Thank you to everyone who came out to last night's Two Books Enter, One Book Leaves event. I have no idea how many dozens of people came through the event last night, but I loved watching everyone browsing tables full of books, advising total strangers about books they should and shouldn't read. Once people found the book they thought they wanted, they'd buy a drink, take the book over to the Hugo House's cabaret, sit down, and read a little of it. The process repeated until they found a book they wanted to take home. It was kind of like a lit-nerd meat market.

And in the middle of all the book-dating, a lot of good stuff was happening. At the end of the night, Friends of Seattle Public Library boxed up the hundreds of quality books left over for their next book sale at Magnuson Park in April. Book-lovers contributed pages of signatures to a petition asking Mayor McGinn and Seattle City Council to take "every effort" to keep Magnuson's Hangar 30 open for upcoming book sales. The proceeds from all those $2 cans of beer and Dirty Librarians revelers bought will benefit the Hugo House's many worthy literary programs. One friend talked another friend out of picking up a copy of Twilight. My heart was full.

We'll probably be turning Two Books Enter, One Book Leaves into a quarterly happy hour at the Hugo House. I'll let you know when the next one will be.