Should you tour? Paging Mr. Konrath, Mr. Konrath to the courtesy phone.

This from an article on being a novelist in the NYT. Here's the link, but I'm not sure you'll be able to access the entire article without a subscription. If so, I apologize and encourage you to pony up. It's the fucking New York Times for God's sake.

And from the things Mr. Coupland has learned about hotels over 15-years of book tours, you get tips like this, secret number five:

5. Most hotels have an armoire-type thing where they stash the TV set. Next time you go into your hotel room, stand up on a chair and look on top of the armoire. When people are checking out of a room, it’s where they dump stuff they don’t want to take with them, but can’t throw away in case the maid finds it. Stuff that could get them arrested or cause them shame. Really harsh porn. Pot. Pills. Coins. Touristy things that people gave them that they don’t really want. It accumulates from one year to the next. In a Portland, Ore., hotel I once found a pile of Italian lire, three copies of Screw magazine and a $200 photography book inscribed, “To Dennis — without you I could never have conceived this book let alone have the courage to see it to its completion. I owe you everything, Diane.” The Dianes of this world usually get hosed, don’t they?

He's right. I once found a stack of some of the most hardcore porn I've ever seen on top of the armoire in Manhattan. It made me afraid to touch anything else in the room. Truly, human sexuality is a mysterious thing.

So go, check it out.