Meeting an icon

Meeting an author is always inspiring and wonderful, but knowing that I would be seeing Roger Ebert this past Friday made me even more excited than usual.

Despite Ebert's battle with cancer and multiple surgeries, he is still going strong - I always turn to his movie reviews before even thinking about going to the theatre, and his blog gave a good idea of which movies to look for at this year's TIFF festival. Adding to his plethora of written material, he has now published a memoir called Life Itself giving insight into a life worth examining.

The signing took place at Theatre Books, where Mr. Ebert's wife, Chaz, introduced herself to everyone that came in and showed a genuine interest in getting to know her husband's fans. There was even a surprise visit from legendary Canadian director Norman Jewison!

Visitors ranged from die-hard fans arriving with collections of his books to young students who happened to see the sign about a book signing and jumped at the opportunity to meet a legend. Mr. Ebert graciously agreed to personalize autographs and shook hands with those that were eager.

Life Itself is available from Grand Central Publishing (ISBN 9780446584975).