Salman Rushdie in Los Angeles

ONE of my best experiences as a books/authors reporter was spending most of a day wandering around LA with Salman Rushdie. We discussed his longtime interest in film while strolling through his old neighborhood in West Hollywood, talked about the Beatles and the English '60s over iced coffees at the Kings Road Cafe, and got into his years in hiding while having lunch nearby.

Rushdie is in town tonight as part of the public library's wonderful ALOUD series. It's held tonight at the Japan America Theatre, where he will be interviewed by Reza Aslan. (Rushdie is touring on his new novel, Luka and the Fire of Life.)

HERE is my piece on the author.

Would he have been happier as an obscure literary novelist, I asked him, rather than as an international celebrity?

"I think you make the best of what you get," he said in his plummy accent, wearing a dark blue suit and gesturing donnishly. "And it's really easy for me to shut it out. Like most novelists, I developed early on quite strong habits of concentration, and even a requirement of solitude. Every day I just go to a room, shut the door and work. And the fame thing feels very trivial."