Up at 6 a.m. EST in my dimly lit, overly-designed New York City hotel. Car service to Newark. Land in Los Angeles six or seven hours later. Picked up at airport by media escort who takes me to the bookstore for a technical check. Grab a quick sandwich. Off to KPFK to record an interview. Back to hotel to check in. Confusion with room — apparently, and I kid you not, there is a second Dan Perkins staying here tonight — either that or a random travel agent I’ve never heard of booked an extra room for me. Spend almost a half hour fuming in the lobby as they sort it out. End up with about five minutes to throw my bags down and change clothes. Off to a lovely dinner hosted for me by an extremely gracious Arianna Huffington. Greg Saunders and his wife meet us there, along with a couple of Arianna’s friends. Over too soon, and it’s off to the bookstore. The rains result in a small turnout, but astonishingly almost everyone there buys two or three books apiece–we sell more than we did last night in NYC, and we had a huge turnout there. Back to the hotel for a few moments of downtime, and then I’m off to a radio station for another interview. After which point it will be three a.m. my time.
Tomorrow morning I get up at six a.m. local time and start all over again. If you’re in San Francisco, come by the Booksmith tomorrow night. I’ll be the tired-looking one.