HOUSTON - Outside a bookstore on the edge of River Oaks, a couple of guys showed up to stand in line at 6:00 in the morning.
Nine hours early for an event starting in mid-afternoon, Abdi Zarandi and Darrell Harrison just wanted to be absolutely certain they would have a chance to meet a former president.
"I'm so excited to meet him," Harrison said. "I think it's once in a lifetime and I'm happy to be here, you know. I don't care if it took two days, I'd wait in line. He's worth it."
A long line snaked around the Barnes & Noble bookstore as Houstonians waited their turn to speak with former president George W. Bush and buy an autographed copy of his new book about his dad.
The turnout stood as a testament to the ongoing popularity of the Bush family in Houston, especially its patriarch.
"I'm going to get it for my mom," Harrison said. "She's a big Bush fan. I think she's going to freak out when she gets it."
Bush 43 jokes that he decided to write a book largely to dispel the notion that he couldn't read one. His affectionate biography "41: A Portrait of My Father" has become not only a bestseller, but also a unique artifact in American historical literature. It is the only book about a president written by another president who happens to be his father.
The author recently told an audience gathered for his mother's annual literacy dinner in Houston that he was inspired by a relative of David McCullough, the popular historian who wrote a bestselling biography of John Adams.
If John Quincy Adams had written a book about his father, Bush was told, it would've immeasurably helped McCollough's research.
So Bush 43 researched and wrote an unabashedly sympathetic memoir focused largely on life lessons learned from his father. His story opens with an account of his dad's 90th birthday parachute jump ("Happy birthday to the most badass 90 year-old I know," Arnold Schwarzenegger told him.)
It concludes with a moving scene of the Bush family standing around what everyone feared would become the patriarch's death bed, as the frail former president touches the stomach of his pregnant granddaughter Jenna and tells his gathered family, "There's death, and there's new life."
Few of the people standing in line at the Barnes & Noble had read the book, but they were all eager to buy an autographed copy and, more important, meet its author.
"I actually want to read the book, but the autograph's a perk," said Stephanie Smith, one of the book buyers waiting in line.
As was his custom back in his days in the Texas governor's mansion, Bush showed up early.
He smiled and efficiently but warmly greeted fans walking past the table where he autographed copies of his book. Some of them reminded him about old friends here in Houston.
At one point, he encouraged a young man to pose and turn toward the cameras a few feet away, a satirically classic political pose. It looked like a scene from his days on the campaign trail.
"Haven't lost my touch," he said.
