Tale of a book signing with Daniel Handler & Maira Kalman

Last week, I made the very good decision to go down to the Barnes & Noble at Union Square for a book signing. It was a good decision because it was a book signing, of course, but it was a particularly good decision because this event was for Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler and illustrated by Maira Kalman.

The author and artist thoroughly entertained the audience with their random comments and witty banter, all accompanying a slideshow containing images from Why We Broke Up as well as other pictures that said something about Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler's joint history.

One of the images from the slide show

For example, the first few images were photographs that Maira sent to Daniel. He in turn wrote a little something about that image. The story accompanying the image above was particularly hilarious.

Maira Kalman & Daniel Handler, again!

In addition to these funny little stories, Daniel Handler also read a few short excerpts from Why We Broke Up. But I have to say that my favorite part of the evening (aside from, you know, getting my book signed!) was the "Are you a romantic?" quiz that everyone in the audience got to take. Here was my score:

10-15

You lied while taking the test in a vain effort to make others believe you're more or less on an even keel.

For the record, I totally did not lie.