That Time Jim Adkins and I Talked Books

(Warning: there is quite a bit of Caps Lock below because I REALLY AM THAT EXCITED.)The Monday of my birthday weekend, we drove 4 hours round trip to see Jim Adkins (my favorite band Jimmy Eat World's front man) play a sold-out solo acoustic show to ~100 people.I was psyched to see Jim play and hear that his guitar playing, vocals and songwriting hold up without the band. In fact, better at times. So it's not just a crazy fangirl crush - he really is that good.And then, after his set, he came out into the crowd to meet everyone. If you remember, we almost met the band back in October, so I was not going to miss this chance.Apparently, Jim does this thing where he introduces himself to everyone."Hey - I'm Jim," and you're all like, YES WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE.And that's exactly what happened to us. He extended his hand, H shook it, Jim said, "Hey, I'm Jim," and H introduced us. Perfectly casual and normal, like I wasn't 2 minutes away from puking up my perfect Santa Barbara Mexican food dinner.I told myself, if I ever got to meet Jim, I'd ask him his favorite book. I've gleaned he's a reader, so I figured that would be interesting conversation for both of us.Me: "What's your favorite book?"Jim: "Favorite? That's a tough one." (long pause where I panic that this isn't going as well as I hoped)Me: "Well, then the most recent book you've read? That you liked."Jim: "I just finished 'The Bone Clocks'."Me, smacking him in the arm like he isn't famous or anything: "No way. I just finished that too."Jim: "Yeah. It was pretty good. I liked it."And so it went on a few more exchanges, him recommending a book which I can not find online, hard as I try, and us taking the picture above.But not joking even one bit, Bone Clocks is the book I just finished that week.THE UNIVERSE IS NUTS.----A few days later, still annoyed I couldn't find the book he told me, I commented on his Instagram. Long shot, I know, but I figured worth the try.AND HE REPLIED BACK.So there you go - Happy Birthday to me.Check out the setlist for the San Diego show, which is pretty similar to the Santa Barbara show.