This Old Book Blog

The Care and Feeding of a New Generation of Book Dealers... Part 1

2012-01-26T16:30:00.000-08:00

So I was reading the blog from Between the Covers today - Teaching Pigs to Fly   and it really got me thinking.
In fact, it got me so engaged that I'm actually writing this post. (I have been dreaming about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer blog post for the last week -- see how far THAT got me?)

But back to Between the Covers.

The post this time (if you didn't bother to click through the link and READ it) is about one of the fairly new cataloguers who has been given the task of indoctrinating a new hire in the byzantine rituals of rare book cataloguing. Ashley has been cataloguing books for a year and the new hire is just that -- a brand new initiate who will be learning the art of correctly describing books and cataloging them for the shop.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before (I'm sure I have, but for continuity's sake, I'll mention it again) but I've been semi-training my own apprentices in the book business: Son #1 & Son #2. Ashley's blog post got me thinking about how book dealer training is, or can be, done.

In our household, the training is mostly informal. Either I happen to pick up an interesting book and one of my ~~victims~~ apprentices is in grabbing distance, thereupon, I expound, with book in hand - to mostly rolled eyes and long sighs; or, if we happen to go out and manage to end up at an establishment that has books - then we will all start peering through the stacks, each of us with a separate focus. If either of my apprentices finds a book with potential, he'll hand it to me. (ok, a little sidetracking here -- the latest deal in the household is that if either apprentice finds a book that I decide is worthwhile, then that child gets to "consign it" and receives half the profits when the item sells.) I then will peer at the book and give them a thumbs up (with info on why) or a thumbs down -- with MORE info on why.

Then we bring our finds home and research.

Now the research part my apprentices "Get". They understand how to do a quick check for price, condition, etc. They know where to start looking. They understand (generally) my personal method for pricing a book. They're great at gauging condition. They're doing quite well with identifying first editions.

The part that we are all finding more frustrating is the WHY of what books I will give my thumbs up vs those books that are tossed aside like moldy cabbage.

And here's the thing that I'm finding challenging -- it's just how many authors / subject areas that I am familiar with -- and what collectable / salable valuations I carry in my head -- that cannot be easily understood or accessed by them.

Example: One son offers me a hardback copy (with a nice dust jacket) of a Danielle Steel title.
Instant Thumbs Down.

I know why didn't even touch the book - much less check the copyright page or pull off the dust jacket to check for condition, but these two boys have never read Danielle Steel or heard of her; and that's the divide I'm straddling while trying to impart my pearls of wisdom. You try explaining to a pre-teen or teen (as he walks away, dejected) why it is that Danielle Steel just isn't gonna make the grade.

Another example: Son #1 pulled out and walked over a book that was in wonderful condition. It had a slipcase. It was Classic Fiction /Literature.   He had no clue as to who the author was -- but he knew that slipcases meant good things.   (and, unfortunately, I've forgotten the author / title on this particular book)
I took one look at it, praised him for the choice of author and subject -- and gave it an instant Thumbs Down.

Why?

Because it was from the Heritage Press.

In the meantime, at the same hunting ground - Son #2 pulls out an oversized photography book and hands it to me. One look, a quick check for edition (he thought it was not a first edition, but had an idea that it might be interesting anyway) and condition and I give an emphatic Thumbs Up.

Again, why?

Aperture Press.

How do I explain the why of this Thumbs Up?

How is a decently educated kid of 12 to understand? Or is it just a case of learning the same way a child learns anything -- teacher says this, so this is what I do the next time.... and gradually understanding follows.

That's why I found Ashley's blog post about training a newbie so intriguing. She's got a few advantages on her side: her newbie is older and has (presumably) some background with Literature. I am also assuming that the books for cataloging are already available to the two of them (I know nothing about the way Between the Covers buying / cataloguing routines are set up) and that they are not having to both buy and describe the stock.

My apprentices are learning two disparate sides of the business at the same time: how and what to buy, and then how to describe the items and price them. They're doing a great job so far. They have a long way to go, as I'm sure the newbie at Between the Covers is finding out, but they're constantly making progress.

In the end, I guess we'll just keep informally adding tidbits of information to what they know and the understanding will come on its own.

That's how I've been doing it for years now.

Happy New Year! And other things.

2012-01-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

So -- a little late, but still in January. Happy New Year all!

This last year has been .... weird is the only word I can come up with at the moment. It was a wild, wooly and just plain weird year. The book business, which had been getting harder to continue as a stable money maker, also not giving me that feeling of fun and excitement that had kept me going for so many years. The business was a slogging, sluggish, tiresome and generally unfulfilling thing. Oh, there were moments, or days where the spark still lit and the itch to research something really cool was still there, and there were a couple of sales last year that made my heart go pitty-pat, but the day-in, day-out sameness overwhelmed most of that. And the constant hoping that a sale - ANY sale - would materialize so that I could work on paying the next bill, could turn even the sunniest day into a dreary one.

I needed a break. A BIG break. And I guess the universe (or God, whichever floats your boat) knew it.

I had been half-heartedly looking for employment for about a year due to the increasing vagaries of book sales and the fact that my kids insist on continuing to grow, eat, and generally use resources. Our household bills hadn't dropped much overall (even after cutting back on an amazing amount of thing) either. All in all, things were getting more and more ominous and something needed to be done.

So, when a job offer just about dropped into my lap this summer, (Seriously. When your sibling calls up and says, how would you like this really cool, flexible job that you can actually do from home - part time - you don't sit around on your hands saying... well, let me think about it) I snapped it up. It was completely different from anything I had ever done before. It was techno (and I *thought* I was tech savvy). It was something that I could do. So I took it.

Then it took over my life.

Yeah.

Completely.

It took over gradually (as most things do) but by October I was working seven hours a day, five days a week, with optional weekends (depending on my kid-related schedule). By November it was eight hours and most weekends (working *around* kid schedule). In December it was ten hours a day - seven days a week (again, around kid schedule). Overtime was *optional* but would be mandatory if not enough work got done during regular times.

There was virtually no time for thinking about books, much less actually doing anything about them - other than pack up the last minute Christmas rush that was much of December. The fact that I DID get book orders in December surprised the heck out of me, but it was also very welcome - because I was able to squirrel away a tiny bit of savings for the first time in over a year. Of course, those savings are already earmarked to pay my California State Sales taxes for the year, but hey, I'm not complaining.

And then, the job ended.

It was a contract job - you work from such-and-such date through such-and-such date. And that's pretty much what happened.

The last day came and the job was gone.

And now I'm back to being a full time book seller.

Which is weird.

But - I do have a better attitude about books at the moment. It's still not the golly-gee, wow, I'm a BOOK DEALER attitude I used to have, but I can at least look at the books without wanting to throw them.

I'm even looking forward to doing research again.

Oh, and for some of the other things that happened this year ... well, lets say it was a year full of family issues of one sort or another. My mother has been generally in less than wonderful health. The ups have been slight. The downs somewhat steep and her physical condition is just not what it used to be. My husband can now say that he is a cancer survivor. We (he) got lucky. The type of cancer he had was one that could be dealt with by surgery alone. And it was a random, out-of-nowhere sort of thing. But until he actually got the diagnosis of cancer, his life this year sucked major eggs, and the rest of the household felt it too. He was in pain and there was not much we could do to help him.

I have to say that I'm glad to see the end of 2011.

I can only hope and work hard to see that 2012 is a better year - for ALL of us.

Happy New Year!

And as a postscript -- I'm going to try and get back to my blogging (mostly about books & book related issues, or not, depending on my moods) on a regular basis. Last year's two blog total for an entire year was dismal!

working on tech issues for a new job...

2011-07-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is just a trial to see if it works. If it does, Yippee for me (and I can then send in this info to my new boss, which will make us both happy).

So here goes...

It's a Shame I didn't get more elaborate with this

I was trying to save time....which is always a bad choice.

at any rate, click HERE for the interior view

Happy New Year!

2011-01-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

Pfffft.

Happy New Year!

That's all I really have time for now - but just wanted to finally get it out of the way.

Still have plans to keep the blog up-to-date daily, but until I figure out how to work, eat, sleep and type non-stop for 48 hours a day.... well....probably not gonna happen.

At least the New Year's message got posted in January.

Oh....

and one more thing which is rather startling GOOD and New Year Resolutionary....

we got ALL of our Thank you notes finished and MAILED by January 3rd. This is a RECORD! Here's hoping we can keep up the rest of the year. (and I have to say, that it's mostly because Son Number Two did't throw a spanner in the works every time I asked him to write his. He did it on his own time schedule - OF COURSE -- but he actually DID it ... which is better than I have seen in any year. Yippee!).

And now, back to hiding again until I have more time.

Played hooky on Friday instead of keeping the nose to the grindstone.

2010-12-19T16:41:00.000-08:00

Well, yeah, I did play hooky. But I also had a TON of errands to get done at the same time, so it wasn't REALLY playing hooky. Except that I stopped at a couple of places that just happened to carry books....

Yup.

Instead of getting my Christmas cards addressed (I still want a few pictures of the boys to add for the cards that go to relatives), I did other things.

I did, however, find a few cool books. Don't have pictures of them yet, but hope to by later this week.

I also hope that I start to feel business-like again and want to do data entry. Currently, not feeling very business oriented (though I do need to keep the orders rolling in to pay the bills, ya know) and would far rather sit on the sofa reading trashy novels (DON'T EVEN ASK ME TO TELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE.... I WON'T TELL --YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!!!)

I SHOULD be making a batch of Stollen for Christmas. I will before Friday comes around -- it's just not Christmas (at least to me) without it. (I use my grandmother's recipe, which, I have a feeling, she modified at some point, and which I have, over the years, modified a smidge again for my own tastes. It really looks very different, and has different ingredients than most of the stollen you find in cookbooks.)

I don't usually do a great deal of other fancy baking for Christmas -- though I did make a Buche de Noel last Christmas ...every once in a while I try to make extravagant things... I found the recipe for Buche de Noel for a French Class holiday dinner back in.... oh, well either 1983-4 for classes I took way back when, or for the second set of French class I took in 1986-88.... this is the decadent, totally butter filled, coffee and chocolate flavored yummy that takes me three days to get all the parts together and finish.

Not this year though, for the Buche de Noel -- it will have to be the Stollen. Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of it before I dig in. One of the modifications my grandmother added all those years ago was a buttercream frosting to the Stollen instead of just plain powdered sugar. I happen to find buttercream frosting addictive and slather it on in excess. Good thing Christmas only comes once a year.

Now come tomorrow, I'm hoping to get a few more good (as in not blurry) pictures of Sons Number One and Two -- I signed them up for a soccer clinic which goes for two days, four hours a day (to hopefully give me a bit of break from listening to the constant bickering / computer grabbing). It's rained steadily for the last day and a half... the weather report was for five inches of rain this weekend -- the clinic goes on regardless of rain unless it's an out-and-out downpour, so I expect LOTS OF MUD!!! And I'm hoping that not only will they have a good time, but that the clinic will help them out too.

Tomorrow, I really need to get back to work. I gotta get over this thing for playing hooky. Sigh.

It should be so easy to take a few minutes a day to blog....

2010-12-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'll tell you a secret - I've been seriously Jonesing for a smart phone - for several reasons - the biggest draw of which is that I could add my credit card processing to it and not have to worry about cc slips, compliance factors and a whole lot of other nonsense. My husband has been nudging me to get one for a while ... and has put on the pressure this month with little thoughts of what the thing can do....

Yeah, I KNOW.

But....

and this relates to my blog here....

Secretly, I want one so that when I take some funky pictures of my family doing goofy stuff, or found a cool book that I want to show everyone....well, it would be more possible with a smart phone than what I've got now. AND.... I could do it when I'm sitting around (or walking around) the track during soccer practice.

That's been the big problem lately (well, one of them). My time is SO chunked up lately between what I need to do, what the boys need to do, what Scouts need me to do.... the ever expanding list of church things that they want me to do (Ha - just got the December/January lector schedule and between my husband and I we're on at 6 out of 8 weeks for some type of participation.... this after just joining in November.....sigh.)

Then there's the division of the computer time.

Currently, one son is home from school on vacation. As of Friday night, Both boys will be home (and my husband, but he doesn't try to monopolize my computer, he has his own) fighting to see how much time they can wheedle out of MY work computer. DURING CHRISTMAS!!! My peak season (supposedly). AND, I have tax stuff to do -- which I was hoping to have done before this.... not so lucky yet.

So the fighting will get worse. And, as I really don't work well with noise and distraction, more errors, less time and more giving in (on my part) will likely ensue.

Thus, a smart phone might also help alleviate a bit of this tension as well (of course, another BRAND NEW, HIGH SPEED computer with a full desk and extra sound cards, etc. would help as well....but that's just not going to happen).

I was going to try and post a picture of what Son Number Two and I did last night, in the rain... for just under three hours.... I find that a smart phone would have gotten a MUCH better picture, so that's yet ANOTHER reason to buy the darned thing.

Here's the least blurry picture of the pack...

what you CAN'T see from this picture is that every one of the boys (and the coach who's being held back)

are COMPLETELY muddy.

Son Number Two, of course, being the muddiest, as he LOVES mud

and finds ways to roll in it to his satisfaction.

Practice for winter soccer doesn't stop because of rain. And it was raining last night. Not a downpour, mind you, but a steady rain that was more than a drizzle. We were there for three hours. By the time we were done, the field was so slippery that trying to do a big kick on the ball meant going over on your backside into the mud no matter how good your cleats were. I get to do my exercise / walking while either son is at practice, so I end up just as mucky, wet and bedraggled as they do (though not nearly as muddy as Son Number two, for the obvious reason that I don't ROLL in the mud willingly).

The nice thing about last night was that it was warm-ish. If the wind had been up or if it had been 10 degrees colder than the 54 degrees that it was, well.... we would have been a lot more uncomfortable and gone home sooner.

As for the book hunting this weekend, I've found a few fun ones that I'm itching to add to the database as soon as I get a chance...

here are some pictures to whet your appetite:

William Pene du Bois wrote and illustrated this book about a famous

1960's model.

Looks rather ordinary doesn't it?

Well.... turns out it's better than a reading copy.

More to come on this one.

Illustrated by William Blake - the poems of Mr. Grey. Great Illustrations.

There was lots of Christmas stuff at the place I went. This is just ONE of the things I picked up. I need to get them all in the database SOON!

This one was an unexpected bonus. The reason it looks a little yellowish is that there is a glassine dust jacket over the illustrated dust jacket. The dust jacket is in near perfect condition which adds to the ooomph of the book, but to have the glassine (and in near perfect condition too) makes this one rather more intriguing. More on this one later as well.

That's all I have for now.

If I end up splurging on the smart phone (and it's not the cost of the phone itself that's the splurge, but the monthly FEES that is holding me back) I'll be sure to let you know. You might know the minute I start blogging more frequently.... or with better pictures.

December 2nd.... pulling books out of boxes today.

2010-12-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yes, it was one of those days where I had to take new pictures to get started on another stack of books to go in the database... which means that I get to root through boxes to find books to pull out and list.

I know I should just pick up a box, pull all the books out and process them as a group. But where would be the fun in that, I ask you? Or the exercise. Lifting and toting twenty boxes of books (I only went through one area of boxes today and found enough to keep me busy for a week) is GREAT exercise... and does wonders for your back muscles too.

In the process, I found two books that would make WONDERFUL holiday gift items.

I haven't had a chance to enter them into my database yet (I'm going to try to do that tomorrow or this weekend) but I wanted to show them to you anyway.

Enjoy.

Which Star Wars fan out there wouldn't just LOVE a copy of a

book about the lovable, huggable Ewoks.

I couldn't.

And for the golf fanatics out there who thought they had everything...

You have to look closely. Real Closely. In fact, click on the picture to see a better view of it.

Followed by this:

And this:

Or maybe this:

Yup, I knew you couldn't resist.

Next week (or even the rest of this week if I'm lucky) I'll post some other books that got pulled from the stacks just in time for the holidays.

It's been a while, hasn't it....

2010-12-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, two months since I've posted.

Even my brother-in-law (Hi M!) noticed that I'd been slacking, and that's saying something.

Once again, plenty of reasons for the lack of posts - most of them sound lame when written out - and worst yet, I've been checking my blog nearly daily for the last week or so because I keep hoping that I'll get back to it soon.

So today, even though I have nothing really interesting to blog about, I decided that the best thing I can do is to just start....

I do have some neat books to show but all of them take more than five minutes worth of thought and time to post about so those will have to wait. I'm in the process of trying to set up a new feed / delivery system for my emailed newsletter (which is also more than a month overdue) so when I get that done I'll post it here as well.

Last week was a total loss for getting anything done (except the absolute necessities of online selling) because of the holiday (you know, the Last one - Thanksgiving).

The week before that was absolutely crazy busy with scout stuff, soccer stuff and little niggly things that had to be done which took far longer to do than anticipated.

I've got a LOAD of pictures I've been wanting to post - many of them pics of the kids doing their thing (both of them have done lots of good / cool things lately that are worth posting about) but again, I keep losing track of the time to get stuff done.

And then.....

dreaded tax time has finally hit. I really need to get the darned monthly totals done before the end of the year and.... oh yes, today is DECEMBER- FLIPPING - FIRST!!!

When did that happen? And why did it get so cold so fast?

Yes, I'm a winter wimp, but the cold here bites in and runs right through my bones. And of COURSE both boys signed up and made the teams for winter soccer season (yippee for the boys, there was hefty competition this year - good competition, but wahhhh for me who gets to go out to NIGHT TIME practices and watch and wait). More about that later.

I'm trying valiantly to continue to process as many books (and continue to slog through the old titles to update and / or donate those that no longer make the cut) as I can before the winter holidays begin in earnest for the schools. After that, my work, and especially my computer will be in a fight for time against the slavering hoard (IE: my kids).

I do have one picture handy that I am going to post. Soon I won't be able to post pictures of Number One Son because he'd heading for the terrible teens (Thirteen years old is coming up in a frighteningly short time) and he's pout and wail about my pictures of him, but this particular picture is actually a nice picture of him, AND I got it spontaneously, right in the middle of him throwing a hissy about having to WORK. (sigh).

Here goes.

For one thing, he's decided that he's..... Mr. Cool. Second, he's finally starting to fill out a bit and doesn't look so twiggish. Third, the look on his face..... yeah, that's it mostly. MR. COOL.

So, that's it for now. I'm going to try and be back DAILY from now until.... hopefully from now on.

the teddy bears' picnic

2010-10-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had anything fun to talk about (book wise) on the blog lately. Most of the books I'm currently listing for my database are books that have stuck around in boxes for a while (from two months to five years depending on the box....) so to me they are old hat. Not that they are bad books, on the contrary. But for some reason or other, I would pull them out of a box to list, look at them and just not be interested in them.... so back into the box they went.

The thing is, I'm currently trying to whittle down the backlog of boxes ... and at the same time conserve funds for the possibility of exciting new books that might come along and need real cash to pay for them.

It hasn't happened lately, but at least I can keep my hopes up.

The other day, while I was scanning the shelves of the one place I went to this week (because of the backlog of books, and because my schedule currently is CRAZY... I've pared down the time I allow myself to spend haunting my usual book finding spots. At some point, if I DON'T get to go out book hunting, I'll probably burst into a thousand quivering bits). So ANYWAY.... I went. I found .... not much. Some books on Fly fishing - which isn't my personal interest - but books that are good enough to fish out of the pile of dreck before they were totally destroyed. If I get a chance this week, they'll go up as a group item to someone who DOES like fly fishing.   I was sad and disappointed that I'd wasted gas and time at this place.... but.... on the way out, I looked down (it's always down, or sideways, or some other way than right in front of your nose, isn't it?) and there was this one book sticking out of a pile of Children's paperback junk that caught my eye.

And....

It was The Teddy Bear's Picnic.

This is a wonderful book for several reasons. One, it's the whole idea of the Teddy Bears' Picnic.
And then, the book comes with a 33 1/3rd record at the back (this one is in nice condition too) with the SONG The Teddy Bears' Picnic -- there is a great write-up of the original Teddy Bear inventor and the whole bear / picnic thing here,    has two versions of the song - first by Bing Crosby, the second by The Bearcats.

This copy, which was published by the Green Tiger Press (under their Star and Elephant logo) includes illustrations by Alexandra Day ( and there's another story there...   Alexandra Day is the pseudonym of Sandra Louise Woodward Darling, who with her husband Harold established Green Tiger Press in 1970. This particular book -- The Teddy Bears' Picnic was Darling's first published book illustration as Alexandra Day (she went on to conceive and illustrate the Good Dog Carl books).

It's a cool book with wonderful illustrations and a catchy tune to play with it. All you need is a bunch of finger sandwiches, a young person to take to the park with you and a record player...

Next on the list for database....

2010-10-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Not much to say, but here's a few of the items I'm adding as I can this week.

mystery stuff

World War I

Edwin Hoyt is best known for his books about
World War II and Sea stuff.... this is different. Totally different
It's about stamps.

A pamphlet about The Ford Theatre

And a wonderful ethnic / 1950's cookbook put out by the
Slovenian's Women's Union of America. LOTS of desert stuff!

New Day!!!

2010-10-14T11:40:00.001-07:00

New Hair cut, new hair color. I'm stoked.

Now if only I could get a picture of it for my blog.....

Maybe this weekend when the relations come for a visit.

Check back next week and see if it's up.

I've had this sitting on my desk, waiting to be blogged about for three days....

2010-10-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not starting my Christmas / Holiday selling spree early this year....

This particular book just happened to be on the input pile on my desk this last week and I'm a big fan of Sandra Boynton's books.

I have another older title by her right now as well....

Both of these books feature her fun / funny animal characters and her quirky, but easy to enjoy sense of humor.

Sandra Boynton started creating and selling gift cards (by her own admission as a break from waitressing) between years at college in the early 1970's. Originally sold haphazardly to individual stores, etc. Sandra soon took the greeting cards to a trade show in New York and took up with Recycled Paper Greetings.... after that, her illustrations and her penchant for new /gnu spelling became the fad of the 1980's.

If you'd like more info about Sandra and her work, here's her blog address: here

Over the years, I've had a number of her books for children -- all of them have made me stop and read them... sometimes more than once.

No matter what mood I'm in, when I see her illustrations and read her books, I always end up happy.

Maybe you do to.

Enjoy.

Correction of an Ooops!

2010-10-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Two posts ago I said that I hated Jane Eyre..... my bad.

I MEANT to write Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. My memory failed me on this and when I looked up the plot, I got it wrong again.

So, Ooops!

October Newsletter went out today....

2010-10-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

And here it is....

I figured it wouldn't hurt to post it to the blog today seeing as I'm not getting much of anything else done until it's all finished being delivered.

The process for sending out my email newsletter is a bit byzantine... when I put the newsletter together my regular email program (Mozilla Thunderbird) was not able to handle mass mailing without showing all the email addresses (a BIG no-no) and it wouldn't LET me mail out more than a certain number in a given period of time (anti-spam guarding). So I had to go fishing for a program that would.

I know there are on-line options for mass mailing but they all cost on a monthly basis. I wasn't ready, nor do I have that large of a mailing list, so I checked around with the techie / book crowd and ended up with The Bat. It's a very nice email program and does generally all the things I need it to do for mass mailing once a month. Took a bit of figuring but not too much.

The thing is, when I put this together, it / my ISP would only allow me to send 25 emails at a time. SO I broke the list down into groups of 25. I have at least 75 sub-groups now. And, since I haven't had the time or the inclination to check for something more workable, I continue to add new names to the list in groups of 25. (Now that I'm thinking about it though, I might just check and see if the new Thunderbird has this capability. Would save me extra work as Thunderbird is my daily used email program.).

It takes only seconds to click all the options to send the emails, but x75 times, it takes at least an hour (more like an hour and a half as my attention span skips to other interesting surfing things while I'm waiting for it to do it's thing each time I send off a group.

So when I do put out a newsletter, it takes a good chunk of the time I have for that day.   I generally only send the newsletter once a month (I'm sure I mentioned that I don't like to be too pushy with my newsletters, but I would like to send them out twice a month if I could- just because I think twice a month would keep my customers interest up, but not make them cranky and sign off the list).

So -- after all that, here's the newsletter. And please feel free to use the discount to order something from the website (there's a link to my website off to the right side of this blog). Send the newsletter to a friend or colleague.

Enjoy.

Here it is:

Hi:

   October has arrived - fall has arrived...even in California. This
   week we have overcast skies and weather hovering around the
   mid-70's (which for us is actually a bit cool for this time of
   year). Along with the cool weather comes the changing colors of the
   leaves, the beginning of the fall and winter tasks (including
   raking and my favorite...cleaning out gutters). It also brings
   Halloween and the holidays to follow in its wake. This year I
   actually have to come up with a costume for myself because our Cub Scout Pack
   is having a costume contest and den leaders (including me) have to
   dress up as well. Scary thought.

   In other news, the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced this
   morning -- the winner is Peruvian Author Mario Vargas Llosa -- he's
   been a writer for more than forty years, has been a political
   activist and even made a presidential bid in 1990. At least two of
   his books have been made into major motion pictures in the United
   States.

   In honor of his accomplishments, my featured book this month is the
   first book he published in English : The Time of the Hero.

    Llosa, Mario Vargas: THE TIME OF THE HERO 1966. Grove Press. New York. Hardcover.
    1st American Edition/ 1st Edition. F / NF. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition
    and has a Near Fine dust jacket.   The book and its contents are in clean, bright condition.
    The text pages are clean and bright.    Top edge of text block has a bit of very beginning
    ground-in dirt and foxing. The spine ends and corners of the dust jacket have a bit of
    very light bumping.   The bottom spine end of the dust jacket has a very faint waterspot
    (mostly visible from the reverse of the dust jacket). The white dust jacket is clean and
    bright. This is the first novel by Llosa (following a collection of short stories). This
    Grove Press edition is the First English Language edition of the book which was originally
    published as La cuidad y los perros. Translated by Lysander Kemp.
    $75.00

   And since you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Receive a
   30% discount off your total purchase -- just use coupon code :
   OCT10 during checkout to receive your discount.



   Don't forget to check out our list of recently added titles at the
   end of this email.



     Thanks so much!


     Stephanie Howlett-West


RECENTLY ADDED TITLES:

1.) Adams, Douglas and John Lloyd: THE DEEPER MEANING OF LIFF : A Dictionary of Things there aren't any words for yet. 1980. Harmony Books. New York. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Fine. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: Bert Kitchen. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket. $25.00

2.) Archer, Jeffrey: FIRST AMONG EQUALS 1984. Hodder and Stoughton. London, England. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: Charles Griffin. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket. $35.00

3.) Bergquist, N. O.: THE MOON PUZZLE : A Classical Theory Revived Correlating the Origin of the Moon with Many Problems in Natural Science. 1954. Grafisk Forlag. Copenhagen, Denmark. Hardcover. 1st English Language Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Very Good dust jacket.   "the Swedish engineer, N. O. Bergquist, advances a sensational theory based upon the studies of many years and founded upon such good arguments that it is very difficult to reject it. Mr. Bergquist's theory is both entertaining and plausible. He tells of an enormous planetoid, which many millions of years ago grazed the surfaceof the Earth in the same direction as the rotation of the Earth. The tremendous cataclysm that resulted caused among other things the ejecting into space of a large mass of the Earth, leaving a gigantic scar which is now filled with water and called the Pacific." Record: #24240 $25.00

4.) Brown, Michael: SANTA MOUSE 1996. Barnes & Noble. New York. Hardcover. Reprint/ 4th Printing. Near Fine / No Dust Jacket. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Elfrieda De Witt. DESCRIPTION: Children's Book. This book is in Near Fine condition. $12.50

5.) Bryher (pseudonym of Annie Winifred Ellerman): THE FOURTEENTH OF OCTOBER 1952. Pantheon Books. New York. Hardcover. 1st US Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / Very Good+. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket.   "Like a Saxon companion piece to the Bayeux Tapestries, the pages of Bryher's novel discloses the warm and colorful story of Saxon resistance to the Norman invasion of Britain." $30.00

6.) Burgess, Thornton W.: THE ADVENTURES OF SAMMY JAY 1943. Grosset & Dunlap. New york. Hardcover. Reprint/ Very Good+ / Very Good. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: Harrison Cady. Burgess Bedtime Story Books. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ to Near Fine condition and has a Very Good dust jacket.   $20.00

7.) Ciardi, John: THE MONSTER DEN : Or Look What Happened at My House - And to It. 1966. J. B. Lippincott Company. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Very Good+. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: Edward Gorey. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket. $50.00

8.) Cullum, Albert: BLACKBOARD, BLACKBOARD ON THE WALL, WHO IS THE FAIREST ONE OF ALL? 1978. Harlin Quist. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Near Fine. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Albert Cullum. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Near Fine dust jacket. $35.00

9.) Dening, Greg: MR. BLIGH'S BAD LANGUAGE : Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty. 1992. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Near Fine. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Near Fine dust jacket.   "Captain Bligh and the voyage of the Bounty are the starting point fo thisnew study of the famous mutiny in history, literature and film. By juxaposing an account of the mutiny with an analysis of its evolving place in history and culture, Mr. Bligh's Bad Language offers a new interpretation of the mutiny in the context of its historical and cultural representations." $25.00

10.) Druon, Maurice (translated from the French by Humphrey Hare): THE LILY AND THE LION 1961. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good+. The Accursed Kings. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket"In England the young Edward III has come to the throne and establishes his personal power by arresting and executing at Tyburn Roger Mortimer, who was once Regent of the Kingdom and the Queen Mother's lover. In France Philippe VI, the first monarch of the House of Valois, has become king and immediately finds himself involved in the ruthless feud between Robert of Artois and the Countess Mahaut." $75.00

11.) Eccles, Audrey: OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY IN TUDOR AND STUART ENGLAND 1982. Kent State University Press. Kent, OH. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / Very Good+. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket.   "Between sixteenth and eighteenth centuries midwiferly passed from a female mystery, employing traditional medicines and superstitions, to a scientifically-based clinical skill, with both gains and losses to the patient. Some of the psychological satisfaction of the old ways was sacrificed for improved saftey in difficult cases." $30.00

12.) Francis, Dick: SLAY-RIDE 1973. Michael Joseph. London, England. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / Very Good+. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Very Good+ to Near Fine - dust jacket.   $40.00

13.) Hillerman, Tony: THE GREAT TAOS BANK ROBBERY : And Other Indian Country Affairs. 1973. University of New Mexico Press. Albuquerque, NM. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st state. Fine / Very Good. DESCRIPTION: First Edition, First State with all requisite points. The book is in Fine condition and has a Very Good dust jacket.   $100.00

14.) Horgan, Paul: GREAT RIVER: THE RIO GRANDE : In North American History : Two Volume Set including: Volume One: Indians and Spain, and, Volume Two: Mexico and The United States. 1954. Rinehart & Company, Inc.. New york. Hardcover. 1st Trade Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / No Dust Jacket. Illus Type: Maps. DESCRIPTION: This is a two volume set with a paper covered cardboard slipcase. The books are in Fine condition. The slipcase is in Very Good condition.   $50.00

15.) Hunter, Edward: BRAINWASHING : The Story of Men Who Defied It. 1956. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy. New york. Hardcover. Trade Edition/ Fine / Very Good. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Very Good dust jacket.   "Brainwashing is modern witchcraft. This book is an exhaustive and popularly written story of how brainwashing came about and of how it can be beaten. For the first time, details are given of Pavlov's true role and the Reds' use of his work. A leading american psychiatrist, Dr. Leon Freedom, explains the danger of national neuroses, how whole populations are rendered mentally unbalanced by the Reds." $25.00

16.) King, Stephen: MISERY 1987. Viking Press. New york. Hardcover. 1st Trade Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. Illus Type: Cover Art. Illus. by: Neil Stuart . DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket.   $50.00

17.) King, Stephen: PET SEMATARY 1983. Doubleday & Company. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good. Illus Type: Cover Art. Illus. by: Linda Fennimore. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Very Good dust jacket. $75.00

18.) Llosa, Mario Vargas: WHO KILLED PALOMINO MOLERO? 1987. Farrar Straus and Giroux. New York. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Fine. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket. $30.00

19.) Nye, Bill: BILL NYE'S COMIC HISTORY OF THE U.S. 1906. Thompson & Thomas. Chicago, IL. Hardcover. Early printing/ Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: F. Opper. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition. $20.00

20.) Rice, Anne: THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED 1988. Alfred A. Knopf. New York. Hardcover. 1st Trade Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. The Vampire Chronicles. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket.   $85.00

21.) Smith, Wilbur: GOLDEN FOX 1990. Random House. New York. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Fine dust jacket. $35.00

22.) Stiles, Maxwell: FOOTBALL'S FINEST HOUR : The Shrine East-West Game 1925-1950. 1950. Nashunal Publishing Company. Los Angeles, CA. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good-. Illus Type: B&W Photographs. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Very Good- dust jacket. This book covers this history of the Shriner's East-West Football games from their inception in 1925 through 1950. The games feature an all-star cast of collegiate football stars from the East vs the West and has been played continuously since 1925. This book is filled with tid-bits of information regarding the games, the players and also includes numerous pictures of the game and players.    $25.00

23.) Torme, Mel: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RAINBOW WITH JUDY GARLAND ON THE DAWN PATROL 1970. William Morrow & Company. New york. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Near Fine. Illus Type: B&W Photographs. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Fine condition and has a Near Fine dust jacket.   $20.00

24.) Warner, Sylvia Townsend: THE MUSEUM OF CHEATS : Stories. 1947. Viking Press. New york. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / Very Good. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Very Good dust jacket. $35.00

25.) Webster, E. M.: THE MOON MAN : A Biography of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay. 1984. University of California Press. Berkeley, CA. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / Very Good+. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. DESCRIPTION: This book is in Very Good+ condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket.   "This story of an outstandingly strange and interesting man is a triumph of modern biography. Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, born in Russia in 1846, was one of the most extraordinay of all of the nineteenth-century savant-adventurers. A brilliant student of Ernst Haeckel, he embraced the natural sciences at a time when the genius of Darwin was revolutionizing Western cosmology. In his short lifetime he made the whole world his laboratory: sponges in the Red Sea, and the ancestry of sharks; head measurements in New Guinea; Negrito races in Malay jungles; marine life in Sydney Harbour - all these and a hundred other topics and places engaged his curiosity." $35.00

A thought.... and book readers.

2010-10-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

So ....

not so much stuff about books sticking up on my blog lately -- partly that's because I've had NO TIME -- partly because I don't have any interesting books (or at least, interesting enough to me at the moment books ) to post about.

On the other hand, I READ some very interesting blogs (book-wise and otherwise nearly every day).

Chris Lowenstein of Bookhunter's Holiday has a nifty article about some comic dust jackets that she recently picked up: see here.

And just yesterday, Robin McKinley has two posts which caught my fancy. The first was about being pigeon-holed into a particular genre / sub-genre as an author and how that can have interesting repercussions that go on for years: here,

but she also made one of those throw-away statements that just struck me -- since it was about something I have done over the years off and on.

In the above post (regarding being stuck in a certain type of fiction come h#ll or high water), she makes an off-the-cuff statement at the bottom in her footnotes. Here: "and I’m an evil cow with a bad attitude, and I throw more books across the room than I don’t."

For several years when I was very impressionable, I went to catholic school (capitalize catholic? not sure... it's not a proper name). We were told very severely NOT to deface books, mark books, break the spine of books, damage books in any way shape or form. In my mind, that pretty much included throwing them indiscriminately.

Later though, teachers ENCOURAGED students to write in their books (of course, these were the books that the student didn't have to turn back in at the end of the year). I didn't do it. I couldn't. The training had sunk in. I did find myself becoming more liberal about the damage / defacement options -- and had found that I would NOT be struck by lightning if for some reason a book was accidentally injured. (this really is leading somewhere...just slowly).

In high school we were not only encouraged to read (as if I wasn't already reading through classes that I should not have) but required to read a "CLASSIC" of our choice. I honestly don't remember which year it was, but probably junior year. I have NO idea why I picked Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), but it might have been due to the fact that I was a regular viewer of the Carol Burnett Show and at some point, fell on the floor laughing at her famous Tara skit featuring the curtains (and curtain rod -- designed by the fabulous Bob Mackie).

So I read it. I read the WHOLE book (as it was a requirement and had to do a report on it).

I found several things. I loathe (yes, more than one notch above general dislike or hate) I loathe the character of Scarlett O'Hara. Rhett Butler was a self-absorbed nincompoop. Frank whatshisname, her on-again-off-again beau / crutch should have walked away forever. Instead, he was as co-dependent in his behavior as Scarlett was. ( I know I'm putting myself in hot water here because some of these characters are, for people, icons of classic writing,etc. Well, not for me. Sue me.).

The end of that book made me so mad I did something I had never done to a book before. I threw it across the room with a resounding thump, then watched it slide down and lay in a forlorn puddle on the floor. Big book. RESOUNDING thump.

I hated that book. To this day, "I'll think about it tomorrow" is just as likely to have steam coming out my ears now as it was then.

I KNOW that I was young and I am SURE I missed some, if not most of the sub-text going on in the book, but I am not about to try to re-read it now just to make sure.

That was the first book I threw across a room in protest, but it certainly wasn't my last.

In self-defense, I'm not really a thrower. I try not to get myself into such a state that throwing is the only option left, but that book really did it to me.

The other book that made just as deep and abidingly bad impression was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. (Gasp! ). If I hadn't been in a crowded, swaying van on the byways of Belgium, with no lunch in me and no prospect of food forthcoming (and if you know me, not having enough food is a sure way to set me off to begin with), I would have thrown that book as well. That book gave me a headache.
( I was 19 at the time, and again I probably missed contexts, etc. but I was a SciFi reader from way back... I appreciated characters who DID something about dismal situations -- better yet, I had already read Robin McKinley who featured young women / girls in situations that were dire and still managed to not be doormats.)

So the question of the day for readers......

What book did you throw across the room?

I need a day of rest...

2010-10-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

So it's Sunday. The traditional day of rest.

(that all depends on your background of course....but in modern day America it is usually the day where guys kick back on the sofa and watch the perennial sporting event ... which ever one floats your boat.... while the gals get to clean the kitchen in a futile effort to NOT watch whatever sporting event is on).

Me, I was hoping for a day to get some down time.

I could:
Stare at a wall (hopefully, one of the few clean walls in the house.... Number Two Son's finger grime apparently has gone farther afield than I previously imagined).

Read the rest of the book that needs to be finished by TOMORROW.

Eat / drink something soothing (take your pick -- whichever was less work)

Maybe play a game with the boys at some point.

But NO....

again, no day of rest.

Started off the morning with church .... and my newest add-on to the schedule. When the priest asked for some new lay readers / lectors, I stuck up my hand, and put myself on the list. I've done this before. No sweat, just get to church a bit early to read the lesson through so I can practice my biblical name tongue twisters.

But.... turns out, I somehow signed up for Lay Eucharistic Minister which is a WHOLE lot more than reading something out loud.

Today was my first gig. I got through it with some help from the other people up front (more than just the priest up there nowadays) and hopefully it will sink in soon, but man, it was a bit more than I was expecting.

A quick change and Number Two Son and I pulled out the Cub Scout popcorn during coffee hour to sell some for his pack.

And then, this afternoon we have more scout stuff.

And more tomorrow.

And when I got home, I looked around, realized we have TWO WEEKS until my Venerable Mother-in-Law (yeah, I'm starting to run out of stuff from the Charlie Chan books to use for nicknames.... Honoured Husband, Venerable Mother, Number One Son, etc..... I'll have to move on to something else soon...)

Getting back to Mother-In-Law .... she's coming in two weeks time for the annual fall get-together. Which means my house becomes command central. Which, in turn, means that I have to have a CLEAN house.

Remember that lack of weekends that I've been having?

It continues this weekend.

And next weekend.

And the weekend after that... the one where she'll be here?

Yup. Just found out that Soccer try-outs for the winter season start on .... the day of her get-together.

All is not lost however. The try-outs are (miraculously) going to be about three blocks from the house. Only one boy at a time has to go... so I'll be ferrying one over, watching .... then ferrying the next over.... and THEN we'll have get-together time.

This does mean that I LEAVE MY HUSBAND IN CHARGE..... should I repeat that? I don't really want to. Once is bad enough.

And, my family will be all over my kitchen.... without me there.

(Wailing commences)

I may not survive the next three weeks.

I really could have used a day off today.

What a Week!

2010-10-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Technically, it started off last week, so I suppose you could say - What a Fortnight! if you prefer, but I like it the way it is.

It started last Thursday with not being able to get any work done at home (and when I say at home, I generally mean working on the computer at my day job.... book selling, ya know).

Then Friday, Venerable Mother said, don't forget to take your stuff to the church rummage sale. First thing. Do it now!

So I went to the computer and started working -- which was my way of ignoring the situation until I had gotten some badly needed work done......

but....

And there's ALWAYS a but...

Venerable Mother called again. You REALLY need to get down here. Bring the books now. So I finished my bill paying, checked the email and gave in and dragged the twelve boxes of books (you remember that ongoing project to get rid of old, not so great book stock? Well the dregs have to go somewhere and if they weren't bad enough to pitch, then donating them is the way to go. And by the way, these twelve bags / boxes are STILL all from the A's.) down to church.

I thought, "I'll just drop them and RUN."

Which NEVER works. I got there at 11:00AM. I left at 4:50 PM because I had to get Number Two Son to soccer practice.

And that's pretty much how it's gone since then -- I keep thinking I'll sit down and do paperwork / data entry...and something else comes up that is just as important.

Saturday it was two soccer games, rummage sale help, cub scout popcorn selling, and then back to church to pack up the leftovers from the rummage sale, box them and stash them in a LARGE van to be taken to some other place.

Sunday was an all day trip to Columbia with the scouts to the Trout fishing farm. Did I mention that the weather spiked again during this time period and we're back up to 100's each day?

Monday.... I totally forget what happened Monday. I've blocked it out completely (except for the requisite hour and a half stop at Number Two Son's school for math help.)

Tuesday.... same thing.

Wednesday was my yearly physical. Yippee. Took an hour and a half. Met a very nice nurse practitioner who was taking over for my regular doctor for a while. Nice lady. Still don't like the stuff women have to go through for a yearly physical and probably never will. I survived. 'Nuf said.

Yesterday was my job interview. So OF COURSE I stopped off at Number Two Son's school for an hour and a half to help - realized that I had STOPPED watching the clock and nearly had a heart attack racing down the highway (did I mention that the interview was a half an hour away from home?) to make it in time.
And yes, it was 98 degrees in the shade at the time. I was DRESSED UP.... and the air conditioning in my car is non-existant.

You try showing up for a job appointment with a sweaty red face, a dress stuck to your back and your legs (bare) sticking together when you walk. YUCK.

On the good side, I think I might have made it past the first round.

And today.... well, here's hoping that I can get some data entry done today because I'm REALLY behind.

Tomorrow I won't be able to as the soccer stuff / scout stuff starts all over again.

Have I mentioned that my house is a shambles and that cleaning has gotten cursory at best?

Yup. That's my week.

Oh.... can't forget the new pairs of pants from Lands End that arrived the other day. Same pants I've worn forever. I guess I can't pretend that I'm the same size anymore -- my imagination can keep the dream alive, but my body just doesn't want to stuff itself into something too tight. Dang. AND I have to send them back and get replacements -- which means at least a two week turnaround. In the meantime I have to find something to wear that is decent (the reason I finally broke down and ordered pants was because the other pairs had holes so large they were obscene) and that half-way fits. :(

Passwords, passwords, and damned passwords

2010-09-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah, there's my quote for the day.

Just updated my Thunderbird and it asked me for my master password.

My WHAT??????????

So then I have to ask it politely, which ONE, dang you?

Then I have to go through all the passwords in my head and try them all.

Of course, the ones I try WON'T WORK.

Then in desperation, I try my normal password (which, by the way, was the first one I tried....)

And it took. Sigh.

One of those days, huh? Of course, I have LOTS TO DO TODAY. And I've just spent 15 stupid minutes wasted on passwords.

Hopefully the rest of the day will improve from here.

Oh, by the way, I got an email yesterday for a job interview. This is GOOD NEWS. Now all I have to do is look and act like the right person for the job. Keep your fingers crossed.

Do you know how hard it is to get a cat to SIT STILL for a picture?

2010-09-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

FIVE PICTURES....

Just to get this.

Sigh.

Other people's cats sit still for pictures because they LIKE getting their pictures taken.

Mine, well, Izzie here isn't the only cat in the house, but after it took so long to get this sad photo, I gave up for the day.

The thing in her mouth is her ball.

Izzie fetches. But only if you have the Izzie approved type of ball. Has to be soft and fluffy with some sort of puffiness to it. It has to be something you can throw far away.

Then she has to be in the right mood to bring it back.

Don't know if I've mentioned this before but Son Number Two named Izzie -- officially she's Queen Isabelle or Queen Isabella of .... (don't remember what he said about where).

NO one calls her Isabelle. Or even Isabella.

She's Izzie.

She's a tomboy.

She's BIG.

And she's very playful.

So -- there you go. The requisite cat photo.

I'll have to see if I can get pictures of the rest of the gang another time.

Back in the saddle again.... metaphorically speaking

2010-09-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yup, definitely metaphorically speaking, as I am NOWHERE near a horse at this moment and haven't been in a saddle with a horse under it in oh.....15 years at the least.

The Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair is now old news. I did better than expected, which is to say I expected to not be able to make my booth fee out of gross receipts. I was happily surprised that I not only made back my booth fee (so I could pay it....) and that I actually made MORE than that.

HA!

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Unfortunately, since the last two months prior to this book fair have been DISMAL as far as book sales go... well, lets just say a couple of bills got paid from the proceeds of the fair, but it would have been nice if there had been even more sales.

I did take pictures of some of the dealers and their booths.

Chris Lowenstein of Bookhunter's Holiday.

Lovely booth, lovely books, lovely lady.

Some of Chris's stuff.

More of Chris's Stuff.

Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books with a few of his books.

Cool stuff. Always.

Three goofballs-

Wendy Maxwell, wife of Bill Maxwell of Maxwell's Bookmark.

Cool Lady as well - and a great Jazz singer. (she's on the far left)

Next comes Peter Siegel of Bea and Peter Siegel's Books - Cookbooks to DIE FOR!

And Susan of Robert Gavora Fine and Rare Books (sorry Susan, I don't remember if your last name is Gavora or not, so I'll be safe and not sorry later)

Blurry picture. Sorry.

Also notice that I FORGOT to get pictures of my own booth, and of several other booths that I SHOULD have -- but time ran out and my camera battery started to wobble as well. I took the pictures about 10 minutes before opening bell (which didn't actually go off and people were thronging in while dealers were chatting and away from their booths).

More info on the fair to come as I think of it.

Overall, better than expected, at least for me. Others I know... not so great.

I'll get to that later.

Remember that work thing? Well, here's what I'm doing tomorrow and Saturday.

2010-09-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair

Sept 18th -- That's THIS SATURDAY!!!!

Thirty boxes + packed in the car today and I'm nearly ready to hit the road tomorrow. As you've probably guessed, I tend to over-pack (Ya think?). At any rate, I'll take the thirty boxes with me -- whether I stuff all those books onto the shelves is entirely a different matter. But I'll have them if I need them. Tomorrow is set up day, with the book fair on Saturday, bright and early at 10:00.

Personally, I'll be out the door on Saturday morning at 6:30 AM to make it to Sacto with extra time.

I'm bringing a goodly number of new items in all sorts of subjects -- I've got a bunch of new Modern Fiction, some funky Non-Fiction items, some ephemera (found the sheet music the other day, so I'll have some of that too) Most Science Fiction / Fantasy and more (yeah, thirty boxes worth -- here's the math for you ..... thirty boxes of books with approx. 35 books per box (more for the picture books -- which tend to have 60-75) ...
averaging out to 1100 books.

Yeah, I'm over-packing. But hey, it works for me.

As far as sales -- well, I'd love to have LOTS, but in reality, I might have somewhere around 35-40 books sold by the end of the day (and yes, this is a fraction of a percent of what I'll be bringing .... if my calculator is correct, and if I've worked the problem the right way around it comes to .0333 percent of the books I bring).

If, however, one of those books has a somewhat higher price tag, it works for me.

So why, you might ask, do you bring ALL THOSE BOOKS when you might just bring your high end stock and sell one or two?

You try it and see why .... I've said this before and I'm not the first one to say it. Book fairs are like a game of craps... it's entirely up to chance what a customer is going to buy. Sure, you might get J. P. Getty type come past your booth and wave his hand and buy up your entire booth, but more likely you'll get the guy next door who's looking for a $20.00 book that will fill a niche in his collection. Nothing wrong with either end of the spectrum... it just means you have to have VARIETY (price and subject matter).

That's why I tend to go overboard with my boxes of books.

Ce la vie!

Hopefully it will be a good day. We'll see soon.

In the meantime, if you'd like to attend, let me know and I'll email a free pass. If you're not able to or not interested in coming this time, I'll try and have a blog summary about it sometime next week.

See you there!

Another month gone by in a flash.

2010-09-16T14:10:00.000-07:00

You'd think I'd be able to keep track of time better than this -- it's nearly a month since my last blog entry. School has long since started, the soccer games (not just the practices) started last week, even Cub Scouts have started for the year.... and still I can't get my blog updated daily.

Yeah, about that.... well, all of the above have now ADDED ON extra time.

Soccer takes up four nights a week (minimum two hours per day- right at dinner time). Plus all day Saturday.

School.... Son Number Two signed me up as a volunteer (well, to be accurate, I signed myself up, but he bugged the teacher into remembering) and now I'm at the school for an hour+ Monday through Thursday helping with MATH class (if you know me, that's an interesting fit).

And then there's scouts....

Scouts (sigh). I love the Cub Scouts. I love being a den leader. I don't mind volunteering to do extra (Popcorn chairman... sure, sign me up.... and yes, my garage is filled with popcorn for the foreseeable future), but when the Cub Master from last year couldn't continue (for a variety of reasons that don't matter here), well then we had to re-organize. Luckily, I dodged the bullet and didn't end up Cub Master myself -- it was a close shave however. On the good / GREAT side, the Cub Master who has stepped up has already done more in two months than the last one did in an entire year.

However, currently, I'm the senior person .... NO, not the OLDEST... I'm the person who's been there the longest because Son Number One started several years ago and has since moved on to Boy Scouts...now I'm finishing up with Son Number Two (he's a Webelos II and will be graduating to Boy Scouts in February). I'm the only one who remembers what sorts of things the pack has done and generally how we did them.

Not to say there won't be changes. Of course there will, but for the moment, we want to keep continuity going and I get to do extra work to help facilitate this.

Which means that so far, in the past four weeks I've spent no less than 10 hours a week (not including my own den meeting times or prep for my den meetings) working on Cub Scout stuff.... including endless emails, calls, making up and sending out fliers, driving all over town, etc.,etc., etc.,.

I don't mind, but in the mean time, I still have WORK to do -- which has to squeeze into an ever smaller amount of time.

AND THEN--- this weekend is the Sacramento Book Fair!

Don't ask me how clean my house is -- you'll either get a rude answer and a foul gesture, or I'll start to cry. (CAT HAIR IS EVIL INCARNATE!!!)

Yeah, I might see some time off sometime after the month of September, but I have a feeling it's probably not going to happen.

I'm enjoying all of this but.... and this gets back to why the blog has languished....

My time is a bit lacking lately, and the blog suffers because of it.

So that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Now I gotta get back to work.

Some new additions... and did you know there's a Book Fair coming up?

2010-08-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

First off, here are some new additions to the website.

Added today (which means I've been doing data entry again!)

You know - mice must be one of the basic tropes of Children's books.

It amazes me how many different mice books I've come across in the last few years.

Here's another - Sylvester The Mouse with the Musical Ear by Adelaide Holl (illustrations by N. M Bodecker)

In a completely different vein, this book - if you're not a mathematician,

looks like its written in a foreign language.

This book deals with very early theories and practices of artificial intelligence and cybernetics.

Interesting (at least to me), the editor C. A. Muses is a doctor of Philosophy who has written works

that put a rather...esoteric slant on mathematics.

And last, but definitely not least...

The inestimable Alexander Botts - Salesman extraordinaire for the

Earthworm Tractor Company.

If you've never read any of the short stories about Alexander Botts, you're definitely missing something.

And in other news...

The Sacramento Fall Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up September 18th at the Scottish Rite Temple in Sacramento (Duh..)

If you're interested in coming and would like a free pass, let me know.

And in that same vein... the fair is three weeks away.... and of course, I'm NOT ready.

Time to start packing boxes and getting mentally prepared. Yikes!

And the weather report for today....

2010-08-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

I try not to be one of THOSE kind of people who pepper every conversation with inanities such as throw-away comments about the weather (unless I really have nothing in common with the conversee) but I have to put in a little bit here about the recent weather wackies in our area.

As you probably know by now, I'm located in Central California, to be a bit more specific, in the Central Valley of California (which is actually quite a large swath of California, but that's neither here nor there). The thing is, we are technically listed (Geologically speaking / Climate speaking ) as High Desert -- which usually means that the summer time weather is quite predictable .... as in, it's HOT and stays HOT from most of May through most of October. Let me define hot a bit further - 95-115 degrees (F) is the general (I'm not going to get into the technical terminology of mean temp vs whatever else... I don't have the background in it or the inclination to look it up today) -- but for the most part it's sunny, it's dry, there's generally very scant precipitation during this period and it's usually HOT.

Ok, so not every year is a record breaker for heat, which is ok by me.

But this year, our average temperature seems to have dropped by about 12-15 degrees. We had five days with temps over 100 (degrees) in May. Since that time, we've had......none. Oh, we've had some 95's and some 97's, but NO 100+ days.

Then, as if we were jerked back by the shirt collar and tossed into another direction, this week, we're supposed to have 105 to 106 degree days.... So Sunday was 90, Monday was SUPPOSED to be 99, today is SUPPOSED to be 106, tomorrow 100+ and then, jerk again, we're supposed to drop to 70 (as in topping out at 70 degrees) by the weekend.

That's just insane.

Besides, when the whole summer is 95-100+, it's generally easy to be accustomed to the high heat and easier for our bodies to adapt to the occasion jump up to 112 degrees.....

This year, there has been no steady temp and it's bounced around like a rubber ball, giving us NO chance to become acclimatized so this week is a killer (and, I suppose, we'll all have to watch carefully for the older people in the area and for those who don't have cooling of some sort) for our bodies. UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN....

Even our soccer coach who isn't phased by any weather (especially rain and sleet) has canceled practice today - of course, he's added an extra hour onto Thursday's practice to make up for it (when it's supposed to be 80 degrees again).

Weird weather.

Since I"m off the topic of books, here are some of the pictures I've managed to nab in the last week or two.

First up, the rabbit that crossed my path at the middle school during back to school night.

I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking or what was there then I spotted this cutie out of the corner of my eye.

Then I wanted to know whether she / he was a local or just an opportunist...

Ok, so it's blurry -- the rabbit was hopping when I caught this, but there's a smallish hole

just at the corner of the building where the rabbit scurried.

Obviously, a native.

The colony (I'm assuming there is more than one rabbit)

lives right underneath the classrooms.

Talk about adapting to modern living!

And then there's the silly duo...

I don't know if it's apparent from this picture, but the two smiling dudes are

SOAKED.

Son Number Two practices at a local city park and some of the newer parks include

"Water features" which are small areas where water can shoot up out of the ground-- this is

the newest way for Californians to be somewhat cool (during NORMAL summers) and beat the heat

since Swimming Pools are Politically Incorrect lately (and they cost MONEY which cities don't have)

At any rate, the two dudes above dared each other to run through.

You can see the results. One quick dash through turned into

a drenching.

Luckily, soccer gear is water proof.

And that's what it's like around here this week.

And some more just in...

2010-08-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

It finally looks (momentarily) that I'm actually getting some data entered and uploaded to my website.

This, of course, is a good thing.

So in honor of this good thing, here are a few more of the titles just listed:

First up is a look at the Western Americana Illustrator and painter

Charles M. Russell

In the 1940's all the GOOD Baseball players went to war -
but the major leagues still continued to play games...

which meant that they were really reaching for decent players.

Anyone want a one-armed outfielder?

(And yes, as a matter of fact, I did look this one up -
there was a picture of him in the outfield, but how did he bat is the question....hmmmm)

Mitsumasa Anno is one nifty keen artist when it comes to children's books

AND to books without words. This is another wonderfully illustrated title by this very

creative illustrator.

Nicola Bayley's artwork is very detailed, very lush and very exacting --

It's also really cool. Here's her take on Mother Goose.

That's it for pictures for the day. Now it's off to do some work for the scouts. And after that, figure out dinner.... and then soccer practice.

At least today is easy. Tomorrow, I get to figure out how to be in three different, but equally important, places at the exact same time.

Anyone have a cloning machine?

This just in...

2010-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

And now, in honor of some NEW things that have come in and been processed (instead of looking backwards, let's look forward for a bit).

A few pictures of some recently added stock. Just for the fun of it -and to whet your appetite

Here they are:

First American edition of this wonderful book.

An Uncorrected Proof copy -

O.K., this item isn't NEW... I've had it for a few years, but It's one of the

books that I'm in the process of updating and adding new photos.

Signed, limited boxed edition.

Who couldn't love Shrewbettina?

Another Harlin Quist title. Found a small group of them this weekend.

Some new titles, some previously sold titles.

Quite a varied bunch there aren't they?

Yup.

The post below

2010-08-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ha....

The post below is what I currently have showing on my website's home page. I put it up Friday-ish last week. Partly I just wanted people to know that the stock was in the process of being "Refreshed" ... or in other words, I was drop-kicking the laggards to the curb.

I'm still in the process of weeding out the old stuff from the shelves -- and yes, at the rate I'm going, it's going to take at least a year.

I'm currently up to AN (as in Piers Anthony). I've done four shelves so far. Four shelves out of ... let me get my calculator out. 30 (approximate) bookcases... each of them has six shelves (if I remember correctly, I'm not looking at one right at the moment and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and count) so, 30 x 6 = 180 shelves... each shelf holds between 25 to 35 books (depending on the thickness of the books, etc) so.... well, I know that it comes out to 8400 books that WERE on the shelves...still on the shelves until I chuck them.

I know I shouldn't be flip about these no-longer-wanted books. They WILL find new homes. But in the meanwhile, as they sit on my shelves, taking space away from new stock, they have also come to represent other things:

1.) that I bought badly (which also means that I PAID for stuff that never sold...wahhhh)

2.) that the times have definitely changed since I listed these books (remember some of them have been on the shelves more than 15 years -- FIFTEEN YEARS! 15. 15!!! FIFTEEN Flubbing years!)

3.) That my needs, and my customers needs have changed.

4.) That I really could use an assistant.... but paying one is out of the question at the moment as I'm mostly pretending to pay myself.

5.)That more books is not necessarily better. At least for a one person operation, quantity does NOT equate with success. (For YEARS I've been using the 10,000 book quota as a guide to where I wanted to be. No more)

Overall, it's probably a good thing for me to do to "clean house" as it were. It's hard to do though - both mentally and physically, but it needed to be done. I hope that I can continue to plow through the task without getting sidetracked or discouraged, and that, in the end, it will be a good thing overall for my business.

I'd cross my fingers, but then I wouldn't be able to either lift the books, or do the data entry.

Wish me luck!

Back to school...

2010-08-17T10:41:00.001-07:00

The kids are back to school this week, my routine is starting to become a bit more routine again and I've got a lot of work to do to cull through the stacks -- I finally decided to make some changes. Make some cuts and get rid of dead wood as it were. I've chopped about 3000 books out of my stock ... all books that have sat on my shelves taking up valuable space for anywhere from five to fifteen years.

Gone.

Except -- they aren't yet. I cut the books out of my database with one quick snip, but....

the actual removal from the shelves job is going to take me a few weeks (more like months). In the process, I'm updating photos of all the books that will stay with me, and adding new books at the same time. It's a HUGE process to go through, and it's interesting to see what I've got on my shelf, how long it's been there and why it has or has not sold.

Hopefully, visitors to the website will find that it's not stale and old anymore either.

(well, at least somewhat less stale and old anymore).

Most of the books that have gone are the $5.00 paperback Children's picture books. Sorry to say, they were taking up space and just not being sold. I know that it's getting harder to find older, interesting (or cherished) paperback books from the 1960's or so and many of them I will try to keep (generally if they have sold well in the past, I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot by not selling them now), but lots more will have to go.

I AM donating these picture books to a couple of nursery schools in the area so they will go to good homes.

In other news, there's one upcoming book fair in September. It's the Sacramento Fall Antiquarian Book Fair - to be held on Saturday, September 18th, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. If you'd like free passes, let me know.

Hopefully the changes made to the website will be appreciated. If you have questions or comments, feel free to let me know.

And we're back..... in school that is

2010-08-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Today marks the day when my honored husband gets to greet his flock of wildly happy students (yeah, not...). He's the last of the bunch to get back to school - Son Number Two went first last week, then Son Number One started SEVENTH GRADE this Monday and today, the high school where Honored Husband works was back in full swing.

That, of course, means that quiet has started to set in at Bookseller Central. Sort of.

Am I getting a huge amount of work done because it's back to normal schedule?

Well.... possibly, but not yet.

And, it might not ever happen since I added on extra responsibility for Cub Scouts this year, and for Soccer, and the housework never does seem to go away, no matter how hard I close my eyes and wish for it. By the time I get done reading my email, answering stuff, adding bits to the new group on Facebook for our scout pack (which I set up and seem to be administering), emailing scouts and committee members, job hunting online in my spare time, etc., etc., etc., about two hours seem to have flown by. I'm going to try very hard to cut this down by at least half, but you all know how that goes.

But I am getting book stuff done now, which is much better than most of July. August, well, part of August was productive (so far), but not all.

And that's the way it's going.

As for the after school schedule.... yeah, no work done any night of the work week, and most likely none during the weekend either.

We have two scout meetings on Monday (cub, for which I'm den leader) and Boy (usually lasts 2 hours -- ending at 8:30 or 9:00 PM)

Tues - soccer
Wed - soccer
Thurs- soccer
Fri - soccer
Saturdays - Soccer games starting in Sept.
Sunday... is NOT a day off.

And that's my week.

As for fun book stuff lately.

Well, there's this interesting bound group of newsletters I recently got in stock that I haven't been able to do much about yet -- it's from the late 1930's early 1940's and is from a Bird watching / ornithological group in West Virginia. The entries are quite intriguing and I'd love to load this item to my website as soon as possible, but until I get a bit more research done, it sits on the edge of my desk, staring at me and calling out to me.

But I CAN show you another cool one that I recently listed on the website:

Not much to look at from here is is...

Here's the title for you:

ANNUAL OF THE UNIVERSAL MEDICAL SCIENCES A YEARLY REPORT OF THE PROGRESS OF THE GENERAL SANITARY SCIENCES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD VOLUME II

And the title page, just in case you're interested.

But then it gets a bit more, shall we say...visual

Like this.

There are a series of engravings and seven either one or two page chromo-lithographs such as the one you see above. Most of the lithos deal with sexually transmitted diseases (why the editors would pick color pictures of this instead of say... surgery of the brain and and nerves or surgical diseases or gun-shot wounds (all sections in the book) I just don't know.

However, the plates are really cool to look at in person (icky, but cool).

Neat, no?

Dist-o-What?

2010-07-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

Before the age of GPS,

or handheld calculators,

or cell phones--

there was the

Dist-O-Map.

If you were taking a trip (car, plane, bus, it didn't really matter)

and you wanted to know exactly how many miles it would be to get from one place to another,

you could grab your large table map, get out your compass (the MATH kind) and do some calculations

to come up with an idea how many miles and how long it might take.

Enter the Dist-O-Map.

Easy to use. Quick

Almost Google like in its simplicity.

Pick a city nearest to you on the map, pick your destination, set up the movable map to the correct arrow positions, and Bob's your Uncle! You've got your info.

Pretty darned useful items, these.

Ah, the days before technology...

Chop Suey anyone?

2010-07-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while (hopefully more often as time continues), I find some funky ephemeral items.

Last week, I was in one of my usual haunts - not finding ANYTHING worth looking at, book wise, when I accidentally flipped open a 1960's cookbook. Tucked inside was this little pamphlet.

Dated 1929, it's from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and is promoting Pork.

There's facts about Pork, followed by 13 recipes (including the infamous Chop Suey - which, unfortumately, was NOT the page I put in my camera).

It's got a bit of wear and has some tearing to the spine ends, but it's neat, all the same.

And not too many copies around still.

As for the Chop Suey, there's much debate about when it was invented, where it was invented and how it came about, but in the 1920's it was all the rage- as were things Chinese, etc.

Cool stuff.

I Guess a Month off isn't too bad...

2010-07-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

Quick note here to say -- WOW. I knew I was behind on the blog, but a WHOLE month?

There were plenty of reasons (which I won't get into) but I'm hoping to be back in action on a regular basis now, especially since the rest of the family goes back to school / class starting in staggered fashion next week.

I have had a strange, interesting and quite humbling summer. I'm hoping that fall (even though fall technically doesn't start until late September) turns things around.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

THE WORLD CUP MURDERS...

2010-06-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the books I'm highlighting on my website (you know, the UPDATED website) this week.

I figured it was appropriate to the season.

You know -- WORLD CUP FOOTBALL -- which is currently just about to start the second round tomorrow? (PS: US has a match against Ghana tomorrow at 11:00AM PST) Be there or Be Square!

here's the full listing for you:

Pele (with Herbert Resnicow): THE WORLD CUP MURDERS 1988. Wynwood Press. New york. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. F / NF. DESCRIPTION: The book and its contents are in clean, bright condition. Green paper covered boards have a black cloth spine with gilt lettering. The text pages are clean and bright. The endpapers are a solid green color. The dust jacket is crisp and clean with just a hint of wear to the top spine end and some beginning toning to the dust jacket flap edges. " It's World Cup time - the final competition for the hardest-fought title in sports. In the stands soccer fans from around the world have come to cheer on their teams. Emotions will run high; in an atmosphere electrified by national pride and politics, riots may erupt over a disputed or prejudicial call by a referee." $25.00

Enjoy.

GO USA!

Just Updated the Website (finally)...

2010-06-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

I keep trying at the beginning of every year to make a resolution to update my website on a WEEKLY basis.

Now, if I were being PAID to do so, the ((^*(*^ thing would get done EVERY WEEK.

But since I don't, it tends to take a back seat to other, more important things.

It shouldn't.

I should be more faithful about updating the Website, the same way I should be more diligent to update my blog daily and to post on Facebook regularly -- as part of my sterling, razor-sharp business PLAN which I not only know inside out, but FOLLOW so as to be the Antiquarian Book World's Business MOGUL! (I HEAR you chortling in the background -- and yes I am being a tiny bit facetious).

I would LIKE to be the razor-sharp business person but life seems to get in the way, and in all honesty, it's hard to remember razor-sharp business practices on a daily basis.

So my website doesn't get updated daily, nor does the blog, nor facebook.

Today, though I did update a few things. I've updated my website home page, I actually got a post on Facebook (ok, not the most scintillating post, but SOMETHING) and I'm in the process of sending out a newsletter. Pretty good work for me in one day.

All in the name of SELF-PROMOTION - something I'm bad at.

Self-Promotion is something I need to work on more often and do much better with- otherwise, who will care about my fuddy-duddy little website / book business ... which in turn leads to lack of sales.

I do care deeply about lack of sales.

So, more SELF-PROMOTION (tion, tion, tion.... echo, echo, echo).

If anyone has any Self-Promotion ideas, feel free to comment. I'd love to hear them.

And, for that matter, check out the website too.

New Bike... first spill

2010-06-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I was hoping this wouldn't happen.

But, you know, being on a decently nice bike for the first time in (mumble, mumble, mumble) years I knew I was taking chances.

No, I was NOT riding my bike with no hands when it happened.

No, I won't produce icky photos (though I could because they don't bother me, but in deference to those of you out there with squeamish sensibilities).

It was my own danged fault too. I was on the homestretch when I decided to go up onto the sidewalk and hit the curb edge at the entirely wrong angle. Stupid, easily avoided mistake.

Got one knee badly scraped and banged. Got the inside of the other knee (well, don't know the technical term for it, but just under the knee to the right side of the lower leg) and hit my varicose veins head on so a nice thump there (for me, that's sort of the norm -- the varicose veins in my legs take a regular beating during soccer season). No arm or hand damage, nor head... BUT I did ruin a pair of pants in the process which really bums me. I might just repair the tear, stick some embroidered flowers on top and pretend it's supposed to look that way.

So, in the end, I learned that when someone says don't worry, you'll remember how to do______________ (take your pick here ) it's like riding a bicycle....

THEY'RE WRONG!

This is not, however, going to stop me from riding. I just have to be MORE CAREFUL in future.

(And yes, I was wearing my helmet - my kids won't allow me outside without it on... well, when I'm riding my bike or the scooter at least).

Rental Cats and Kittens

2010-06-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

My mother has worked with feline rescue groups for years. For a long time, I thought the reason we always had multiple cats in our house was because I was a complete pushover for stray cats and never could say no. Well, it's taken me more years than I should admit to realize that my mother is more to blame for the furry menagerie than I am (though I have to admit that the last furry rescue who ended up staying with us really was my fault - sigh).

So our next door neighbors have known about my mom's rescue thing for a number of years -- about two and a half months ago, one of these neighbors comes banging on the front door in the middle of a downpour. My mom is, naturally away doing "STUFF". I answer the door even though I really am in the middle of data entry and want to pretend I'm not home for visitors. At the door I find our neighbor, carrying a large, wet blanket -- out of which a pair of frantic eyes are flashing. "Here" says the neighbor. "Out cat just had a kitten. Outside. In the rain. And now she's yowling. You need to take her." (ok, long story with these neighbors and the number of kittens / cats that keep popping up in and around their property -- but feeding is sporadic, neutering is too expensive, and after they outlive their cute factor, are generally disregarded and left to fend for themselves). "Oh, and the kitten's umbilical cord is still attached".

Me -- I just stand there staring at her for a moment, thinking hard. We've seen the cat around for the last couple of months. We know there's something wrong with her nose (which is easily visible, even from the depths of the sopping blanket) but NO ONE knew she was pregnant (first pregnancy for the cat and only one kitten, which, in it's own way must have been a blessing).

So after a moment of standing there, I do what I know I have to do -- and since I've done cat stuff with and around my mom for donkey's years, it's not hard to deal with. Grab the cat, the sopping blanket, the mewping kitten, slam the door and head for the garage where we have a cat carrier (just in case, you know). I throw the cats and a clean towel in the carrier, hustle the whole thing into a bathroom, find the space heater and stick that in too, grab some food and slam the door to the bathroom, wishing that when I open it again, the whole thing will disappear. (Now a caveat here - I'm not a cat hater by any means. I love cats, but we're overwhelmed with cats lately -- four distinctly individual cats inside the house to feed and care for and we don't NEED any more to deal with).

Even though I was half sure that the mom and baby wouldn't make it the day (they really looked pathetic when I first saw them) they do survive. So now, it's figure out what to do with them time.

So time passes and the cat situation moves forward. Mom cat's nose problem is similar to a cleft palate and un-fixable. She can't eat well, gets infections in the nose and generally doesn't do well. Unfortunately, mom cat had to be put down because there was nothing to be done for her.

As for baby Scooter : Both mom and baby cat are all white cats -- neither is an albino, BUT we find out when baby scooter doesn't even blink when confronted by the menacingly growly vacuum that she's deaf as a post.
What do you do with a deaf cat?

Think about this for a moment. You can't call her so she CAN'T go outside at all -- she'd be run over by the car before she could blink, or chased and eaten by a dog without notice, and she wouldn't come in for dinner... couldn't hear the dinnertime call. So you have to find someone who could deal with a physically handicapped animal.

Not to seem mean, but we already had enough cats and one more would make the pack we had all antsy anyway. So we were trying to find placement for her, not really hoping for much and knowing that in the end, if we didn't find someone who had the right qualifications, baby Scooter might end up euthanized also.

Now here comes the miraculous part -- I suggested that we notify the guy who does the local interest column in the newspaper -- you know, heart wrenching story about deaf cat.... sob, sob...

Well, my mom found a better answer (and heaven only knows how this came about). She found a DEAF person (who already had several cats) who wanted to take on the responsibility of a deaf cat. Perfect!

Of all the people out there who would know how to deal with this kitten, this was the best.

So now, after a wet, bedraggled and almost completely doomed beginning, a little tough kitten has found the perfect home for her.

The next time the door bell rings and some one is standing out on our doorstep with a cat, though.... all bets are off.

End of June update...

2010-06-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted a blog, for which there are a multitude of reasons (end of school year, start of camping / scout stuff season, keeping up with vacationing boys, etc). But also, I've not been posting lately because I've had some other things I needed to do.

What I'm finding about the blog-o-sphere is that there are some thing I find easy to put out on the internet, and then there are some things that I don't find easy. Or don't feel I should post for all to see.

During the last two weeks (and actually, the last three months) there have been a lot of times where pouring personal details out on the net was just not something I was willing to do. My answer to this has been to just not post. Maybe it would have been better for me to post -- to write something (and then, most likely, erase the original post and re-write something cheerful and upbeat).

Of course, with all five family (not including the cats and rental cats, and kittens and furry animals of all sorts) members home ALL DAY, it's hard to get a moment to think, much less come up with something to write.

So you'll have to excuse this time of summer vacation (which lasts until August 2) for irregular postings. Hopefully I'll get back to regular posts when school goes back into session.

However, if I get the job for which I interviewed Tuesday, all bets are off until sometime around the end of September.

Enjoy your summer break.

Lookee what I Got!

2010-06-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

My sister is a very generous person. Last month she emailed me to ask if there was anything I wanted from a list she had been given ... It was a tenth anniversary present from the company she works for... but she couldn't find anything she needed or even cared to add to the stuff at her house. Same for her husband, so... since she didn't want it to go to waste, she sent the list to me -- an early birthday present list as it were.

This (see the shiny new bike above) is what I ended up ordering.

It arrived two weeks ago (and yes, these pictures were in my phone for over a week before I finally got them out).

I love it. I haven't had a bike in years and have wanted one for a while so I could go riding with the boys.

So far, only Number Two Son has taken me up on the offer -- as long as I was willing to play basketball as a side trip to the ride. I agreed.

It's FUN!

And, the best part is I've only got one self-inflicted wound from the bike so far. NO wipe-outs!

My sister tried to order it in HOT PINK so as to keep the very masculine boys away from it...

Unfortunately, it's not Hot Pink enough.

Number One Son took it out for a spin the moment we brought it home.

AND

he changed the gears on me.

(As if I could figure out what the gears really do anyway - I've set them so it feels comfortable, after that, I just peddle).

I've given him a lecture about using his own bike. I think he's pretending not to have heard it.

Even so, I'm going to try and get some baskets for the back end -- then I can ride to the Post Office (which is just about half a mile from my house) to drop off packages, and then to the grocery store for small trips.

THANKS SIS!

The Ebay Thing continues....

2010-06-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I re-entered the Ebay marketplace as a seller. So far, no spectacular success.
In fact, so far, no success at all. I did learn from a comment to add extra pictures. I've also added a Best OFFER option button for those who might be tempted.

So far.... nothing.

Of course, it's not much of a trial with only five listings, so I'm continuing the effort and trying different material.

I seem to have the patience to list only one or two items at a time, which works out OK as long as I'm able to do it on a daily basis, but June so far, hasn't been a month where I can list daily. In fact, last week was another one of THOSE weeks where listing took second place to kid stuff (and this week isn't much better as it's the last week of school for Number Two Son).

I did see that I had people look at every singe one of my listings on Ebay, which is nice (though I can't tell if it's ME looking at items or real buyer type people). Ebay is it's own little world. I was familiar with it (some) back in the 1990's but now, it's a totally different ballgame, just as regular bookselling is a different ballgame. It's going to take time, patience and some sideways thinking to get the ball (since it's a ball game) rolling again.

For now it's waiting, watching and learning -- and adding more books to my listings on Ebay.

Since I'm on the cook book kick...

2010-06-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I ended up at one of those - ESTATE SALES!!!! Antiques!!! Come and SEE!!!

type things. You know, the ads in the paper where the more exclamation points, the more you think you should run in the other direction? Well, yes, but ... I got one of those feelings about this one that really, no matter what the print said, I needed to check it out. An this little gem is one of the things (I found a stack of fun, though not stellar, stuff) I found.

dated to the 1920's (I can't pin it down exactly, but somewhere in the 1920's range) one of the advertising gimmicks from Ghirardelli Chocolate Company out of San Francisco, CA. was this little envelope filled with sixteen different recipes for housewives which used (of course) Ghirardelli chocolate.

Note that there's no zip code (not introduced until the 1960's).

This wee little envelope is a bit fragile and has a couple of tears , but even so, it's just so darned cute... (you can hear the awwwwhhh sound from here can't you?)

Included inside this envelope are 16 small recipes cards. The recipes are on one side of the page, the other side has a pithy statement from Ghirardelli's (since, as you know, this IS advertising).

see - recipes... YUM..

And Advertising...

I haven't had a chance to try out any of these recipes yet, but they all look very appetizing -- here's the Chocolate Ice Box Cookies just to make things even yummier:

Chocolate Ice Box Cookies:

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups white sugar

8 Tbs Ghirardelli Ground Chocolate

1 egg

2 Tbs boiling water

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar. Add well-beaten egg, melted chocolate and milk. Then add flour, salt and baking powder sifted together. Add vanilla. Shape into roll 2 inches in diameter and place in refrigerator 6 hours. Slice thin, bake at 375 degrees F. for 12 minutes.

If anyone tries this, let me know how it turns out. Sounds delicious!

A Recipe for Chris...

2010-06-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on Facebook I posted a note that I had just finished making toffee for the first time in oh.... fifteen years? Well, it actually came out right and tasted good too (these things are, after all mutually exclusive). One of my Book dealer friends on Facebook asked for the recipe.

So I got to thinking ...

The recipe itself is easy. (I'll get to that in a moment). The cook book for it, however, has a story behind it.

This cookbook is a little stapled wrap cookbook that came with the first ever microwave oven I ever used.

Vintage 1979. It was brand new, from a local appliance store and my mom broke down and spent real money on it (not THE most expensive brand at the time, mind you, as we were poor, but not the bottom of the barrel brand either). It had a dial to twist to enter how many minutes you wanted to cook. It had -- and this was the expensive part at that time - a turntable bottom (glass thingy which probably has a name) so you didn't have to open the oven up and turn your food around every two minutes.

I have no idea how much it cost. But with the price of the oven came CLASSES.

My mom and I tripped down to this store in the evening once a week for about six weeks to learn how to use the microwave. And with the class came this cook book. (I was meaning to grab a photo of it, but today was one of those hectic end of school days).

This cook book is one I would never part with. It's stained, it's folded ever which way. It is still completely stapled together, which is a plus, and there are probably twenty or so recipes in the book. Me, I keep it for three (possibly four if I looked through) recipes.

Toffee

Peanut Brittle

and Broccoli Beef

I have a drawer full of other cook books that get used just about the same amount -- meaning there's one or two, or maybe even five recipes that I might use out of the book. But they are DARNED good recipes. Except, that is, for my 1963 Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. (I'll leave that book for another day. Couldn't live without it).

So several weeks ago, I got an urge to have some toffee. I found the cookbook and checked the list of ingredients. I had all of them except the chocolate chips (well, and the ground almonds, but they weren't a necessary part of the recipe for me). Couldn't make it then, so I threw it up on top of the bread maker in the kitchen and didn't think about it again until yesterday, when, in a fit of cleaning I tossed the stuff on top of the bread maker back in the drawer. Except this little cookbook.

I looked over at Honored Husband and said, want some toffee?

He gave me one of those looks.

Then said, WHAT?

Which, I finally realized meant that in all the years we were married, I never MADE this toffee for him.

He walked away and thought no more about it.

I, on the other hand, pulled out the meager list of ingredients and got to work.

So here's the deal -- the recipe is EASY.

1/2 cup ground almonds (to put on top, if you desire... I didn't have any & Honored Husband can't eat them so I left them off)

1 cup (approximately) chocolate chips

1 cup butter (must be REAL butter to work)

1 box brown sugar (dark or light doesn't seem to matter)

Melt the butter in the Microwave slowly so it doesn't burn

Add the sugar and mix well.

In the recipe, it says to run the microwave for 9 minutes, stopping every three minutes to stir -- cook until the mixture reaches the hard crack stage, then empty onto a greased / buttered cookie sheet. Sprinkle the choc. chips on top, let them melt a bit then spread evenly over the toffee. Sprinkle all of this with the almonds. BE CAREFUL -- MIXTURE IS VERY HOT (as if you didn't know )

Easy.

First thing to note -- microwaves are more powerful now. I only put the mixture in for 5 minutes and it was ready. Personally, I think you can use as many or few choc. chips as you want on top. With or without almonds, I don't care.

That's it.

Oh, and since it was an experiment, I went for half a recipe. Which, if your interested, is 1/ 2 cup butter and 2 cups sugar (figuring out the sugar part took longer than anything else... who's got a box of sugar around so I can check... darn, it's by pounds, not cups... math.... math... throw sugar in with a practiced eye).

The Peanut Brittle is just as good. I don't make it anymore because I would eat the entire batch ....and that's NOT good.

The Broccoli Beef is a household staple, but I've definitely modified the recipe -- don't even look at the recipe any longer so may not be anywhere near what's on the printed page.

And as for the microwave from 1979 --- it lasted until 2002. GREAT machine. Simple, yes, but got the job done. We replaced it in 2002 with something a bit more fancy. It broke last month. And the man at the appliance store said that nowadays, they are set to last 3-5 years. THAT'S ALL!

And no lessons were offered with the new one either.

Research Done... for now

2010-06-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've finally gotten as much info on this book as I'm ever going to get (barring a dust jacket mysteriously appearing out of the sky). It's done.

Now I have to catalogue it. Then life will get back to normal again. (until the next time I get lost in the details).

I want to thank everyone who helped me finally figure out what I have.

The people at the Shel Silverstein website were awesome.

As was Christy Hicks at the Arne Nixon Center at Calif State University at Fresno (did you know there was a special collection at Fresno State of picture books? FRESNO! And today I found out that Fresno has the third largest library in the Cal. State system .... FRESNO! )

AND

a whole boatload of people on the Biblio newsgroup who volunteered bits of information.

I'm hoping I won't be bothering them all again soon.

PS: in the end, I can notate this book as a first printing, but there's no way to designate it as a first printing without the dust jacket. And I was correct that people were generally mistaking later reprint copies (which are in lightish brown full cloth bindings with gilt lettering) as first editions.

The book will go up on my website as soon as I get a chance.

June Newsletter

2010-06-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

So, I got to thinking ... since I send out a newsletter monthly, why not post it here as well?

Seemed like a good idea so I'm going to try to remember to post it here monthly as well.

I wish I could make my newsletters as fun and entertaining as Forrest Proper (yes, that is his name) at Joslin Hall Rare books (here's his blog for you -- for the newsletter, I'll have to check and find one to show you what I mean if you don't already get it yourself). He has elves, you see. And his elves are infamous for their ideas that somehow go amazingly, badly awry. I haven't asked Forrest yet, but I have a feeling he has a background in math and physics because the troubles the elves get into with machinery and fire.... oh my!

At any rate, I haven't been able to settle into one style or another regarding my newsletter. Sometimes I think I've got a style, but by the next month, I've lost it. At least here on the blog I THINK I've worked out how I want it to sound (if I'm wrong, let me know, pronto).

Wait -- I just found one of his newsletters. I probably shouldn't link to it before I put my own newsletter up, but here goes: Joslin Hall Fine Books New Spring Catalog .

Now, here's my pitiful entry entitled: It's June already...what will you be doing this month?
(PS: * switch up the list at the end to target certain categories - Youth / Modern Fiction / Science Fiction - but otherwise the newsletter is the same)

Hi:

       Just for fun I checked out the list of events that happen in
       June. Everyone knows about Father's Day (June 20th this year),
       but what about Donut Day? (First Friday in June - celebrating
       the Salvation Army's Donut Dollies who gave donuts to the
       troops in World War I ... which gave rise to the name
       Doughboys).

       There are others though. Here are a few of the fun ones:

         * National Iced Tea Day (June 10th)

         * King Kamehameha Day (June 11th)

         * World Naturist Day (A more PC name for Nudist, this is
           celebrated on June 4th - I plan NOT to celebrate this)

         * Flag Day (June 14th - for the United States)

         * Morticians Day (June 16th - again, not so interested in this
           celebration...and what does one DO on Mortician's Day anyway?)

         * Juneteenth (June 19th - Yet another day specific to the US,
           celebrating the abolition of Slavery)

         And of course, who can forget Midsummer's Eve! (Variable days
         in June depending on which country you're from, but around the
         third Friday in June)

        Me, I plan to make sure I enjoy every day of the lovely month
        of June to its fullest.

        For those of you who do get a vacation away from the daily
        grind, the book of the month is dedicated to you:

        HAWAII PAST AND PRESENT by William R. Castle, Jr.:

         Castle Jr., William R.: HAWAII PAST & PRESENT 1917. Dodd, Mead and Company. New York.
         Hardcover. Revised and Enlarged Edition / NF / NONE. Illus Type: B&W Photographs.
         This edition is the revised and Enlarged edition of 1917 (following the 1913 original
         edition).Illustrated throughout with sixteen black and white photographic
         plates and a full-color map of the islands. Contents include: The Hawaiian People,
         History to 1898, Hawaii as a Territory, Commerce and Industry, The Army and Navy
         in Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and Maui, Hawaii, The Volcanoes, Island
         Life, and an appendix and index.   "This book has a double purpose: to tell those
         who stay at home something about Hawaii, the youngest of American Territories; and
         to help those who are going there to plan their trip intelligently. Baedeker has
         not yet extended his labours to the Pacific Islands, and no guidebook is available
         for the traveller. Many books have been written about special phases of Hawaii - its
         history, its present conditions, and its natural beauty. This book, therefore, falls
         naturally into two divisions, the first part explanatory, the second, as well as
         may be, descriptive."   $75.00

         And, if you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Take 40%
         off your purchase at my website -- Use coupon code: JUNEDAY
         during checkout to receive the discount. The coupon is good
         through June 15th.

         Thanks so much!


         Stephanie Howlett-West


A SHORT LIST OF NEWLY LISTED TITLES:



1.) Adams, Richard : THE IRON WOLF : and Other Stories. 1980. Allen Lane. London, England. Hardcover. 1st British Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Near Fine. $30.00

2.) Babbitt, Natalie: NELLIE : A Cat on Her Own. 1989. Farrar Straus & Giroux (J) . New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good+. $18.50

3.) Babbitt, Samuel F. (Illustrated by Natalie Babbitt) : THE FORTY-NINTH MAGICIAN 1966. Pantheon Books. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket The author and illustrators first book. $35.00

4.) Calhoun, Mary: MISS MINERVA AND WILLIAM GREEN HILL 1930. Reilly & Lee. Chicago, IL. Hardcover. 40th Printing. Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket. $25.00

5.) Hawksley, Enid Dickens (compiled by): CHARLES DICKENS BIRTHDAY BOOK 1948. Faber and Faber Limited. London, England. Hardcover. Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket. $25.00

6.) Herve, Alain: ANIMAL- MAN 1976. Harlin Quist. New York / Switzerland. Paperback. 1st Paperback Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / No Dust Jacket. $15.00

7.) Howard, Max: PEOPLE PAPERS 1974. Harlin Quist. New York / Switzerland. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Very Good+. $30.00

8.) Hughes, Richard: GERTRUDE'S CHILD 1974. Harlin Quist. New York. Hardcover. New Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Near Fine. $25.00

9.) Ionesco, Eugene (Translated by Calvin K. Towle): STORY NUMBER 1 : For Children under Three Years of Age. 1978. Harlin Quist. New york. Hardcover. New Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Near Fine. $35.00

10.) La Grotta, J. M. and August Lenox (illustrated by): M-G-M'S LASSIE: RESCUE IN THE STORM 1951. Whitman Publishing Company. Racine, WI. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket. $12.50

11.) Long, Melinda: HOW I BECAME A PIRATE 2003. Harcourt, Inc.. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / No Dust Jacket. $10.00

12.) Massie, Diane Redfield: MAGIC JIM 1967. Parents' Magazine Press. New york. Hardcover. Trade Edition/ Very Good / No Dust Jacket. $18.50

13.) Raschka, Chris: CHARLIE PARKER PLAYED BE BOP 1992. Orchard Books. 1992. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Chris Raschka. $20.00

14.) Ripkens, Martin and Hans Stempel: ANDROMEDAR SR1 1971. Harlin Quist. New York. Hardcover. 1st American Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / Very Good+. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Heinz Edelmann. Harlin Quist. A Here and There Book. $45.00

15.) Silverstein, Shel: WHO WANTS A CHEAP RHINOCEROS? 1983. Macmillan Publishing Co. , Inc.. New York. Hardcover. Trade Edition/ Near Fine / Very Good+. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: Shel Silverstein. $12.50

16.) Spirin, Gennady (Illustrated by) : LITTLE MERMAIDS AND UGLY DUCKLINGS : Favorite Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. 2001. Chronicle Books. San Francisco, CA. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Fine. $30.00

17.) Stevenson, James: DON'T YOU KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON? 1992. Greenwillow Books. New York. Hardcover. 7th Printing. Fine / Fine. $10.00

18.) Stevenson, Robert Louis (Stitchery by Virginia Tiffany) : SELECTIONS FROM A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES 1974. Golden Press. Racine, WI. Hardcover. 7th Printing. Very Good+ / No Dust Jacket. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Virginia Tiffany. A Golden Book . $25.00

19.) Temple, Shirley: SHIRLEY TEMPLE'S FAIRYLAND : Stories from her Television Program. 1958. Random House. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Near Fine / No Dust Jacket. $25.00

20.) Vavra, Robert: THE LOVE OF TIGER FLOWER 1980. William Morrow & Company. New York. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Fine / Near Fine. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Fleur Cowles. $40.00

21.) Walrath, Jane Dwyer: TOBY THE ROCK HOUND 1979. Whitman Books / Western Publishing Company, Inc.. Racine, WI. Hardcover. 1st Edition/ 1st Printing. Very Good / No Dust Jacket. Illus Type: Color Illustrations. Illus. by: Roger Bradfield (Jolly Roger Bradfield). Tell-A-Tale. $30.00

22.) Wells, Carolyn: TWO LITTLE WOMEN ON A HOLIDAY 1917. Grosset & Dunlap. New York. Hardcover. Reprint/ Very Good- / Very Good+. Illus Type: B&W Illustrations. Illus. by: E. C. Caswell. Two Little Women Series. $15.00

Sort of.... well, lame is what I'd call it.   I'm still thinking about ways to jazz it up. If you happen to come up with one, let me know.

At any rate, do notice the 40% discount coupon listed -- it's good until June 15th.

And the Research Goes on...

2010-06-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

So we're now in day --- what? -- five of the research project for one stinkin' book?

Today, a dose of reality hit. A dealer friend who helped look up yet another site to see if there was any information regarding this title mentioned that MAYBE I should just let it go, stick a price on it and fuggeddaboudit (IE: LET IT GO!)

She's most likely right.

What I'm LOOKING for though, is specific info on whether it is possible to identify this book as a first printing without having access to the dust jacket. Next up, I'll have to try the publisher I guess. Or take a trip to the Library of Congress to actually hold the book in my hand (if that's even possible).

Otherwise, I put it down as a probable first edition / first printing, slap a price on it and see if anyone bites.

Maybe I will. And then I'll let you know what happens in the end.

I've got a couple of ephemeral items that are tricky in this same way (about one of which I'd really like to do some detailed research - but first I'll need to take upper level physics classes to understand exactly what's being discussed).

In other news, life in the used book world really sort of sucks currently -- no sales. No pay check coming in because of sales, and it's summer time. For fifteen years my husband has been able to work summer school to help earn some much needed extra money -- this year, summer school was one of the things that got cut just as quickly as every other program in California. So, he's home moping, I'm home hoping he'll find something to do to keep him occupied, and we're both not really happy with the finances. Doesn't make for a wonderful summertime.

I am continuing the on-going (and probably Sisyphusian) task of culling books that are fifteen or more years old, cleaning and reworking the shelves and generally trying to make heads or tales of what I have and why I still have it in stock. It's a work in process. It will probably continue forever and it's a rather sad project -- seeing what stuff HASN'T sold -- but it is necessary.

Research!

2010-05-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

Yup.

One of the things I like best about some of the interesting books is doing the research on them.

But then -- if you have to spend HOURS doing it and still get nowhere.... well, that's slightly different.

Today was one of the latter days.

Here's the front cover of the book on which I spent my precious time :

Uncle Shelby's A Giraffe and a Half

Shel Silverstein

Not really special to look at is it?

But --- this could be a 1st edition.

Could being the operative word here. My references list this book. However, the only way to truly identify a first edition according to these references, is by the price on the dust jacket. WHICH I DON'T HAVE (darn it, it would have quadrupled the price, you know).

At any rate, what the references left out is the binding style for the first edition....

So far, I've found several cover illustrations, at least two binding styles, and NO ONE who seems to actually OWN a copy of the first edition.

Small print run, I'm thinking. Though not his first published book, this title is one of the early titles - it's from 1964.

And, as far as I can tell (and you certainly can email or comment if I'm wrong) there's NO bibliography of Shel Silverstein material. WHY NOT, I ask? He's a genius, he is. And beloved around the world by parents and children. So why no bibliography?

Maybe I'll have to put one together. (Yeah.... along with the one on C. J. Cherryh that I started back in 1988).

Now, since I've seen other early titles by Silverstein, and because I emailed the Shel Silverstein website and asked the family ,who gave me a partial answer, (I'm waiting for a more comprehensive answer to come forthwith), I personally think that this is, indeed a First printing of the First edition.

However, since I can't verify this yet, I'll have to hold off selling the book until I've done more RESEARCH.

Sigh.

Oh, and so far, I haven't found any prices on this book yet.

Hmmmm....

More about the Victoriana ...

2010-05-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE AS SEEN WITH CAMERA AND PENCIL Embracing Perfect Photographic and Descriptive Representations of the People and the Islands lated Acquired from Spain, including Hawaii and the Philippines: also their material resources and productions...

Here's the actual name of the set of books I mentioned in the previous post.

here's another look at my photo of it.

And since it's such an interesting piece of Americana (at least to me)... here's the full description for you:

B&W Illustrations; "Published in twenty-four parts of thirty-two quarto pages each. Superbly Illustrated with more than twelve hundred special photographs, photogravures in colors, and new colored maps." The islands included in this volume (several of which were acquired at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War) are: the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Island groups, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Isle of Pines, and Samoa. This work is contained in two large folios which contain numerous black and white photographs, full color photogravure plates and several full color maps. The descriptions of the islands include historic events, topography, geography, agricultural, mineral and other resources, city and country life, and much more. Rust colored cloth covered boards have gilt lettering to the spine and gilt and black lettering and decorations to the front covers of the books. The gilding on the spines of both volumes and on the front cover of volume two has faded and dulled somewhat (it varies - with more dulling to the spines than the cover). There is some bumping to the spine ends, corners and edges of the book covers along with some edge tearing, light fraying and wear to the cloth at the corners and spine ends. The text blocks of both volumes are clean and bright. With the exception of two pages, the text blocks are clean, bright and fresh. There is one small tear to the bottom of one page in volume two, followed by two pages with spots of discoloration. Volume one has one page which has a long, tear - almost a full page tear - which has been repaired. All plates are present and in very nice clean, bright condition. Overall, a very good to near very good set of this heavy, profusely illustrated work. The photographs (black and white) were taken by Walter B. Townsend. Special descriptive matter and narratives were added by Jose De Olivas. The entire work was introduced by Major-General Joseph Wheeler of the United States Army.

Is it Really May?

2010-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

First off - WOW.... only eight posts in May so far. Last month seemed far more full of events, but even so, I posted more than I have this month.

Second -- Anyone know where MAY went? Not only is it already almost the end of school (June 4th for Number One Son, and June 17th for Number Two Son), but the weather....

We had another baseball game in the mist last night. Yup. Usually this time of year, we're wilting in 100 degree (F) weather. This year, we've barely gotten any sun. I haven't even had to really slap sunscreen on my neck but once or twice this year.

We have less than a week to go in May and right now it's hazy and semi-wet.

sigh.

I wish I could say I had something profoundly bookish to blog about today, but I don't. I found one neat set of older (listed in the garage sale ads as VICTORIAN) books (2 volume set) about the Islands owned by the United States (1899, this was, so the Islands included Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines, Samoa and the Isle of Pines (which is one of the large islands off the coast of Cuba: see here for more info). Cool stuff. Wonderful black and white photos. HUGE Books that must weight 15 pounds or so (together).

This is a view of volume two -- unfortunately, I had to do this strange jig and wiggle to get the picture I did get. It doesn't fit straight on my desk, so I had to lay it sideways, and it went downhill (photographically speaking) from there.

Other than this impressive set, not much really intriguing book material has passed my way this week. I've been adding data for much of the week, but it's stuff that's out of three year old boxes. I'm buckling down and trying to pull out old stuff before I enter new stuff (we'll see how long this lasts).

Other than that, it's been Baseball, quick trip down the valley to the desert to visit relatives, school work, regular work, and not much else.

Oh: Gotta say, I really love the baseball stuff lately. I learn something new just about every day we're out on the field..... last night it was regarding runs in if the first baseman doesn't make it all the way to first base. According to several in the know, if a runner comes in (home plate) after the ball has been hit, but the runner who hit the ball doesn't make it to first base (and this is all assuming it's the third out the runner at first makes (..keeping up so far? this is arcane stuff here)... then the run doesn't count. Get that? Ok. I wish I could diagram it. Batter hits the ball (with two outs already in the inning). He runs to first but is thrown out before he gets there. In the meanwhile, the runner on third is heading home. He MAKES it home BEFORE the batter makes it to first base and before the ball is caught out at first base.... but... since the batter doesn't land on first base and stay, the run doesn't count.

Whew....

Last night, Number One Son was up to bat three times -- hit and made it to base two times, the third time made it as a walk. Caught an infield fly (to make an out against the other team) as a second baseman (first time this year he's been infield in a REAL game...) and had a great time.

Son Number Two plays on Friday at the same field (one of the dustiest, windiest fields in town, I think -- we all have to dose up on pseudafed and nearly wear masks, the dust is so thick. Hopefully it will be a good game as well.

I'm still thinking about the Gold Rush Book fair and trying to come up with a decent post about it. Strange -- when you're in the thick of it, it's harder to find a way to describe it.

Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar...

2010-05-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Last year I sent in my application for a scholarship to the above seminar -- which is specifically for book dealers / wanna be book dealers / collectors / librarians / you name it.

Didn't make the cut last year (though was very nicely told that I was first runner up ... in case the winner couldn't make it, I should keep my high heels and crown at the ready).

This year, I decided to try again.

And....

I got the scholarship!

Whooo hoo.....

I got the phone call from the scholarship committee chair as I was winding my way up Highway 49 on my way to The Gold Rush Book Fair. Yes, I actually took the call while driving - Yes, I KNOW I was being bad. I tried to turn off and park, but there's really very little turn off space available on some of those roads up in the foothills.

I suppose I squealed. I did remember to say thank you.

And I promptly told the first book dealer I saw at the fair.

Then I realized that the scholarship itself (while a HUGE) piece of this puzzle, was only part of what I'd have to pay.

Today I filled out my application for the seminar and got my first glimpse of the other fees I'm going to have to cover.

Darn.

However, I'll figure something out. Books WILL sell and give me some breathing room to pay for lodging, air fair (I'm NOT driving to Colorado....that's three extra days and I'm not a long distance driver by any means), food and incidentals -- which includes BOOKS that I might find at the bookstores we'll go visit.

I'm going to really enjoy this.

Now, as a disclaimer -- I've been to the seminar before. WAY back in 1992 when I worked at the local used bookstore here in town, the owners felt that it would be a good thing for me to go to. Back then I was .... an employee, I was young (ish), I wasn't a very good solo traveler, I was a scared rabbit of a person and had just enough knowledge to make me a danger to myself and others.

Now I'm older. I'm doing this for ME and MY business, I'm a much better traveler, I'm not as scared (having kids will drag you out of your shell whether you want to be dragged out or not) and I have more knowledge... which is still very much a danger to myself and others.

I'd love to take my husband and the boys along with me so they can visit a new place, but, turns out, school starts that week for at least two of them and no one wants to (or can afford to) miss school so I'll be on my own.

If anyone has gone recently to the seminar and has advice (good, bad or other), feel free to fill me in. If not, as soon as I get back (well, as soon as I get caught up after getting back), I'll do at least one blog post on it, if not several.

Getting Side-tracked...

2010-05-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know how other people do it. I have a regular schedule (well, it's a self-made, internalized schedule, so not FORMALIZED) and I try to keep to it each working day but... it's hard to stay motivated.

The thing is, sitting here, alone in front of my desk, it's SO easy to get side-tracked from what I am supposed to be doing....

Supposed to be doing consists of:

Answering emails
pulling ordered books off the shelf, invoicing and mailing
taking pictures of books
data entry
research
writing articles (which I SHOULD be doing much more often than I am)
writing reviews
data entry (did I say that twice...yeah, well I meant to. No data entry means NO sales, NO money, etc....)

Today, I:

took pictures of a stack of books
pulled books, invoiced and packed them for mailing
did some data entry
checked facebook about ten times
found a pile of very old National Geographic Magazines & started leafing through...
brushed the cat (she's a long hair and NEEDS brushing on an almost hourly basis -- I never wanted a long haired cat... I have allergies and long haired cats don't help, but you know how that goes)
put books in boxes to get them up off the floor
moved boxes of books around to make space
emptied three boxes of books which came back from the book fair (this is a good thing)
checked my emails about 50 times
read a couple of blog posts
sat and wondered what profound thing I could write about for my blog
stared at the wall for a while
wondered how the baseball game tonight is going to turn out
thought about getting the suitcases out of the closet for the boys for the trip this weekend

Oh, there's more.

Much more.

I seem to be very easily side-tracked this week from getting WORK done.

I can't complain because I actually DID get books listed on line, but when it comes to sitting still and just doing data entry for hours on end.... well, let's just say I don't have a real aptitude for sitting still long.

And with all the new techno gadgets out there, I can't imagine how other people can keep up with everything. I have a hard enough time coming up with something half-way interesting to put on my blog every day (almost). How in the world can people find time (or inspiration) to add Facebook quips, twitter tweets, blog entries (more than one a day! yikes!), newsgroup posts, and on and on and on.... every day!

It boggles the mind.

Which is, I guess, why I don't do those things.

I Can't keep up.

I got side-tracked into reading the National Geographic Magazine article from 1919 on : The Progressive World Struggle of the Jews for Civil Equality.... (and that instead of the 550 page book that I HAVE to finish reading before Monday because my deadline approaches....and as I'm not too enamored of the book, I keep finding ways to NOT read it, which is BAD...)

So much for profound thoughts for today... sigh

Since I've got nothing important to say about what I did today, here are some pictures of books I added to the database instead:

Toby the Rock Hound by Jane Dwyer Walrath

Illustrated by the wonderful Jolly Roger Bradfield.

though it's from 1979, there are only two copies listed online currently.

The Story of a Little Mouse Trapped in a Book

Written and illustrated by Monique Felix -- again, not too many copies online

this a book without words... all pictures, no words.

Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James

Signed by the author (Paul J. Levinson) who was a long time friend of Harry James...

(or so he says). This is one of the new class of non-fiction titles I'm adding to diversify more.

Heavy Weather

by P. G. Wodehouse

I'm a P.G. Wodehouse fan --

I found this up in Grass Valley this weekend. It's a reprint edition, BUT...

turns out, that it was printed two months after the first US edition (By Little Brown & Co) and there are actually LESS copies of this edition available than the 1st US edition. Crazy, huh?

Oh, I do wish it had a dust jacket though.

Checking in....

2010-05-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick notes (as it's already time to go pick up the rug rats again...)

The Gold Rush Book Fair was a MUCH better fair this year than last. I'll do a write up of it (hopefully this week) after I've had time to think it through. I had a great time. The banquet was lovely as usual (and oh, the strawberry shortcake that I shouldn't have eaten, but did....and ate too much! yum!).

The fair itself was well attended and customers came with some intent to buy. Dealers had varying success, but I was most pleasantly surprised by my final tally of the day.

The big news was how the DEALERS were feeling - and coping - or not coping - with the changes in the economy. I talked to other dealers who were in the exact same pickle I find myself in. And these are high end dealers.... makes me think about this business as a whole at the moment. (again, that should be a blog entry all on its own).

I forgot to take pictures of my booth, but I got a few shots of the banquet drinks time and of the fair itself.

Bill Ewald of Argus Books and Anne Hutchison of Bud Plant & Hutchison Books

A mixed group, including Ken Sanders

More dealers and my poor photography skills mixed again...

Bill Maxwell of Maxwell's Bookmark was the honored guest of the book fair. Here he is with his wonderful wife Wendy and Bud Plant of Bud Plant and Hutchison Books checking out a treasure.

I found a few books to add to my stock over the weekend. Sold some stuff -- had a nice time and got a really good chance to TALK to other dealers who are feeling the pain the same way I am.

Oh, and I have to thank one of the regular readers on this blog for a couple of comments he added to my post about Ebaying books. I went back and added a couple of photos to two listings so far. Now I have to go back, update the rest and continue to add more stock to the bay. Will let you know how it goes as it progresses. So far, no sales there yet, but I've got my fingers crossed. Thanks for the tips!

And the NEW thing I'm trying out...

2010-05-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

I've been badgered by several book dealers during the last year to try and sell stuff on Ebay. The reasoning goes like this. We have good books. We need to make money. Ebay has LOTS of customers. Therefore we sell on Ebay.

Now, I've done Ebay. But that was YEARS ago (way back in 1996-97 when selling books was a GOOD prospect). Around about 1999 I pretty much stopped doing anything but occasionally buying on Ebay because the prices you could get dropped like a huge boulder.

The other thing about Ebay (at least for me) is that it is a cumbersome system upon which to list items. It takes WAY more time than it does for me to list 7 or 8 other places (via Booktrakker it's a breeze) and it's as screwy an entity as there ever was.

BUT -- these dealers seem to be making money. Some real money (which is something I could really use right about now). SO as of three days ago, I started listing on the Bay again.

I think I have five books listed. It took longer per book than I really wanted. I still have some kinks to work out, but they're up and available for purchase. Now I hold my breath and wait. (Oh, and one of the things these dealers included in their listing was the MAKE ME AN OFFER button... which they said can sometimes really work... though there were times when customers were completely unrealistic...)

So I added that button too.

We'll see.

Hopefully I'll remember to keep you updated as to how it goes. Making some sales would be very nice 'cause they sure aren't happening much anywhere else (yes, we've hit the book selling slump that goes from April until mid October, but darn it, I still have bills to pay).

If I've got this right, I'll have a link to my page with books for sale on EBAY here: Steph's EBAY Store

check it out for me and let me know if it needs something.

D-Day minus 1

2010-05-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is set-up day at the Gold Rush Book Fair. I'll be on the road first (it's two and a half hours away, so that's not too bad a drive). I'll also get in a wee bit of book scouting time as well (cross my fingers). I'm glad the weather has finally improved. It's not the usual 90+ that we normally get at this time of the year, but 80's will be much better to drive and work in than the 60's with wildly gusting winds we've had until yesterday.

I took a couple of pictures of my packing / stacks / stuff ready to go... now I just have to get them into the computer.

For this fair I seem to be taking a very eclectic group of older books (well, for me, they really are older). I'm trying to pull together quaint / illustrated / fun covers - dust jacketed stuff from the 1960's and before ... with an emphasis on the 1930's or so.

We'll see how that works out. For my SF, it's not so great as I just don't HAVE much from before 1960 (though I'm trying to add more). For Childrens books, I've got a good mix. And then there's the wild (IE: strange) assortment of non-fiction items.

So ... whether or not I'm happy with the stuff I'm taking, well, it's just too darned bad. It's boxed. It's ready to go AND I'm almost feeling back to normal so I can move, lift, transport and talk to people without too much trouble -- a real boon for someone going to a book fair.

I'll try and update during the weekend, but that might not be possible... if not, I'll get something put up next week after its all done.

Wish me luck!

See you at the fair.

Seven Days Already?

2010-05-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to check my blog today to see when I posted last.... May 4th (ps: Happy May 4th Birthday to Carrol Sewell).

Rats!

I was hoping to do better than that.

At any rate, it certainly doesn't feel like seven days have passed. And... I keep having ideas about stuff to post, but don't seem to have access to the computer and time to do so when I remember what it is I want to post.

Today's Tuesday.... two and one half day's til I leave for Grass Valley and the Gold Rush Book Fair. I've got most of the boxes packed. I still have a table full of books that are listed, but not covered with Demcos yet (if you're not familiar with them, they are covers for dust jackets). I'm still trying to decide if I take my own bookcases and fight with them, or borrow someone else's. Hopefully I'll decide before the time window closes. Today and Yesterday was clean up finishing of the books that I want to take but don't have serious time to finish... so add them (provisionally) to the database and later get the rest of the listing done for online.

STRANGE THINGS -- well, different than my usual things are going with me. Fiction, non-fiction, old, older... odd sized, etc.

Right now, I'm trying to figure a way to make ALL the books face forward in my booth. Probably not do-able, but I'd really LIKE to have them that way.... I'll keep thinking on it and maybe something will come to me. (Or if not, if something pops into YOUR brain, send me an email).

And now I'm off to do errands before school is out and the baseball games start. At least its not raining today. I'm still waiting for HOT weather though.

Once this fair is over, I've got TONS of blog posts I want to do.

And .. if luck holds, I'll finally be able to GET to them.

16 books added to the database... I think that's this year's record

2010-05-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Yeah -- BUT...

Of those 16 books, more than half of them were copies of books I've entered into the database at some point in the past.... so it's basically just duplicating and fixing edition / condition info.... which is not exactly like entering 16 brand new, never-before-listed books.

Either way, I'll take it!

Besides, about half an hour of that time was taken up with getting photos of the books.

Here are a few of them just in case you were wondering....

The majority of the books were Children's picture books.

This happens to be a first edition - with a dust jacket.

Another First Edition with a dust jacket... ps: ANY Palmer Brown books are difficult to find ... with dust jackets and in First Edition.... very difficult.

This month I've found a bunch of cat books.

And then there's this one.. the little girl finds a rabbit and starts to "PLAY" with it by forcing it to wear doll clothes... yup... Where was PETA in the 1960's, huh?

This book is a First Edition thus (with appropriate notations).. the thing is, most listings on line have got their copyright information all screwed around.

And finally (well for the pictures in this blog), a First Edition thus... another Big Golden Book -- the listings on this one on line are messed up too. People don't know what they've got, nor do they seem to be able to do a cursory amount of research..

Here's hoping tomorrow will be a productive day as well.

Sigh...

2010-05-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was one of those days....

Took Son Number Two back to Knight's Ferry to do more research for his fourth grade California project. He was in a stinky mood to begin with and he's feeling pressure about this report... the problem is, instead of ASKING for help, he has decided to yell at everyone about it instead.

And yesterday was a WINDY day, which means everyone was all discombobulated from the beginning (you know that old bit about positive and negative ions ... and the wind messing with them? well, IT DID yesterday).

Everyone in the house was out-of-sorts.

We got back from our field trip in a somewhat state of truce about the report to find that the microwave was not interested in working. It made an awful noise, started to smell of burning, and when you pulled whatever you tried to put in it out -- well, it was stone cold. That didn't help the mood around the house much.

Oh, and speaking of machines conking out.... last week I tried to make some rolls in my bread machine (wedding gift) and it started to growl strangely and make that rotten burning smell as well.

The tally so far in the last five months... Steph a bit fat zero.... machines biting the dust.... three. The stand mixer in December, the bread machine, AND the microwave. Sigh.

Today was, once again, clean up from the weekend mess day. So again I've got NO books entered into the database (yet.... I keep thinking I'll be able to do some after I pick the boys up from school, but so far...well, I have high hopes.)

I finally got seven boxes of books packed for the Book Fair next week. Things are finally starting to get done for that. I have lots more to get done, but I've finally made a better start than packing one lousy box.

Tomorrow Will be a better day.

And hopefully, tomorrow I'll be able to get to the blog with this answers to those burning questions about which books have which prices and why!

Two weeks to go and NO books entered again today :(

2010-04-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to get the blog entry to identify the different books with their correct prices....see this:

but so far haven't had a long enough time at any one point in a day to get that done properly.

Today is a bust. Between previously scheduled (and important) appointments, errands and the baseball game which is an hour out of town (and we have an hour practice ahead of time so we leave home at 4:00 and might not get back until 9:00pm tonight...), well, there's no time to do that particular blog entry today either.

And I'm sending out my e-mail newsletter today, which takes more time than one would think -- so no chance to get data entry done.

Did I tell you that I have another book fair coming up in TWO WEEKS?

Yup, the Gold Rush Book Fair in Grass Valley, CA. See here: is exactly two weeks and one day away & I haven't even packed ONE SINGLE box.

Normally, by this time in the game, I'd be about half packed and have the book cases down, or at least partially down.

Nay, Nay... not this time. I've been having further issues with my asthma, and also trying to work around two sets of baseball practice times and scouts, it's been hectic and not very conducive to packing or even thinking about packing.

So this coming week, I have to put the pedal to the metal (I love metaphores!) and get my boxes packed, the van ready and the bookcases somewhere near ready to go.

I also rummaged through the boxes, and boxes, and boxes of books I still have not listed (and found new stock) - coming up with approximately ten boxes of unprocessed books that I wanted to have entered and ready to go.

As per usual, however I've been able to get one, two, or at best seven books entered per day this last week. Mostly because the books I'm working on this week are all older books that have some intriguing aspects about them and I want to research them before I list them. Well, researching these books has taken FAR more time than I expected. This is good in its own way, but dreadful in relation to getting the number of books processed that I want to get done.

Humphf.... same old song, twenty-fifth verse.... it's starting to sound like I'm a slacker.

Oh, well. I can do what I can do, and not do what I can't do at the moment.

How's that for namby-pamby philosophical mumblings for the day?

And now, since I'm rambling, I think I'll end this.

Enjoy!

We have a WINNER!!!

2010-04-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the generous nature of book dealers -- and their passion to find all sorts of trivial, wonderful information....

it looks as if we (they've) found the dust jacket illustrator for this book. It appears to be Charles L. Wrenn.

Now, interestingly, in the search, one of the dealers found not one but TWO different dust jacket illustrations for Grosset & Dunlap -- the one seen above would appear to be from approximately 1923-24.

There was a second Grosset & Dunlap edition published sometime in 1924 to coincide with the photoplay (movie) which was based on the book, featuring George O'Brien, Cleo Madison, Billie Dove and Harry Morey. I've seen one picture of the dust jacket on the ERB website here. But I can't (so far) find information about the book and there don't appear to be any available online currently. I'll do more checking as I can.

So we have a winner. Thanks go to Gentleman Jim Arner, the gunslinger who can outdraw (and reference) with the best of them.

Thanks again GJim!

Any guesses who the dust jacket artist is?

2010-04-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

From what I CAN see of the signature on the bottom edge of the front dust jacket cover, the first name is Charles (or ch something). The last name starts with a W. After that.... well, I can't tell.

Any guesses?

Old books vs GOOD old books

2010-04-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Back in the days when I was working in an open shop, many a time would I greet a customer bringing in books and then have the customer - so excited - tell me that they had some OLD books to sell and they had to be worth lots of money.

After all -- they were OLD. Antique. Rare.

And I, being the one to delve into the boxes of books (many of which had never been cleaned, dusted or checked for bugs before being dropped into the box), would pull the books out and have the pleasure (not) of telling this excited customer that his / her books were not all that rare or uncommon, or ... unfortunately, worth much at all.

I hated being the bad guy.

But, then again, it was an opportunity to begin the process of education regarding the history of books (very brief and very much cursory).

The Crack of Doom by Hugh Edwards - 1934 - First American Edition

So what is it that makes one book more valuable than another? Huh - that could take volumes to answer.
The quick and dirty answer is two-fold (well, actually, more folded than that):

1.) The book HAS to be desired. If no one is looking for the book, then who cares? No price in the world (high, or low) will induce a buyer to something if it isn't wanted.

2.) rarity: IE: how many copies of the book are available? If there are only 10 copies known to exist of Edgar Allan Poe's first published book (Tamerlane) and people eagerly collect all of Edgar Allan Poe's works, then this book will have some real value based on the difficulty in obtaining a copy.

3.) See -- more folds unfold. Condition. Condition counts for a HUGE amount of the value of a collectable book. A book in perfect, as new condition (even if it's 300 years old) will have a higher price than a 300 year old, duct-taped, pages missing, crayoned-in, fire singed copy. Age here, isn't the biggest factor. In fact, age is rarely a factor in the book world until you get Wayyyy back into the 1400's (at least for material from the New World - don't even ask me about books, etc from the Orient).

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain (illustrated by N. C. Wyeth)

1924 printing (originally published 1916)

The pictures throughout this blog entry are all around the same time period (well, within a 35 year period, lets go with that). So all of them are pretty equal when it comes to age. But these books are NOT all equal.

Forbidden Wine by Frederic Arnold Kummer - 1931 - First Edition

Why is it, then, that they are not equal?

Again, desirability first.

Oh, here's another:

4.) Something special about the book that makes it more desirable. IE: illustrator, subject matter, binding (in the case of find bindings), etc.

Arizona by Clarence Budington Kelland - c1940

Grosset & Dunlap reprint with stills from the Columbia Pictures Movie Extravaganza

Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail by Borden Chase - 1948

First Edition with the rarely seen dust jacket.

One of the books pictured here is priced at $3,000.00. The others range in price from $30.00 to $150.00

The difference in price has to do with scarcity, edition, condition and desirabilty.

In my next post I'll try and give a bit of information about each of these books and explain the differences in price.

In the mean time, make your own guesses : the prices (in no particular order) for the books are: $30.00, $30.00, $100.00, $150.00 and $3,000.00.

I'd love to hear some guesses.

A Rogue, a Ruffian, a Cad and a Wastrel....

2010-04-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

How many different words are there for a BAD man?

I don't know exactly, but no matter how many, most (if not all) of them would fit handily on the man known as Harry Flashman.

Harry Flashman was, originally, a creation of Thomas Hughes in his much-beloved novel of English boyhood Tom Brown's Schooldays. The novel, published in 1857, related the adventures of one Tom Brown as he went off to public school (IE: British PRIVATE school - in this case, Rugby School which is Warwickshire, England). Tom's adventures centered around the school, its masters (teachers) and both friends and enemies. The most obnoxious of these enemies was Harry Flashman. Flashman was a cad and a bully of enormous magnitude who finally received his comeuppance by being expelled from Rubgy for drunkenness.

Though Thomas Hughes did write a follow-up novel to Tom Brown's Schooldays, Tom Brown at Oxford, the cad Flashman was never seen again....

Until George MacDonald Fraser decided to resurrect him in -- in a series of adventures which were purportedly "Found" in 1965 thusly from the explanatory note:

"The great mass of manuscript known as the Flashman Papers was discovered during a sale of household furniture at Ashby, Leicestershire, in 1965. The papers were subsequently claimed by Mr. Paget Morrison, of Durban, South Africa, the nearest known living relative of their author. A point of major literary interest about the papers is that they clearly identify Flashman, the school bully of Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, with the celebrated Victorian soldier of the same name. The papers are, in fact, Harry Flashman's personal memoirs from the day of his expulsion from Rugby School in the late 1830's to the early years of the present century., 1905, when he must have been over eighty."

From the front jacket blurb, the reader received a much flashier introduction:

"This is the story of a classic blackguard who enjoyed villainy for its own sake. Shameless, exicting, funny, Flashman's deplorable odyssey is studded with such great figures as Wellington, Queen Victoria, Dr. Arnold Cardigan, and Akbar Khan, observed with the cynical eye of a scoundrel who was honest only in reporting what he saw."

The series consists of twelve books (if you count only those strictly about Harry Flashman himself), the last published in 2005. Sadly, author George MacDonald Fraser (OBE) died in 2008, ending the raucous series.

The dust jacket art for this series of books was created from 1969-1994 by A. E. Barbosa, an Englishman of Portuguese ancestry (his father was a vice-consul), he lived the life of an upper-class Englishman (he referred to himself as Barbosa and only used the Anglicanized version of his first name Arturo - Arthur.)

He illustrated all of the Flashman books through 1994 and before that, he illustrated books by Georgette Heyer. His artwork for both Fraser and Heyer was exceptional, and human figures were similarly tall and thin, but the colors he used for Georgette Heyer's work was much more muted and subtle, while Flashman and his ilk received darker, richer and more exotic coloring and scenery.

Flashman books are not only still available, they are actively collected and read -- both for their historical accuracy and dashing military adventures, as well as for their raunchy, bad-boy protagonist Flashman, that irrepressible CAD (I LOVE that word) of a man who didn't say no to any sort of trouble.

What a week .... and it's only Wednesday!

2010-04-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

SO....

I thought I'd be able to get back to posting blog entries on a (mostly) daily basis this week. After all, most of the tough, gotta-get-done stuff is done....at least, I keep telling myself that.

But...

I guess not.

First off, I meant to post this picture yesterday. The Arrow of Light ceremony for my two Webelos Twos went off better than I expected (I wasn't really expecting it to go well at all, so I'm wildly happy with the results).

In order to GET to this point, however, I've gone through a near nervous breakdown. Party organization is NOT my thing. I can do it, but I don't really do it well. I FORGET things -- or forget them until it's too late to do them WELL.

Case in point, I realized at 2:00 in the morning the day before the ceremony that we had drinks to go with the cake, that we had food (by the way, it was GOOD food too), but we didn't have drinks to go with the food. I had to scramble to get some drink stuff figured out. (Guess what - people mostly don't drink their coffee black... how was I to know? I don't even drink coffee.)
Sigh.

Did you know tapered candles are getting harder to find? And they don't come in many colors? Did you? Huh, huh?

I didn't: that is, until I had to go to three stores and ASK questions.

The candles were a symbol of everything that I faced with this party. Everything got done. But it wasn't easy. And many of the details had to be tweaked... and on short notice. Don't even ASK about the plaques the boys are holding. DON'T ASK, cause the answer will make your brain explode (or, more likely, my brain will explode).

In the end, it went well and I can take this as a trial run for next year's event when I get to bridge up six boys (including Number Two Son).

I survived. The party went well and it's all done and over for this year. Not too shabby.

A Rhinoceros" Preposterous!

2010-04-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Once I found out about Ed Emberley (author and mostly known as an Illustrator) -- I was hooked.

First off, Emberley has done a series of books over the years helping non-artistic kids (like ME)learn and hopefully understand the basics of drawing / art in a full, friendly, and non-technical, look-down-on-kids way. His sub-series of books about making things out of thumbprints is, if you ask me, brilliant. THIS I can do. Ask me to draw in three dimensions with perspective..... not on your life...but take an ink-stamped thumbprint and add squiggles, lines, curves, etc. THAT'S right up my alley.

See - pigs, cats, dogs, cars... all out of thumbprints.

Here's another of the basic books.

Then he gets specific (yeah, I know I need a better picture of this...sue me.)

And one I picked up with my sons in mind... not that THEY ever took a moment to look inside. Sigh.

But, I remind myself, all things come in their own time. Number One Son is reading again (Garth Nix, no less) and ENJOYING IT!!! And Number Two Son has found the kitchen science book I put on his book shelf more than two years ago. (Now I have to stock up on Vinegar, baking Soda, food coloring and other fun Science / Food items.)

The topmost book is one that I just entered into my database yesterday. Written by Letta Schatz and illustrated by Emberley, this is the story of a young boy who doesn't DO the normal pet thing.... no he doesn't.

"I don't think my parents understand about pets. I asked for pets, and I begged for pets, and I PESTERED for pets until at last they gave in. And what did they get me? Goldfish and guppies! I'd never choose pets like that - not with the world full of wonderful animals! If I could pick my pets, I'd get..." This particular book was written in 1965 and is not often seen anymore, especially with a dust jacket.

Great book. Great illustrations. And most importantly, great pets.

Ed Emberley didn't just stop with how-to books. No, this prolific illustrator has illustrated numerous books over the years and received awards for several - Most famous, I think, was is the Caldecott Winner Drummer Hoff which he illustrated and was re-interpreted by his wife Barbara. He also was a Caldecott honor recipient for One Wide River to Cross which is a version of Noah and the Ark. For more about Emberley and his work, see- this.

(When I was a kid, my mother ended up with all sorts of wonderful pets in our house: guinea pigs, rats, mice, gerbils, cats, hamsters (nasty, bite-y things though they are) , an Easter rabbit that ended up as dinner a couple of months later :( , one poor, sad runt of a dog that should never have been left alive, etc.)

No ferrets though, nor creepy crawly things like snakes (probably more because I was a wimp about them than for any other reason).

And now, when my sons ask for non-traditional pets.... well, I have the excuse that the cats we have are darned good hunters. Sorry, no mice or rats for snacking on this week. Darn.

Next up for data entry this week:

Rumford Complete Cook Book (1918)

My Poetry Book : An Anthology of Modern Verse for Boys and Girls (illustrated by Willy Pogany)

The Children of Odin (illustrated with wonderful full color plates by Willy Pogany)

and a 1st edition of Ishi in Two Worlds by Theodora Kroeber (who happens to be the mother of Ursula K. Le Guin -- did you know that, did you? Be honest.... bet you didn't.)

And for the rest of the week, I may or may not get time to do any posts, OR data entry.... the baseball tournament which jump starts the season begins tonight and continues tomorrow and at least one game on Saturday - with the possibility of two games if they do well enough. I'm looking forward to see how well Number One Son's team does. Number Two Son will have to wait until next year for the tournament, as it's for twelve year olds and older.

Also, the Arrow of Light Ceremony for my Webelos twos is on Monday night... I have another arrow to make, candles to find, the cake is ordered, the food is ordered, the stuff is almost ready to go, but I've got LOADS of errands and THINGS to do before Monday night.

Pebble in the Sky and other Modern First Editions....

2010-04-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm finally starting to settle back into some sort of routine (and of course, after I write that, I realize that NO I haven't settled into a schedule yet -- this week I have to get all the details worked out for the Cub Scouts in my den who are bridging up to Boy Scouts NEXT MONDAY!!! And there are LOTS of details).

Hopefully, next Tuesday (since Monday's are always crazy), I should have a somewhat normal schedule. (cross my fingers).

Did I mention that I signed up for another BOOK FAIR? Which happens to be on May 15th... or FOUR WEEKS AWAY!

What was I thinking.

However, back to Pebble in the Sky and other Modern Firsts.

I mentioned, before the Sacramento Book Fair craziness, that I had a few books of interest to write about when I got the chance. Now's the time (or more correctly, now's the beginning of the time. I haven't had a chance to sit and mull over other details as fully as I'd like, so this is probably not the first blog entry about these books).

Recently, I picked up a copy of Isaac Asimov's first novel (and while this is NOT his first published work, either fiction or non-fiction, it is the first time a complete novel by him was published in book format.) The story is a combination of science fiction, fantastic fiction, time travel, and post apocalyptic fiction. As the front flap blurb states: "It began when Joseph Schwartz was walking down a street in Chicago, past the Institute for Nuclear Research. He raised one foot in the twentieth century; he lowered it in Galactic Era 827, the victim of an odd accident inside the Institute involving an experiment with crude uranium."

Interestingly (at least to me), I've been focusing on the subject of Atomics and Nuclear war / energy books and ephemera lately -- partly by the luck of the hunt in my book scouting, and partly because, once I started to see / look for the material, the more I've been able to find and the more interested I become, so this particular book fits right in that theme.

But back to Isaac Asimov. While this book was not one of the numerous award winning titles, it is a rather special book in the cannon of his writing in that it has the distinct honor of being the first hardback work . According to Asimov himself in Before the Golden Age this novel was influenced by a short work by Murray Leinster called "Proxima Centauri". According to Wikipedia, Asimov is considered one of the most prolific authors of all time with more than 5000 books (yes, that's FIVE THOUSAND) written or edited by him during his long lifetime. For more information about the author himself, check here.

I've read a number of Asimov titles over the years (especially the Robot Novels) as I wanted to be more familiar with his writing -- and as the Three Laws of Robotics kept being referenced in other SF stuff I was reading I really wanted to know what they were (PS: here they are for you.) The thing is, Asimov was, for me, at least, a great theorist. Cool new technical stuff came out of him like water out of a spigot. But as for the connection to the reader... well, for me, the writing (specifically his fiction work) was always very dry and.... theoretical. There was very little emotional attachment that I could make to the writing or the characters. They were there to fit in with the technical science and futuristic ideas, not to be likable or make an emotional connection. That's one of the things about the writing from the 1930's through the mid-1960's that I find difficult to deal with. If it was SF writing, it was about cool gadgets, or theories, or space travel where the travel and hardships of ship building, length of time, technical detail stuff was the most important to the writers, and to the readers.

I started reading SF / Fantasy material from the late 1960's - early 1970's where characterization, ALONG WITH cool SF stuff was part of the package, and going backwards, was (and still is) for me, a bit difficult because I'm expecting the characterization to be there as well.
Even so, this is a great book and a very interesting topic (which we can all relate to since Nuclear / Atomic warfare has once again become nightly news).

Since was was entering this book (and reading details about the book and the era), I noticed that I happen to have a few other first novels / first works in my stock as well. I might have to try and put a catalogue together.

Until I do (chances are slim at this point), here are a few pictures just for fun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to polish up some details about each of these in later entries.

I finally got this book entered with complete description and uploaded to my website today. I took it to Sacramento with me, but with only a sticky note and price... now I've got the details.

This book is Larry McMurtry's first novel. The first edition print run was approximately 5,000 copies, making it a quite small print run. The book was the basis for the 1963 Movie HUD starring Paul Newman.

A. A. Attanasio's first novel, this book was published in hardback and trade paperback simultaneously - an award winning novel, the hardback edition had a print run of approximately 1,000 copies, making it VERY difficult to find.

Yeah, I know, mostly SF / Fantasy stuff in this group (what do you expect? I specialize in SF / Fantasy & Horror....and lately, Atomic & Nuclear stuff ... is there a category name for this?)

Written by Brian Jacques (pronounced Jakes), this is the first in the exceedingly popular series of books featuring anthropomorphic forest critters as heroes. When I get a chance, I'll post the First's Magazine article I wrote about this series (and the author) on my website alongside the Terry Pratchett and Madeleine L'Engle articles. (and when I really get a chance, I'll post the other articles I wrote over a ten+ year period working for Firsts.... which reminds me that I should get back to writing for them again. A two year hiatus is TOO LONG!)

This book is the first novel by Chicano author Jose Antonio Villarreal -- a pioneer in the field of Chicano literature. When I get time, I'll get some more details about the author and the book -- fascinating stuff, I just haven't done enough research on him. (PS: This book includes a signature and long inscription from the author). Cool book.

I know I have more stock that are first novel / first works by well known authors, but for the moment, I'll stop here (partly because I'd have to DIG to find more) and partly because I have to go pick up the Dynamic Duo from school now.

Enjoy!

Centennial Plus 1: A Photographic and Narrrative Account of the Black Student Revolution: Howard University 1965-1968

2010-04-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back to data entry! Well, sort of. The above pictured book is my first data entry in approximately six day. Whether I get any more done today depends entirely on if I can stand the noise level in my work room -- there are three other people in the room and so far, they are driving me nearly around the bend.

As for this book, well, I've spent several days already following trails down rabbit holes looking for information about it, the author, or the actual revolution. Some of it comes to hand easily; most of the details are buried deep in the internet and not wanting to show themselves right now.

This book chronicles the student unrest at Howard University during the mid-1960's... it follows on the heels of the Civil Rights Movements in the south during the 1950's and initially the students hoped to make some changes at the University through peaceful means -- through Gatherings, petitions, discussions with the administrators.... but as time went on and the administration grew more implacable, the tone of the students requests (and the fact that it was coming to light that more African American soldiers were coming back in body bags than other races...) well, the students grew less and less willing to be fobbed off with simple promises of possible change. The students became more organized, they protested more vehemently, and finally, in frustration, they carefully planned, then executed a coup of the administration building and waged a sit-in / take over of the building itself.

Interestingly, there are NO copies of this book available on-line currently, nor have there been any copies in the recent past.

Fascinating stuff, this.

There be GOLD in them Thar hills!

2010-04-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is the happy gold panning face.

Son Number Two has three weeks vacation from school (he's on a track system which is goofy and not my favorite, but that's the breaks).

Back sometime in warmer times last year, he and I went to our favorite nature site to goof around (well -- FISH... which I did blog about and we even have pictures...here)

The lady we ran into with her wonderful beagle dog was panning for gold. INSTANTLY Number Two Son decided that he HAD to do so as well. As soon as possible.

Well, the soon as possible part fell through due to other commitments but finally, last week, he and I went and geared up (the local surplus store / farm store / all you can imagine store) and headed out. I did mention to Number Two Son that the ever present rain was likely that day (and it was) but he insisted.

Here's the goofy, mom's making me take a picture face.

We found out several things about panning for gold:

One: it's hard on the back.

Two: you get very little black sand (which is where the gold is supposed to be) with a lot of panning.

Three: it's fun, but.... we need to find the creek that no one has ever been to that has NUGGETS for us to just pick up (don't say it -- I do remind him of reality now and then, but he doesn't care).

And finally, Four: If he makes a million dollars by panning for gold, he'll let me have some of it to help out around the house (aawwwhhh, sweet boy).

We did go back a second time last week and I'm sure we'll go back again another time (or ten) but he did think that it might be nicer when it gets warmer and less rainy (yah think!).

We now pause for an important message from our sponsor....

2010-04-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well, not really.

Took a break last week (and apparently, part of the week before) due to Book Fair "STUFF", and then that pesky vacation for Sons Number One and Two (and honored husband as well).

Posts might be sporadic until the chaos is tamed on the 12th April (IE: End of VACATION)

Until then, here are a couple of pictures of my booth at the Sacramento Book Fair. Unfortunately, The back of my booth was right in front of a window, making any decent pictures even harder than usual for me.

Sorry, no good close up pictures.

I will have some good blog posts coming up about books I've found / bought either at the fair or recently.

Soon!

Working?

2010-03-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

Possibly you could call it working -- but to my mind, getting books invoiced and sent out to the post office is just the tip of the iceberg of what needs to be done this week (remember that BOOK FAIR in two days?), and that's basically ALL I got done today.

ALL I GOT DONE....

Today, Son Number Two and I jostled over who got to use the computer (make that MY Computer) again. Not badly. No. Son Number Two is being, generally, a model of a child on vacation from school. He's pleasant. He finds things to do, he's almost eating.... but when it comes to computers... well, he prefers MY computer over any other of those in the house. Quote - your computer is faster than those OLD ones - Unquote.

How he figures that my three + year old desktop is faster than any of the other computers in the house, I haven't the foggiest notion, but he does. So when he wants to play, he wants my computer.

And as I've TOLD him for the millionth time, THIS WEEK, I HAVE TO WORK!!!(see, the exclamation points are supposed to make it stick in his head). NEXT WEEK, I'll be much more accommodating (well, maybe not, but at least two days a week I promised him that we'd DO STUFF).

Today, I got five books processed and on the pile to be boxed. Not the stellar stack that I was hoping for.
Tomorrow, I need to get my fingers in gear and WORK!

Oops. Forgot the skate pictures too. And I got to go out and watch him skate today. I just forgot to take pictures. I'll have to get in gear.

We did get our free pastry munchy at Starbucks today though, as a mini-outing and brain freshener. No longer does he settle for the kid's cocoa. Oh, no. Now it's GRANDE sized cocoa with WHIPPED CREAM by the handsful. And he plowed through it in a whopping three minutes.

What next, Whale sized Cocoa?

You think Starbucks will offer something in a giant economy size?

Hopefully I'll have a year to prepare before he wants the Venti.

Four Days until Sacramento Book Fair

2010-03-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

Today was, of course, Monday again, so I spent time taking care of things left over from the weekend (as always). Today, however, was also the first day of Son Number Two's spring vacation -- AND I had a review to write. Which meant that less than normal amounts of book stuff got done.

We did take time to go pick out a new pair of inline skates -- I had seen them at a local thrift store about two weeks ago but didn't pick them up for the boys.... found out yesterday from Son Number Two that the one pair we did have was kaput. So, now instead of getting an extra pair so both boys could race each other, we are back down to one working pair. Sigh.

Tomorrow I'll have to get a picture of Son Number Two doing death-defying stunts (not really) on the new skates.

In the meantime, since I couldn't really get work done, I took the boys to the batting cages today for a bit of batting practice (and no, even though I wanted to, I didn't do any batting myself) and then it's on to Boy Scouts tonight.

I'm hoping that I can get LOTS of data entry done tomorrow, because after that, it's going to be hit-and-miss the rest of the week. And nights are all accounted for (again). Baseball practice every night except Wednesday.

And that's the way the week is going to go....

From Erin to Errands....

2010-03-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Today was another errand day. Which meant that the only book work to get done was balancing the check book before taking off on more errands. Oh, and packing a few books to ship out.

All told, not one of my more productive days.

And the MESS that is getting ready for a book fair has multiplied and spread. Last night, I pulled the fold up table into the living room (where the TV is) and got a small stack of dust jackets covered and ready for boxing for the fair. Normally, I start this process at least two weeks in advance so I can do a bit at a time. Mostly, I try to keep my book mess to an area away from regular living space -- and KIDS. But, had to take a break and sit down for a while last night to cover the books, so the mess moved with me. Hopefully, by Wednesday next week, the mess will be contained in lidded boxes, ready to be stuffed into the van (Wednesday is also seat removal day -- taking the hefty seats out of the van and cleaning it in preparation for boxes & book cases).

I'm going to try and remove my mess from the living room tonight.

Yeah. That'll be possible.

More errands cut into that this afternoon; first its hair cuts for the boys (and Son Number One is actually thinking about cutting that stringy mop of long hair OFF this time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!), and then home for quick dinner (what, I don't know) before baseball practice. After that, some quick homework (or before practice, we'll see) and that's the end of the day.

And just to make this post more visual...

This is one of the most recent fun finds which is going to the book fair with me.

I'll post about it, with some research and background when I get back. Until then, you'll have to settle for the picture.

This was another fun find from the same location. I've had other early Margaret Wise Brown titles, but not this one. Again, I'll blog more about it after the fair.

Erin Go Bragh!

2010-03-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, That's the complete extent of my spoken (or written) Gaelic.

Somewhere in the dim recesses of history, I have some relatives who have Irish blood in them, but not many and not in the very recent past. I do not have curly hair in any way shape or form, and my red-headedness is purely wish fulfillment. Nevertheless, I'm a Happy Irish-person for one day a year. I wear green. In the past I've made Corned beef and cabbage or Irish Stew along with a trial of Irish soda bread, which either was a rotten recipe, or just not too my taste. This year, I'm being obstinate, and mostly lazy since I didn't get to the grocery store to make any of these. I didn't even turn my eggs green this morning in celebration.

I still don't know what's for dinner tonight -- in fact, it's closing in on 2:00PM and I'm not even sure what I'm having for lunch. This of course, is not really a good thing. I just can't find anything in the house that I want, and haven't yet gone out to face the masses at the grocery store to see what's out there.

I did get books listed though. At least some books. I was hoping for a STACK a mile high, but the fact is, no matter what, your fingers can only go so fast, especially if you have to stop to research something.

I need to get another picture of my workroom posted -- it looks strikingly similar to the picture I took before the last book fair, and the book fair before that, and so on, and so on....

In my mind, I keep trying to find a way to RID THE ROOM OF BOXES ( if you put it in capital letters, it shows your seriousness, right?). AND, after I get the boxes moved ELSEWHERE (as if elsewhere will actually take care of the problem), then I can clean, and BEAUTIFY the room.

Yeah, right.

I wish.

It's now officially one week plus a few days until book fair set-up day arrives and I've got BOXES of books that I want to bring which haven't been processed. BUT, since this month has definitely slowed down, I don't want to neglect my chance at on-line sales (you know, to pay the grocery bill -- see above). So I'm doing generally complete data entry on each item that I want to take, AND adding it on line to help spur some sales.

Yesterday, I spend most of my work morning putting together and mailing out my monthly e-mail newsletter. (The putting together doesn't take that much time, but because of restrictions regarding spamming, the sending part takes a great deal longer... and makes my fingers sore from constant mouse clicking, which is another reason why my output today is slower.)

Oh, and yesterday was the first day of Son Number One's baseball practice -- Son Number Two had his on Monday, with a coach we know and love (the unfortunate part is that one of the practice days happens to be MONDAY, which, if you keep up here, you know is our day for SCOUTS -- this means we have to either miss baseball practice a couple of days a month, OR miss scouts -- and since I'm the den leader....well, we miss baseball practice).

So Son Number One is on a team that seems quite sharp. Don't ask me how he got on this team, he did OK at his tryouts, but I didn't think he was fantastic since we didn't have time for ANY practice beforehand, but the coaches thought he might be mold-able, I guess. Lucky for him. He's got FOUR coaches (conditioning, hitting, fielding, and something else I can't remember) and so far, he's bouncing around like a happy puppy. I think we might have lucked out again with teams this year.

And, since I can't really come up with some Irish books for you, here are some pictures of books entered into the database today (which, coincidentally, means that they are FOR SALE!)

Mostly Childrens picture books because they're quick
and at this fair they tend to sell well.

But there are a few (at least today) of other

exotic items tossed in to keep the boredom down.

This last one is an early auto-biography by the sister of Gypsie Rose Lee,

you know, the famous stripper. Her sister had great fame when

she was just tiny, but by the time she was fourteen, she was a washout.

And married, and broke.

Sad story.

Beware the Ides of March... or Not...

2010-03-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I'm NOT Julius Caesar, I think I'll be just fine today.

No back-stabbing necessary for me.

It's funny the things you remember from enforced assignments from school days of old -- Julius Caesar (the one by William Shakespeare) was one of those assignments. I never had a problem with reading Shakespeare -- in fact, I found it fascinating, unlike some of my classmate who felt that reading and trying to understand Iambic pentameter was more in the realm of pulling teeth. Thing is, of that particular play, the quote about the Ides of March is pretty much all I remember.
Oh...
except for the fact that the Ides of March was the day that every Roman senator took a stab (literally) at Julius Caesar. That was one ANGRY bunch of senators.

But there was one bit about this Ides business that bothered me right from the beginning -- why is it only MARCH that has Ides? Well, technically, I know that the other months probably could have the 15th of the month be called the Ides... but the only one we ever talk about -- or even remember after 400+ years, is March.

What about beware the Ides of August? (My grandmother's birthday was August 15th -- and frankly, on a BAD day, I'd definitely be wary of her and it).

Beware the Ides of January.... just doesn't have the same ring to it.

And that, I suppose is the insidious nature of the works of Shakespeare (not in the bad sense, but the gradual, yet overwhelmingly prevalent nature of his words and how they have morphed into parts of our life that we don't even realize.)

We use phrases from Shakespeare REGULARLY in our every day lives and most times we don't even realize where they came from.

I've always been more fond of the comedies than the tragedies -- though Kenneth Branagh has made a real impact with some of his re-interpretations of the historical plays.

And, I should probably hate to admit it, but one of my FAVES is Kiss my Kate with Katherine Grayson and Howard Keel. Not only are the tunes catchy, but you can really see the shrewish nature of Kate at the beginning. I've never believed that a bit of pushing women around will make them turn to mush, as this play / musical implies, but as far as musicals go, it's one of my favorites.

So, sure - beware the Ides of March.
Don't let the senators take a hack at you,
and before you speak, think about where that turn of phrase, or pithy statement, or hackneyed old quote came from before you utter it.

In other words,

Brush up your Shakespeare!

Another day in the salt mines....

2010-03-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a copy of this book in a while -- and this one, is not only in FINE.... condition, but is signed by Dunning. NICE....

So today was another solid (supposedly) work day. I was SUPPOSED to get TONS of books listed in the database and ready for the Book Fair (which is now TWO weeks away). I think I listed four books new to stock. I did end up with two (the one above being one of them) books where I could enter them quickly as I had already had copies in stock and the information wasn't too different. That was probably the easiest thing to do today.

PS: as for the Dunning / Cliff Janeway mystery above -- many who love the world of antiquarian books adore this series. Mostly, I think, for the nifty bits of trivia about rare books. Some love the prose. Me, I tried reading the series back when it first came out (I got through Booked To Die, but barely) as the characters were (and this is personal opinion only) stiff and the plot wasn't my favorite. After that, I pretty much stopped reading them. BUT -- the rare book esoterica was nice to read.

If I had my druthers, I'd pick Laurence Block's series about a used / rare book dealer any day.

Then again, I'm a self professed non(ish) mystery reader. I don't mind mysteries, in fact, add mystery sub-plots into SF and I'm a happy camper (speaking of which I just finished re-reading Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold which is an SF mystery if there ever was one), but I like my SF / Fantasy stuff far more than straight out mysteries.

Come to think of it though.... a dose of Mystery on PBS is something I'd watch regularly if I ever got to watch TV....

What I DIDN'T get done today was the email newsletter which I was supposed to have done and out to the masses at the beginning of this week (or LAST week even). I've got to get that done & I keep putting it off... who knows why.

And I'm not going to get to it tomorrow, probably.... going off book hunting tomorrow (there are two places I've been meaning to hit).

And after that, it was Parent Teacher conference time at the middle school.

And once that was done, well, the boys were out of school and my time is not my own.

Now it's time to start dinner (and take out the trash) and think about doing more exercise...and get the birthday cards addressed and ready to mail... and start reading my next assignment...

Wish me happy hunting tomorrow -- so far, the last several places I've gone have been winners.

200th post today....

2010-03-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

First off, the jpg makes it actually look worse than it really is. Sort of.

This book is not in the greatest shape, and for most other books, I would have just left it where I found it -- as being not nice enough condition for my stock. HOWEVER -- this particular book, and the subject thereof, is difficult to find in any condition, good, bad or otherwise - so I picked it up.

This is one of the first books to actively research in-depth with a jaundiced eye regarding the Meadow Mountains Massacre which took place in Utah during the California Gold Rush era. The Massacre-ees were on their way to California via wagon train when they stopped at Mountain Meadow in Utah to water and feed their animals.
What happened next is up for debate and the subject of much controversy. Was it an Indian raid which went overboard? Was it A Mormon inspired object lesson for others traveling through the area?

In all over 200 men, women and children were executed (they had surrendered and expected a peaceful resolution to the encounter only to be summarily murdered by the raiders). Only 17 children under the age of eight were spared ... then they were parceled out to Mormon families, along with the possessions of those who died.

There's a nicely detailed wikipedia article on the subject here: Mountain Meadows Massacre.

It's an interesting book.

Tuesday ramblings

2010-03-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Let's start off with some book stuff this time.

Above, you'll see a picture book (this one has a Japanese title -- which translates as : My Journey) illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno. This illustrator is justly famous for his wonderfully, intricately illustrated picture books. Most of these picture books are books without words. Which means, basically, that the ENTIRE story is shown in pictures.

Not an easy thing to do.

Mitsumasa Anno has illustrated more than 50 books in his career to date and the majority of those books are books without words. Just now, in looking him up on Wikipedia here- Mitsumasa Anno, I found out that he attended the Yamaguchi Teacher Training College in 1948 and became a teacher for a number of years. This explains a LOT about the illustrations and the types of books he has published.

I wish I had a picture of some of the math books he's done -- I've HAD copies, but currently don't have any jpgs or copies available.

The thing is, when you actually take a close look at the contents of his books, you could spend HOURS just picking out the details.

Here's another example:

This book, along with the one shown above is one of three books I have left in stock by Anno. Over the years I've seen many of his titles -- but they tend to sell as quickly as I can get them in. (However, I do have two copies of this particular book).

If you've never had the chance to look closely at one of Mitsumasa Anno's books -- do so. And remember to pay close attention to the details. They're small, but they're worth the effort.

And now -- onto a few books just recently added to the database:

This is the second book in the Wolves of Willoughby Chase Series by Joan Aiken. A wonderful read.

Introduced by Princess Grace of Monaco, with poems by Fleur Cowles, the book is illustrated by the subtle and beautiful artwork of Robert Vavra.

Here's one you wouldn't expect (though I do have a customer who is always looking for children's books by Adult, Modern Fiction (well respected) authors--

the book is a tale about cooperation and outer space by Umberto Eco (yeah, the guy who wrote The Name of the Rose!) with illustrations by Eugenio Carmi.

All three of these books, along with others (yippee! I got some data entry done!) were added to my database today & should be available on my website by tomorrow (if not sooner).

And here's hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to add a bunch more.

I need NEW STOCK to take to the Book Fair in Sacramento, so I need to get cracking with the data entry.

In other news -- last evening, the Webelos scouts started work on their Engineer pin -- who was to know that building bridges.... which seemed like a relatively easy task in the planning stage... turned into a rather difficult task in actuality.

Three of the boys seemed to have a clue (well, two got it this time, the third is a transfer second year Webelos who did the pin last year and just participated this time). A couple of other boys started to make sense of it. Two of them didn't get it at all.

However, a goodly amount of pipe cleaners and drinking straws were turned into all sorts of things (including items to chew on, and to spit at each other as missiles).

Next up -- catapults out of shoe boxes with marshmallows as ballast. We'll see if it works.

Well, that was a blur...

2010-03-08T12:47:00.000-08:00

Last week went by in a blur of wild and wooliness. It was cold and rainy all week. We had finally finished our last weekend of Mini Season soccer with a two day tournament in Merced (both boys were at the same place -- different times, sort of, which was nice. Next year, it will probably be different).

And then it was time to start practicing for Baseball.

BUT -- you can't practice if you can't get outside.... every day we had free was a day filled with rain and wind.
No batting cage practice in that sort of weather, so we went to our baseball tryouts this Saturday with virtually NO practice (especially batting practice) at all.

It's a shame because the teams are picked based on the tryouts. The good thing is that the coaches know that most of the boys haven't had much practice yet this year, so they take that into account. AND, if you look at least like you know what you're supposed to do, even if you don't do it exactly right, it still counts for something.

We should get our team information this week. I'm not sure when practices begin, but it will probably be soon.

(for me, that means I don't have much down time to finish doing the housework that got neglected for the last two months).

The good thing about it is that the boys really enjoy getting the exercise and the time with friends.

As for me, today's another Monday. Had to wrap up all the stuff that didn't get done over the weekend, try to straighten out my desk and organize myself (not an easy task lately, it seems).

I also had a review to turn in, so that takes another hour out of the mix today.

After this, Son Number One has minimum days all week long, so I have to end my days early -- which is a real bummer as I've got TONS of things to do before the Sacramento Book Fair which is in THREE WEEKS!! (you know, like data entry!!!)

So today is a short work day for me-- though a LONG day, as both boys have scouts so we won't be getting home till nearly 9:00pm tonight and there's lots of errands I have to run before I can get to scouts.

I have STUFF to pick up for Son Number Two's meeting today.

I promised to get back to blog entries dealing with books last week. Unfortunately, that promise had to go by the wayside since I didn't have TIME or access to my computer ... or for that matter, a BRAIN (again).

This week, I'll try to do better. I did get in a couple of nifty books last week that I want to mention but I have to get pictures and do some basic research -- which won't be done today as I'm about ready to fly out and start the errands that MUST be done...

Oh, to have a leisurely life. Of course, if I DID, I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the MUD PIT we got to play in for our games last weekend.

It rained the night before the first day of tournament -- luckily, we didn't have rain DURING the games, but the fields were six inches deep in water the first day...

Can you guess what the second day looked like?

Yup.

All the fields ended up looking like Pig Wallows, especially around the goal boxes.

And while I didn't get a close-up of Son Number One or Two covered in mud, I got a picture of Hollywood after he took a dive....

PS: They ALL looked like this.

Saturday night was spent soaking and cleaning the gear so it would be decent for Sunday's finals.

And then they did it all over again with double the mud!

Mea Culpa....

2010-03-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

Last week was....

too much, actually. And it's still going on, so this is just a quick note to say I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post anything since last Monday. And this short post is all I'll be able to do today. Hopefully by tomorrow things should settle down again (momentarily) and I can get more time to post about what's been going on.

However, this week there are minimum days for Son Number Two all week long (and he gave me the wrong time today so I was EARLY... but that gave me a chance to do some of the reading that I have to have done by next Monday so it worked out o.k.).

Next week, Son Number One has minimum days all week. Go figure. Can't win around here. And then, at some point, they'll all be home on Spring break, giving me no time to get things done at all.

Again, sorry about the blank blog this last week.

Will post soon.

Monday Monday, La La,, La, La La La (huming to the Mama's and the Papas...)

2010-02-22T14:07:00.000-08:00

So --

We all survived our long weekend.

It was fun.

The house was actually clean for most of the two days. However, the new football which was the birthday gift for Son Number One meant that both boys had to go outside in the MUD... let me repeat that MMMMUUUUDDD!!!! numerous times, which meant they clumped back inside, brown and gooshy from waist to toes. They then had to change clothing EACH TIME they played.

They played football at least four times on Saturday (and this is after Son Number Two came home brown from face to cleats from his soccer games), and five or six times on Sunday.

The dirty clothes pile is sky-high right now and there was a fracas this morning regarding the lack of clean pants to wear to school. Which one of them remembered that they needed clean clothes for school and that since we had company....? Neither of them.

AND WE WEREN'T WASHING CLOTHES EVERY FIVE MINUTES.

Sigh.

Much food was eaten (too much for my poor tummy). Lots of stories were told. It was very nice.

I have some pictures but I have to see if I got any that aren't blurry before I put them up.

And for today.... well, today was bill paying day.

And after that, it was invoices done, calls made, plans figured....

And this evening, there's going to be pizza for the scouts and a basketball game with the boys on one team and the parents on the other.

Hopefully no parents will be harmed in the process.
If I'm lucky, I'll get incriminating pictures!

Tomorrow, it's back to data entry.

Weekends....

2010-02-20T16:02:00.000-08:00

There was a time when we actually got a bit of time in the morning on weekends to sit around, read the paper, eat leisurely breakfasts, then figure out what to do with the days...
(Of course the down-side to this is that if we DON'T have a schedule for the day, the boys get discombobulated and start to act weird).

So --

for the last eight (?) weeks, we've been up at 6:00 - 6:30AM and out the door by 7:00AM for soccer games.

Today was no exception. Son Number Two had a make-up game today for a game that got rained-out earlier in the season. Son Number One didn't so he stayed home and helped clean the house for company this afternoon and tomorrow.

There were PLANS made and written down for all of us. There were repairs that had to be done.
There were two soccer games to play.

And -- for some reason, by this afternoon, ALL of us were cranky and snappy and discombobulated.

Probably because we all get nervous having company over (with four of the five extended members of the family being introverts of one degree or another, company is something we do rather infrequently and not necessarily well).

As for the soccer today -- first game was a tie and the team was looking decent. Not their best game, but they seemed to be pulled together and working as a team.

The second game came after an hour break -- we lost three boys to other activities that they had going -- and the teamwork part fizzled and died.
Son Number Two was sent to defense. He HATES defense (with a passion) and made his feelings known LOUDLY and OFTEN. In the end, he didn't play the entire second half of the game and made such a fuss that we'll have to do a LOT of apologizing next week when we go to practice.

That seemed to be the start of the crankiness. However, when we got home, Son Number Two was a bit whiny and Favored Husband was worse.

By the way, it's HIS mother who is coming to visit. We deal with MY mother on a daily basis.

I'm hoping that things work themselves out before 5:00PM comes around and they get here. If not...well....

Spinning my wheels....

2010-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

It really feels like I'm getting NOTHING done, even when I sit at the computer for hours at a time.

Today, I did end up emptying out two boxes of books from the fair, but mostly, I just put new pictures with old descriptions and send them off again to the online databases.

I listed three new books.

I emailed a bit (responded to orders, sent invoices, etc.).

And....

that was it.

I sat down at the computer at 9:30 (approximately -- had a bunch of house cleaning that had to be done first....and MORE housecleaning that needs to be done before this Saturday when company is coming). I finished at 1:55 (approximately again, ) so I can pick up Sons Number One and Two from school....

And that's pretty much the end of my work day.

I will try to pull the pile of books from the list I compiled -- it's a list of the first 200 books in my database.... but of those, this list includes only the titles that are STILL AVAILABLE!!! 42 books have been sitting on my shelves since sometime around 1996/1997.

I'm going to pull them, send them to Ebay, or list them for cheap on one of the newsgroups, then give them two weeks or a month (Ebay fixed listings are one month) and then I'm DONATING THEM.

THEY ARE TOAST!

See, one of the things I need to do this year is clean out old stock that's stuck in my database, AND make space on the shelves.

Since I have limited space in my house, there needs to be some coherent plan to REMOVE the beasts once it's clear that I'm not the appropriate person to sell them. I'm not saying they are bad books. In fact, the reason they are still on the shelves this long is because I've checked them over several times and still think they're good books.

But there comes a time....

when I need to be realistic.

So I'm going to take the time to finally do this.

This is book number 7 in my database. This is the first book on the list of STILL Available.

Book number 11.

Book number 14.

SEE?

Not BAD books -- just books that for some reason want to stick around and enjoy the ambiance.

Well, no more ambiance for them.

Out they go.

Hopefully I'll get some time this afternoon to stick them up on Ebay.

And now a complete change of subject --

Next week, I PROMISE to find some time to so some research on a book or topic and blog about it.

Promise!

A few photos for the heck of it.

2010-02-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Partly because I like photos in blogs, and partly because .... well, I just feel like it.

It's not the best picture, but Son Number One is on the left (you're left) in the oversized robe looking a bit shell-shocked. This is his first stint as accolyte. He's definitely growing up.

(PS: some members of the congregation asked why his brother wasn't up there with him -- honestly.... he's NINE and being stuck next to his BROTHER and having to sit STILL AND BEHAVE? Nah....!)

These two cats have spent the better part of the year as mortal enemies (well, technically, Shadow, the one at the back of the picture, was the one who spent the year hissing and running. Izzy, the one in front, playfully would bound up to Shadow and TRY VERY HARD to make friends.) This is the first time in memory the two have sat anywhere near each other. I think an armed truce has occurred.

Smiling Izzy.

Puff is inside the bag. Izzy is peering in.

Finally cleaning up the last of the Christmas bags. I thought I'd give them something to play with.

It worked.

Unfortunately, you can see some of the boxes of books packing my workroom from this shot.

SEVENTY BOXES OF UNPROCESSED BOOKS.

I'm officially insane.

PS: About an hour into playing, Puff got herself stuck in the bag and I saw her tearing off into the bedroom with this thing stuck upright on top of her.

Poor cat.

I have my computer back!

2010-02-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

So, all is not lost. My computer made it through surgery with nary a hiccough (well.... it made it through, I'm the one who almost didn't).

It only needed a repair. Also received a much needed cleaning / dust removal (yeah, I WILL clean it out every six months or so... really!) and backing up of old, yet important information / jpgs, etc.

The guys who did the job got paid AND a can of Boy Scout caramel corn popcorn in thanks.

We cleaned the desk (I know it's electrostatics that cause the dust to accumulate -- well, my husband knew it was-- but MAN my desk turns into dust bunny heaven at the drop of a hat.), plugged everything back in and it's working fine now. In fact, it's running much faster (overloaded the desktop too, he said).

I'm still trying to decide if I should let Sons Number One and Two back onto the machine. We've had LONG talks about what this machine can handle, but they STILL don't seem to get that it's old and NOT a heavy graphics machine.

AND Son number Two (while at the computer repair store) said.... MOM, for my birthday, you can get me A NEW COMPUTER!

Yeah, if I CAN'T buy a new one for myself, how do you think I'll get one for you?

Sigh.

Now it's back to work. Especially data entry.

AND cleaning the house for my mother-in-law's visit this coming weekend.

Life it good.

Computer Crash....

2010-02-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

Friday night, Son Number One was playing an online game on my desktop (my WORK computer) when the screen went black. Something had snapped --

Now I've been warning both number one and two sons that they were pushing my poor old computer too hard with the online graphics heavy games... AND playing U-Tube videos / songs in the background at the same time. It wasn't unusual for me to come up, check the computer and find five or six screens up, all with U-Tube videos loaded, while they played Toontown.

AND THEY WERE COMPLAINING WHEN THE COMPUTER SLOWED DOWN!!!!

I think I've found one of the new digital divides..... these boys are so used to computers doing any darn thing they ask them to, they don't realize there are limits.

Friday, they found the limit for this computer.

I didn't get angry. (probably a first for me). But I did really want to sit down and cry. At that moment, I was thinking about the loss of ALL my business data. All the photos for business and home AND Scouts. The programs that I needed.

Everything was on that one computer.

On the good side though, we found a computer place in town (the one I used to use went out of business) that worked on Saturdays AND Sundays (and it turns out, on holidays as well). There was a chance that all it needed was a repair.

So we took the computer in. (and I am SO embarrassed at the amount of dust and dirt that came off that machine.... I KNOW I'm supposed to pull it apart and clean it every six months or so, but really, DO YOU?)

In the mean time, I'm using the netbook to read email and communicate, but until I know one way or another if the desktop works, I can't do any data entry or mailing... because then I really screw up the database program. Right now, the database is my biggest worry. I backed it up before I went to San Francisco, but not since I got back (BAD ME.... I know).

So I'm not completely screwed with the database. I've got all the info before last week, and if necessary, I can recreate the invoices (can't really remember which books I reworked since then though, so would have to search some. Time consuming, but not truly terrible).

So, overall, I'm not at a complete loss. Just behind again, and it's going to cost something to fix. (And with the month I've had so far, that bites).

So that's what my weekend has been like.

On the good side, we still had soccer on Saturday to help keep my mind off the computer. Son number one's team won both their games.
Son number two TIED the first game and WON the second! This is real cause for rejoicing.

I'll try to keep updating on the computer situation. Hopefully we'll have an answer one way or another by Wednesday.

Some Pictures to Cheer you up....

2010-02-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

These just went with me to San Francisco (and came back again :( )

They're from the 1920's an contain short stories about the two main characters, Peter and Pan. They're cute, quaint and just plain fun.

Enjoy.

Oh Yeah, I'm the Taxman...

2010-02-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Well, not really, but I got to see my accountant today and took care of taxes for the year. (ALL DONE!!!)
It was quick and easy this time. I mostly remembered the things I had forgotten to bring along last year and the ones I forgot, I was able to phone home and get because my husband had the day off today. So it's all done and I'm set to start work on THIS year's books now.

In honor of that, I think I'm going to try and really switch over to QuickBooks Pro this year. For eons I've used a copy Quicken (2000 edition, actually, so not eons, but decades, at least) which is simple and does just what I want, but I need to learn QuickBooks, in case I'm actually hired at a REAL job, and, like, you know, it's good to keep up with technology, even in baby steps sometimes.

Yesterday, instead of processing a bunch of new stock (or stock from the book fair that needs to go out on my website), I ended up figuring out what my Webelos scouts have been doing for the past three months -- I got some new worksheets to help keep track of things better (yeah... needed that) then transferred that info over. Took WAY longer than expected, but hopefully now I'll be better able to keep up through the rest of my stint as Webelos leader. We've actually accomplished quite a bit of work in the last several months, which is nice. We still have more to go, but we won't have to do a mad dash next year to get everything done before we head on up to Boy Scouts.

Oh, and going back to the tax info for a moment....

One of the things I have to do every year is an inventory of what I HAVE for tax purposes.
I counted the boxes in my office (and in the hall way, and in the furnace room, and elsewhere.....).

Last year I had 40 boxes of unprocessed books that still needed to be dealt with.

This year....

SEVENTY BOXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF?????????

I have been doing a bad job of keeping up and that has got to STOP.

So, this year is going to be a clean up, pull out, either put those puppies in the database and sell them, or get them OUT.

I'm also going to try very hard to go through OLDER stock (you, know, the books I've had on the shelves for 15 YEARS...) and get them out too. I'm out of shelf space, I'm sick of looking at them (they stare at me in their free time, of which they have an abundance), and they need to find better homes, so boot, out they go.

REMIND ME of this promise somewhere in June, when I haven't gotten to the job yet, will you?

And as today was taken up with Tax stuff, I didn't get a chance to do any data entry today either so far. Sigh.

Tomorrow there are four soccer games (close by each other, sort of, geographically speaking) so I'm hoping to make it to three of the four -- cheering my lungs out as always).

Sunday, I'm going to finish painting the bathroom (yes, it's closer than it has ever been to being painted) and put away more boxes of stock from the book fair. Next week is crunch week -- my Mother-in-Law will be here on Saturday (20th) and everything needs to be polished up, cleaned, put away and ready for PEOPLE in the house.

After that, I'm hoping to have some serious time to work on BOOKS!

Seventy Boxes of books -- WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!!

Back down to earth and to business...

2010-02-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Monday was the day to enter all the invoices and update the database both at home and online for the actual sales (Yeah!) made during the San Francisco Book Fair. Then it was on to emptying out the van of boxes, bookcases, etc. so that I could fit the boys back in for Scouting that night.

Yesterday, it was clean-up stuff that hadn't gotten done on Monday (or Friday, Saturday and Sunday). I was also SUPPOSED to be doing some of the phone calling, email writing, etc. that needed to be done either for work, home or scouts. Some got done. Some didn't, which pushed it on to today.

Today, however, I had no excuses. I HAD to get back to real work. (and by that I mean data entry, paperwork, daily grind stuff).
And BILL paying.... which is no fun, but has to be done anyway.

So that's what I did.

And I've got a pile of done books to the side of my desk to prove it. I've also emptied four boxes of books from the fair already -- it helps that my Mother-In-Law and my husband's family are coming for birthday party stuff in two weeks time -- that' gives me incentive to get the boxes unpacked, the shelves up and neat....

AND TO FINISH THE BATHROOM!

Yup, the painting of the walls in the bathroom has been put off for one reason or another since NOVEMBER. So, with people encroaching (people who matter-- people who USE bathrooms...) the bathroom WILL be finished by the 20th. So say I.

After that, it's data entry drudge work for a couple of weeks and then guess what.... another BOOK FAIR. This one should be less pressure, it's in Sacramento and it's not as fancy as the SF book fair and I don't feeled as pressured to have GOOD STUFF (underlined, and intoned in a deep voice).

It would be nice to have NEW stuff though.

Sigh.

Here are a few shots of interesting books that came back from the fair that I think should have found ready homes:

A wonderful Art Deco style illustrated book of children's poems, etc. by J. Paget Fredericks. Black and white and color illustrations that are just so exquisite.

Irwin Shapiro's Jonathan and the Dragon illustrated by Tom Vroman. A classic and a great dragon book.

Who can live without the actual lyrics to the early Sesame Street songs?

Not me. It includes The Pigeon, my all time favorite Sesame Street song.

I Left my heart.... In San Francisco... (hum, hum, hum...)

2010-02-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

Actually, I think I left my brains there too. It was a good weekend, but long, and I was still feeling a bit under the weather, and didn't get as much sleep as I should have (but that's the case with ALL book fairs, at least for me).

I did remember to take some pictures of my booth this time. I forgot to take pictures of other booths and other dealers -- which I was hoping to remember to do.

here are some of the pictures:

Here's what the booth looked like from the front.

and from one side

and the other side.

here are some individual shelves.

another

And last, but not least.

Overall, I was pleased with the set up I put together. I am never quite happy with it, and when I see all the extravagant booths from the other dealers, well, I just want to crawl under a rock. But the stock I have is mostly modern and not as showy on the outside as some of the dealers who deal with more antiquarian books.

What sold?

Picture books.

Weirdly enough, 90% of my stock that sold at the fair itself was picture books or youth fiction.

Very little Science Fiction / Fantasy.

A few ephemera, including three of the items I had especially picked to bring to this fair as a trial of me adding ephemera to my list of book fair takings.

I got myself a trophy case to display better items (or items that were better displayed open). Of the books in the trophy case NONE sold except for the one item I took out and stuck on the end of a table. There were a few people who looked in the case and a smaller few who actually asked to look more closely or reached in themselves to find something, but NOTHING from the case sold which was very disappointing to me.

I did bring a number of items specifically for other dealers to think about -- items not in my normal area of expertise, but I have to say that few, if any dealers really LOOKED at my stock (except for the children's book dealers) nor bothered to ask me if there was anything they might find interesting. I know there was a contingent of librarians at the book fair as well, looking for items that might fit their collections (the dealer across from me was quite pleased when Cornell University's librarian stopped by). Either I have books that librarians aren't looking for, or they were much more likely to go to dealers that they already knew.

In speaking to other dealers at the fair, it appeared that there was much more interest in antiquarian material -- both the dealers themselves, the customers and definitely the librarians -- than in modern material, especially Modern Fiction.

That being the case, it was still a good fair overall.