Book Events & Blog Events

Tour de Nerdfighting Birthday Extravaganza!

Hello all!  Today is my birthday, and I just have to tell you about how I spent the weekend!  It was epic!!!

My husband, son, and I went down to Austin for the Tour de Nerdfighting (also known as John Green’s book signing tour with special guest, his brother, Hank Green)!  My friends Courtney and Tracy met us there, and before we left for the event, Courtney and Tracy gave me a bag full of birthday goodies, all of which had a Nerdfighter or bookish theme!


The bag says “DFTBA” and on the other side it says “Happy Birthday.”  In case you’re not a huge Nerdfighter like me, I’ll clue you in to what the items mean.  The giraffe is for all of the vlogs that John and Hank posted about Giraffe Love.  The i-clips are some cool little bookmarks that really don’t have anything to do with John or Hank Green as far as I know, but they’re still awesome!  The NyQuil is for one of my favorite videos by Hank:  This Video Brought to you by Nyquil.  The Mazzio’s gift card is for pizza, since John loves pizza – so much so that there’s a Pizza John shirt made in honor of his love.  And Mazzio’s happens to be my favorite place around here for pizza! And the SingAMaJig is something that pops up in a lot of John’s videos, like this one:  Making Adorable Music.

Also included in the bag was a signed copy of Extras by Scott Westerfeld, which we had found at the Austin book store, BookPeople, just before they gave me the gift.  BookPeople is the awesome store that hosted the tour in Austin, and they had tons of signed copies of books!  And I was really excited when we found this one!

Thanks Courtney and Tracy!  I love my gifts!  You guys are awesome!

Then we headed out to the event, and let me just say, it was my 2nd best birthday ever (the best one being when my husband proposed to me five years ago)!!!  We saw HankSock, John read from The Fault in Our Stars, Hank sang some of his songs, they both answered questions, and then we got to meet them and have them sign things!!!  

I had been under the impression that the book that came with our event ticket was the only thing they would sign for us, so I had only brought my previously ordered and signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars, in the hopes that I could get Hank to Hanklerfish it as well. (Hank has a song about anglerfish, and so he signed some of the preorders by drawing an anglerfish, which was then dubbed a “Hanklerfish.”)  But I found out that they were going to be signing three items per person, plus the books that came with our ticket were already signed and Hanklerfished.  I really wished I had brought my copy of Paper Towns, because it’s one of my other favorites by John.  But Courtney reminded me that they were selling copies of all of John’s books in the lobby, and she suggested that I simply go buy another copy of Paper Towns and get it signed.  So that’s what I did!  I also bought a t-shirt, and everyone got a free poster after going through the signing line.


As for photos of the event – I should have brought my camera but for some reason I thought my iPhone would suffice.  It didn’t.  Here’s a ridiculous picture that was taken from my phone:


Look, it’s the spooky outline of John Green!  And here’s the best picture I took when we were close to them in the signing line:


It’s all shaky and fuzzy, but look!  There’s John and The Katherine and Hank! My friend Tracy took a couple more pictures and she’s going to send them to me, so I’ll post those later.  It was an exciting, wonderful weekend and I just want to say thanks to John and Hank for doing this tour!  Your fans really, really, really appreciate it!

The next day we went to the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX, on our way home.  I’m addicted to Dr. Pepper in ways that most people are addicted to coffee, so it was an added bonus for my birthday weekend!  I got a pin to put next to my Hunger Games and Harry Potter pins on my laptop bag. Tonight it’s Poker Night with some of my friends, which is always really fun! All in all a fantastic birthday weekend!

And now, here’s some exciting news of something special soon to come to The Overstuffed Bookcase:  I have two signed and Hanklerfished copies of The Fault in Our Stars that I’m giving away!  The contest will start really soon, so be sure to look for it, and tell your friends!

3 Comments

  1. Small Review

    January 25, 2012 at 12:28 am

    Happy birthday! It sounds like you had a fantastic day :)

  2. Candace

    January 25, 2012 at 5:14 am

    Happy Birthday! What an epic day! I got a signed copy at the store but no Hanklerfish :( But it was worth it cause it was the best book EVER! I'm so jealous you got to meet him for REAL though!

    Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and saying hello! I'm now following you back!

  3. Bittner

    January 26, 2012 at 3:47 am

    I'm glad you had such a great birthday weekend! It was such a great trip and I can't wait to do it again!!!

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