The $20,000 Pyramid book club

Elysha and I attended a book club in Tolland on Friday night, and it was one of the most entertaining that I have ever had the pleasure of joining.

The evening kicked off with a living room version of the $20,000 Pyramid. The sixteen members of the book club were divided in half down the center of the living room, with me and Elysha placed on opposing teams. The theme song from the original television show was played through the stereo speakers, and then teams took turns choosing categories from a makeshift game board and answering questions about MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND.

There was also a bonus round with questions pertaining only to me. During the bonus round, Elysha asked the questions and I was excluded from playing.

Apparently many of their book club meetings begin with games.

The 50 SHADES OF GRAY Pictionary game was reportedly something to behold.

We talked about the book and writing and aspects of my personal life for nearly three hours, but we enjoyed every minute of it. There was a lot of laughter, a few tears, quite a few questions directed at Elysha and some challenging questions directed at me, including:

“Is it possible that you have ADD?”

“In terms of religion, what do you believe?”

“If you were going to give a TED Talk, what would you talk about?”

Coincidentally, I had completed the TED Talk application process two days earlier, but not even Elysha knew that I had completed the process. The person asking the question simply thought that I would make a good speaker for a TED conference.

I’m hoping the organizers of TED agree. 

I give out a prize at every book event to the person who asks the most unusual or most difficult question to answer. Friday night’s prize was the Spanish version of MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND, which went to the woman who asked me if I had attention deficit disorder. While this was admittedly an unusual question (and would have been difficult for me to answer had Elysha not been there to help), the real reason I gave it to her was because she cried the most during the course of the evening.

As for the ADD question, Elysha stated with certainty that I do not have any kind of attention deficit disorder (and she’s an elementary school teacher, so she would know).

If anything, she said, I am mildly obsessive. 

She may be right.

This same woman also attempted to tell us that she would prefer the last name Dicks to her own, which is an Italian name that is sometimes mispronounced “ricotta” or something similar.

I told her that she was insane and that everyone in the room agreed with me, which they did.