Bruce Dickinson's autobiography is on the way

Quote :

Book stores? surprised They still exist?

Here in Lubbock we have a massive 2 story Barnes and Noble...Its the coolest B&N I have ever been to. We also have several independent book stores...
As for Bruce's book I cant wait to read it. Bruce is awesome and an inspiration to me...

I went to Bruce Dickinson's book signing in Ridgewood, New Jersey yesterday.

My bro and I got to the book store at around 11 AM yesterday morning - the signing started at 1. There were already about 100 people lined up on the sidewalk when we pulled up, so we were glad we came early. We met up with two of our friends who were already on line and stood with them. We hadn't seen these guys in a while and it was a long wait, so it was nice to have a chance to BS and get caught up.

Needless to say the line behind us quickly grew even longer. (last night after the event was over, the bookstore's Facebook page claimed that around 1000 people had showed up).

Eventually the line started to move inside the store and down the stairs to the author's signing area.... a small room where we stood and waited, and waited, and waited some more. The crowd was packed in there pretty tight so it got uncomfortably stuffy pretty quickly.

Bruce arrived just a few minutes after 1 PM to much rejoicing and shouts of "BROOOOOOOOCE!" A bookstore employee reminded us all that he was not taking pix with fans, and he would not sign any memorabilia or anything other than copies of the book. (I had my Accident of Birth CD in my pocket in the vain hope that I might get a sig on that, but decided not to even bother trying.)

When the line started moving, it went very quickly - due to the size of the crowd it was a total cattle call, bang bang bang. You were brought up, Bruce signed your book, and you were sent on your way. As I'd predicted, each person got about ten seconds of face-time with Bruce, tops.

When my turn came, I barely had time to get a quick handshake and say "Hi Bruce, it's an honor to meet you sir" (to which he replied "Allo! Thanks for coming!") before I was hustled away to make room for the next person. I had wanted to tell him about my fanboy love for Accident of Birth and compliment him on the awesomeness of Trooper beer, but there was simply no time.  

So for about three hours of waiting, I got a whole ten seconds with Bruce Dickinson ... but y'know what? It was totally worth it!

Fat Freddy wrote:

I went to Bruce Dickinson's book signing in Ridgewood, New Jersey yesterday.

My bro and I got to the book store at around 11 AM yesterday morning - the signing started at 1. There were already about 100 people lined up on the sidewalk when we pulled up, so we were glad we came early. We met up with two of our friends who were already on line and stood with them. We hadn't seen these guys in a while and it was a long wait, so it was nice to have a chance to BS and get caught up.

Needless to say the line behind us quickly grew even longer. (last night after the event was over, the bookstore's Facebook page claimed that around 1000 people had showed up).

Eventually the line started to move inside the store and down the stairs to the author's signing area.... a small room where we stood and waited, and waited, and waited some more. The crowd was packed in there pretty tight so it got uncomfortably stuffy pretty quickly.

Bruce arrived just a few minutes after 1 PM to much rejoicing and shouts of "BROOOOOOOOCE!" A bookstore employee reminded us all that he was not taking pix with fans, and he would not sign any memorabilia or anything other than copies of the book. (I had my Accident of Birth CD in my pocket in the vain hope that I might get a sig on that, but decided not to even bother trying.)

When the line started moving, it went very quickly - due to the size of the crowd it was a total cattle call, bang bang bang. You were brought up, Bruce signed your book, and you were sent on your way. As I'd predicted, each person got about ten seconds of face-time with Bruce, tops.

When my turn came, I barely had time to get a quick handshake and say "Hi Bruce, it's an honor to meet you sir" (to which he replied "Allo! Thanks for coming!") before I was hustled away to make room for the next person. I had wanted to tell him about my fanboy love for Accident of Birth and compliment him on the awesomeness of Trooper beer, but there was simply no time.  

So for about three hours of waiting, I got a whole ten seconds with Bruce Dickinson ... but y'know what? It was totally worth it!

Did it resemble this?

^^ Haha, actually it was a lot like that... except Bruce didn't put his boot on my face to push me off

Fat Freddy wrote:

^^ Haha, actually it was a lot like that... except Bruce didn't put his boot on my face to push me off

I just started reading the book this week (at work, so I'm slow because sometimes I need to get some work done too, LOL), and at least the beginning is very easy to get into. He's just like any of us. A little eccentric at times, but mostly a normal bloke and all his intentions and reactions come across clearly.

He went through what still kind of ranks as normal childhood, at times tough, sometimes almost privileged, but not like an unbearably rough sympathy story. It doesn't read as a "wow, look at what I've done", more like a "this is me and this is where I come from". That's the difference between this and some other autobiographies I've read. Though I was worried after the show-offy prologue.

My youth was a lot easier than Bruce's, so I'm not belittling it, just that it's not an usual thing to hear about corporal punishment in boarding schools.

I'm up to the part where he moves to London and forms a band called Speed. The writing style is intelligent and funny, but not too funny to distract from what it really is about.