This is going to be be one of those gushing posts, one of these posts that describes why I’m beyond thrilled to work in the world of publishing. When I was a young child, my Mother got a career in publishing. It continuously astonished me that cartons of books would show up in our front hall every single day. I could hardly wrap my head around that she got to go out to bookstore each and every single day to talk about book with bookstore owners. I vowed that when I got to be old enough, I would follow her path. I would make a career of working in the world of literature. It’s been five years in this industry and I still love it as much as I did on day one, when I knew no one here in Toronto, when going to a launch party by myself was one of the scariest things I’d ever done.
Now five years later, I wake up and I’m grateful to go to a desk that’s continuously piled in literature, some of it classics, most of it books that will be coming out in the near future. The best part of my career is getting to talk to readers each day. I get to ask you what you’ve been reading, hear what you thought of a particular book and spend the majority of my day talking with bookworms. It’s really as wonderful as it sounds.
There is another great perk though, because like all of you, I’m a book lover and when an author that I admire walks through the door, I still gush (ask my colleagues, they’ve witnessed it). Word on the street was that Salman Rushdie was going to be coming to the office and that the department that I’m in was going to get to interview him. Of course, I squealed, because he’s in my top 3 favourite author category. When I found out that I was going to get to interview him using a collection of Twitter questions that we’d compile prior to his arrival, I was honored. It felt like a made it moment (I’m going all Oprah style here). Never could my seven year old self sitting around piles of books in my parents Halifax home that one day I would get the opportunity to interview the literary great Salman Rushdie. But it happened and I’ll forever cherish that moment.
Without further ado, here is the video of Salman Rushdie answering some questions Twitter had for him and some questions we asked him:
And because it wouldn’t be right not to share with you my new favourite picture, I also got the amazing opportunity to meet cookbook chef Curtis Stone last week. Based on the picture below, it’s very obvious to see how ecstatic I was to meet him!
Curtis Stone’s new book What’s For Dinner will be in stores in April 2013 and of course, Rushdie’s new memoir Joseph Anton is available in stores now. You can also watch the film adaptation of Midnight’s Children in theaters today.
