Have you ever wanted to have a rare glimpse into the inner-workings of a publishing house? Did you think that having such a glimpse into an immaculately clean, sweet-smelling publishing house, which carries the nourishing smell of fresh off-the-press books?

Last year, I was given that chance, without the whole smell of freshly printed books,wafting through Random House’s headquarters? It is not like the Hershey Park; Hershey factory (you know, the one that is merely a facsimile of the real thing), where there is the addictive smell  that people associate most strongly with your marketed product.

But, the experience is equally as memorable, fun, and above all, extremely relaxing. If you ever wanted feel your worries and cumbersome stress become assuaged faster than  that slow process reading a book with a glass of hot tea, going to the Random House Open House .

Last year, many of the highlights including meeting Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls (and was able to procure her new book for my aunt, a huge fan of Gilmore Girls);attending a fascinating conversation between two writers who wrote books both dealing extensively with the problem of bullying in schools;having a Game of Throne style lunch (fit for a king of Westeros) with the many talented people who work on George R.R. Martin’s Game of Throne series; and more.

Each of these activities had snacks (what regimented type of day, involves more than one snack period?), where you were able to try various types of coffee and other snacks.  For fifty dollars, you are allowed to be indulgent in books, coffee, and tasty food, which are essentially the type of things that we inveterate readers love most of all!

Oh, and did I mention that you also get a handful of free books and Advanced Reader copies to take home with you. Last year, the event was approximately 40 dollars (my recall on the price is foggy, because I just remembering having a lot of fun), but this year’s price is 55 dollars. But 40 or 55 dollars is still essentially a steal, because you are given so many freebies.

Here are the list of activities for this year’s Random House Open House, occurring on Friday,May 2nd, 2004. Here is the link where you can find this same itinerary and other links related to the Random House Open House.

Here is a link that will take you to a secure, EventBrite page to buy your tickets

Now, I have a courtesy message for all my Lestat Book Coven members, who are thinking about attending:

Please, please (for my sake), do not think of being so perfidious, as to think that you can attend the Random House Open House, all part of some grand master plan to steal yourselves an early copy of Prince Lestat. Random House has a very high-tech security system, which will zap you into a brain-dead zombie that will no longer possess any skill of reading. That means that you’ll no longer to be able to read, thus you will never remember that you were ever going to the Random House Open House as a cover to infiltrate their high-security vault and steal yourselves the gold-covered edition of Prince Lestat.

Here is a much more legal way of securing a signed copy, come October, 28,2014:

If you didn’t already know, Prince Lestat is being offered for pre-order through Barnes and Nobles with a rather exciting addition. All copies of the book, pre-ordered through Barnes and Nobles will be signed by Anne Rice herself.