

I have a week of such visits to wonderful independent bookshops like Burke's in Memphis, Square Books in Oxford, Lemuria in Jackson, Quail Ridge in Raleigh. Old-fashioned stores, at least in the sense that they seem to mirror some part of their owners' personalities and that the staff members know many of the books on the shelves and many of the customers who walk through the doors and try hard to match the two successfully, which must be something like spending your day arranging blind dates.

I had hoped that I would find the same thing. And indeed I have. When you do a book tour -- especially the sort of quirky, regional, independent-laden tour that I am now in the middle of -- you...

(for the rest of this story, check out John's blog at http://www.johnclaytonbooks.com/2007/06/touring.html )

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