There are many wonderful time capsules scattered across the internet. However, for my money, nothing quite beats photographs from book signings by celebrities.
Listen, I like a juicy midcentury Hollywood memoir as much as the next woman, and I understand the publishing economics that lead publishers to sign celebrities to produce everything from novels to cookbooks. But it is still a very funny, very wild ride to look back at all the splashy signing events at, say, the Rockefeller Center Barnes & Noble and see just who was promoting what. Remember when Madonna wrote a string of kids’ books? Remember just how many celebrities were created by Americans’ early 2000s desire for somebody, anybody, to teach them how to dress? Plus it’s just fun to see celebrities 15 years younger and wearing what was, at one point, the height of fashion.
