Several more days to figure out how to catch leaves. I am having fun trying to storm Columbus Ohio. I’m going out to Dayton, Cincinatti and Lexington, Ky. in a week or so and when Random House offered me to the Thurber House in Columbus, we were all startled to learn that dogs are banned from the former residence of James Thurber, one of the funniest and most perceptive dog chroniclers. It was he who suggested that few people would go to heaven, and all dogs would. I understand the Thurber House. People are always trying to bring their dogs to my readings, and  lots of times the dogs they bring are not as well behaved as they might like to think.

I’ve never quite grasped why dogs are necessary at a literary reading. Izzy only goes where he is invited.

And since he is invited to the homes of dying people and hospitals and bookstores and nursing homes, I would have expected him to get into the Thurber House, a place I really like going to. In our culture, lawyers always prevail.

In any case, it seemed a good opportunity to make some noise and mischief, so I reported this Thurber House policy on my Facebook page and a bit of an uproar has resulted. I said I wanted to go to Columbus next Sunday afternoon – we go right by there – and nuts to the Thurber House. We want to do an alternative reading. Random House wasn’t thrilled about the whole idea, but  they went along, and we started looking for other sites in Columbus. I Googled the place and found a neat bookstore called the Bookloft in German Village (also recommended by my Facebook comrades), a neighborhood in Columbus. Looks good. When I called, the store workers told me the owners were off till Monday, and I could call back then. My FB friend Barbara got on the case and made the bookstore pay some attention.

So we’ll see. If the Bookloft doesn’t come through, I’ll find a Dunkin Donuts and Izzy and I will give a talk in the parking lot. I’m betting on Barbara, though. She seems quite focused and determined. I’m pretty willful myself. I love the idea of taking over a piece of Columbus, and I believe James Thurber would be cheering me and Barbara on. In the meantime, Facebook is just growing on me, more all the time. This could be a hell of a book tour.