So the new James Comey book comes out today.

And I heard that they Amazon shipped copies to the White House or something, like, quote, unquote, on accident.

Oh, I did not hear that. I don't know the whole story.

So what is disappointing to me as in a small bookstore is that we ordered it and it didn't arrive. But it's supposed to be here tomorrow so nobody panicked. Okay, that's fine. By the time you listen to this, probably this fad will be over. This is one of those bookish fads. So we're recording this on the 17th. Yeah, so this will be old news. But what's fascinating to me is unlike Fire and Fury, they didn't like up the release date for this.

This has always been the release date for this book.

But they did say, like at the last minute, I got an email from the publisher that was like,

hey, if you want to sell these at midnight, you can.

And so as a staff, we were dying, laughing, and brainstorming.

Like, what if we have in Thomasville? There's a midnight release of the James Colmy book. And is the title, I hope there are tapes? No. Is that at least, is Lorty in the subtitle at least? No. So we were talking about what would an event look like in Thomasville, Georgia, because we're not Washington, D.C., we're not New York City. Like, what would an event look like? And we talked about how, just like we did a Harry Potter release party a couple years ago. We got all dress up as James Comey. Well, we thought we could have a standee that you took your picture with, because James Comey is so tall. And so it could be standing outside the door and you could get your selfie with James Comey. I just thought could be really fun. And then we could give away, like I am wearing, in honor of today, I was wearing my Lordy I hope there are tapes T-shirt. And we could give away Lordy, I hope there are tapes T-shirts. And we could ask every customer who comes in for their loyalty. Yes. Something like that.

Yeah, it'd be great. And we could give like red, white and blue cupcakes away. Sure. Like, just had this whole thing planned. I mean, we didn't do it. We'll have like a J. Edgar Hoover, like, portrait hung up in the back. Yeah, it'll be fine. We just had, we just had so much fun brainstorming a James Comey event. The weirdest fake event and I love it.

Is it weirder than the action? We just had so much fun brainstorming a James Comey event. This is the weirdest fake event and I love it.

Is it weirder than the actual real event, Stanley Tucci Day?

We came up with...

You know, I forgot about Stanley Tucci Day when we had just pictures of Stanley Tucci's face all over the bookshelf.

We had masks that you could wear. I found one the other day in the top of my closet. There was Stanley Tucci's face all over the bookshelf. We had masks.

Yeah.

But you could wear.

I found one the other day in the top of my closet. There was Stanley Tucci's face just looking right back at me. I don't think a single person came to that event. Look, to be fair, I think people were on their way, but it was pouring rain. It was. And we couldn't get the projector to work. What were we going to show? Devil We're gonna show? Devil We're... I'm gonna do Stanley Tucci Day one of these days.

Okay. Sure. That's so weird. Welcome to episode 168 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business, and life in the South.

My name is Chris Jensen, and I don't recognize myself from 2009.

And I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful

downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Which has been reading lately. So many things. So many things.

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