The lady next to me is knitting. She is talking to the lady she is with about what she is knitting. They are talking about how their mothers learned to knit and needlepoint during The War.

Someone named Andrea Grossman introduces the writer, congratulating us all for being here by suggesting that if terrorists set off a bomb inside this building tonight half of all Los Angeles genius would be wiped out.

The writer reads three passages from his new novel, Zero K. He is then led in discussion by a much younger writer sent here to do so by the same publisher.

The discussion ends with the writer responding to a question passed forward from someone in the audience on a notecard by confirming that he still writes on an old manual typewriter that makes a lot of noise.

I am relocating to Oregon by the end of next year.