The release of “Schrödinger’s Ball” is now only three weeks away, and the literary world waits with baited breath. This might sound impressive (and, as siobhan points out below, incorrect), but if you’ve ever spent much time in a closed room with the literary world, you’d know that their breath is always baited. At least baited. On a good day.
But things are definitely heating up. Last week, I received my first-ever copy of my first-ever book, and I can report that it’s… beautiful. Small, sleek, and unabashedly Kermit Green, this little baby will really move on the open road. Now we just need to get her to move off the shelves.
Well, it might move into libraries at the very least - last week’s Library Journal review opened with “To give you an idea of the delightfully intellectual zaniness at work in comedian and television writer Felber’s novel…” and closed with, “Recommended for most fiction collections.” You hear that, librarians!? Buy! And although it’s a novel, I’d prefer that you put it in the reference section so that your patrons have to buy their own copies. Whaddya say? I might make it worth your while…
I’ll post the whole review at the book’s website soon. Meanwhile, I’m going to go buy the literary world some Mentos.





36 comments
siobhan
July 26, 2006 at 10:36 am
1Bated …
Adam Felber
July 26, 2006 at 10:41 am
2Much less funny that way, though. Also, consider:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm
siobhan
July 26, 2006 at 10:43 am
3But I am a conservative speaker. That’s why you’re the funny guy.
Landis
July 26, 2006 at 11:08 am
4Ah HA - a conservative! Get her!
JOHN MURPHY
July 26, 2006 at 11:42 am
5I am pre ordering it right now. I can’t wait to read it. Now how about a Fanatical Apathy shirt Damitt !
JOHN MURPHY
July 26, 2006 at 11:44 am
6This sucks, the Amazon site is slower then George Bush. Must be all the people trying to order your book at the same time.
siobhan
July 26, 2006 at 11:48 am
7Landis, a conservative speaker, not a conservative. With an English teacher mom, I don’t get too experimental.
Jim (Original Jim, not the Other Jim or the New Jim)
July 26, 2006 at 12:24 pm
8Damn that Shakespeare for shortening “abated” to “bated’ in order to maintain the iambic pentameter. Though you may note that the same fate did not befall “whispering” (whisp’ring).
T’is laziness, just pure laziness.
dave
July 26, 2006 at 1:04 pm
9Get o’er it already
dave
July 26, 2006 at 1:05 pm
10So the cover is green, not yellow? Or is your vision tinted by financial optomism?
Michael
July 26, 2006 at 1:26 pm
11Jim,
add another ’tis for the pentameter:
T’is laziness, tis just pure laziness
thus to corrupt a perfectly good word…
(can anybody keep this verse a’going?)
julia
July 26, 2006 at 2:32 pm
12which neither cheers, nor fazes any list’ner
julia
July 26, 2006 at 2:34 pm
13PS: Adam, I will gladly call my local bookstore with a request, on the first day it’s out; if they have it, grand, if not, I’ll buy it at a McStore, but at least the local guys will know it’s out there waiting - and you get the $$ either way.
The review sounds great. I look forward to reading it.
Sharon
July 26, 2006 at 3:29 pm
14I don’t have any control over purchasing here at the library, but I have had a hold on the book since I first learned about it, and I’m #1 in the queue.
David
July 26, 2006 at 4:47 pm
15Don’t forget, Seattle Dan can get ‘em and send ‘em (at least he promised to, so I sent my $$).
Sharon,
The first five words of your post describe pretty much everything in life, best I can tell.
SeattleDan
July 26, 2006 at 5:02 pm
16Never fear, David. You’ll get your copy!
And a reminder to all who’ll be in the neighborhood, Adam will be signing copies of the book at our store on Saturday, September 23rd at 7:00 pm. We couldn’t be happier. From just the word of mouth alone, so far, we’re expecting a very good turnout.
JB
July 26, 2006 at 5:07 pm
17Good luck with the book
vachon
July 26, 2006 at 5:23 pm
18So, like, does this make you an artiste or something? Cos I come here to keep it real, yo.
Congrats on your book. You may not be allowed in libraries yet what with the current lemonyelloworangeorange fruitloopy alert level we got going. But I’m sure they’ll let you back in just as soon as they clean up that spill on aisle Iraq.
historyenne
July 26, 2006 at 5:24 pm
19I’m so excited! My breath has been baited, bated and abated since January, and I’m nearly out of oxygen.
dee
July 26, 2006 at 6:03 pm
20I like to bait my breath with Red Wigglers -The Cadillac of Worms©
Jim (Original Jim, not the Other Jim or the New Jim)
July 26, 2006 at 6:19 pm
21To keep the Shakespearian ip going, a slight correction, then an addition:
“which neither cheers nor fazes list’ning folk”
yet grates the aural sense of proper scribes.
Dale
July 26, 2006 at 6:19 pm
22My breath was baited, now everything I say sounds a little fishy.
Nick
July 26, 2006 at 7:08 pm
23I hear it, Adam, from you and from The Library Journal. But alas, although I am a librarian, I have neither the authority to buy it (except for myself) nor to make the decision to put it in Reference. But I assure you I’ll pimp it with my library buddies
Good luck!
SeattleDan
July 26, 2006 at 9:00 pm
24And this must be very exciting for you, Adam. I wish you the best success as I know you deserve it. BTW, is Edith’s next book being published under the name Edith Felber? I just received through the Booksense program a solicitation to read a new novel in advance reading form by one Edith Felber. I can’t imagine it is someone else.
SeattleDan
July 26, 2006 at 9:25 pm
25This is the book of which I spoke and it’s publisher blurb:
QUEEN OF SHADOWS by Edith Felber, (New American Library, ISBN: 045121952X, $14.00, trade paperback original, November 2006). The beautiful Queen Isabella, embarrassed by her weak, unfaithful husband, plots to take over the throne with the help of her husband’s imprisoned enemy—and her lover. Little does she know her 21-year-old Welsh handmaiden is also seeking revenge against the English invaders who crushed her beloved homeland.
Steve
July 27, 2006 at 6:55 am
26“Baited breath? Does that mean you’ve been eating worms?
margaret
July 27, 2006 at 8:32 am
27Yes, yes that’s our same Edith, the ever-charming Mother of Felbers!
I’m way too excited about Adam’s book to riff on Shakespeare, but I’m enjoying everyone’s stuff.
Harold
July 27, 2006 at 9:01 am
28dee - love the reference! “God as my witness, I thought they could fly.”
And vachon - is that a Hawaii Five-0 reference?
Nick - I suppose you could just turn a blind eye to any copies that get misfiled in the Reference section…
Hey, everybody needs to order an extra copy for their local library!
nato
July 27, 2006 at 11:21 am
29How about a book signing over here in Couer d’Alene, Idaho? By the time you get from L.A. to Seattle, you’re just a hop, skip and jump away from here. Maybe two hops. And we ARE a progressive community: There hasn’t been a cross burning in almost a week now (I wish I could say the same for kitten burnings). We’re the liberal outpost in a rather red state.
JOHN MURPHY
July 27, 2006 at 1:35 pm
30We need a Chicago book signing. Its not like you are never here.
dee
July 27, 2006 at 4:22 pm
31Harold — always good to find another afficianado.
My favorite episode is still the Johnny and Venus on-the-air drunk driving demostration, where the more Johnny drank the better his reflexes got.
“Forget the Olympics, John — go pro!”
“Cop’s gotta hat - I wanna hat.”
I could go on…
Murray
July 27, 2006 at 4:48 pm
32Uhh… I’m waiting for the movie.
tess
July 27, 2006 at 9:20 pm
33nato,
You’re in Coeur d’Alene? My bf’s parents live there, and we’re even flying there in a few weeks to visit. So I second that Adam goes to Idaho and visit the single-street downtown. Somehow, it seems like a more dignified venue than pulling a David Sedaris and make his first visit to Hometown Buffet at San Luis Obispo.
SpottedDog
July 28, 2006 at 6:57 am
34Coeur d’Alene, Idaho? A liberal outpost? You mean there are two of us here?
David
July 28, 2006 at 3:58 pm
35dee,
I shoulda known you’d understand about red wigglers (cooper as well, I feel sure). Red wigglers are to other protein sources as Godiva is to other chocolates.
nato
July 31, 2006 at 9:58 am
36Three, actually. That’s two more than in the rest of the state, right? On a more serious note: I’ve lived here for a year now and met my first native Idahoan last week — everyone else has been from California or Michigan.