Day Two, pack out and dinner

Well, so much for slow Sundays. This was possibly the best Sunday show day we’ve had. Again, the crowd was good sized and steady throughout the day…better yet, they were engaged and interested in strange bits of this and that (a strength of mine, strange bits of this and that). Better still, the engaged and interested people were buying. Pretty much a perfect storm for a book fair.

The highpoint of the weekend for me was helping sell what I think may have been the “coolest” thing at fair this weekend (sadly, not my book). Don Lindgren, whom I shared a booth with, had a truly spectacular item from 1971…a “book” printed on tractor fed paper, one of 10 numbered copies (16 total) that is comprised of every permutation of a 4 by 4 grid of dots. The runtime was 9 hours 44 minutes and a handful of seconds (the length of time it took to print the job and it included a colophon and the signatures of the authors/programmers. It found a great home…one where its significance will be enjoyed for a very long time.

It was an interesting show for sales…we sold pretty much across the board. Book arts, illustrated, books on books, Americana, fine press and antiquarian. We brought a thin sampling of reasonably special/pretty/sexy things from many areas…hoping to have something interesting for just about anyone to look at…at the same time, we didn’t expect to sell broadly…most shows tend to track in one direction or another. This show seemed to have real interest in many areas.

The fair ended at 4pm. We were able to get everything packed and to FedEx by 545pm…very good, as it closed at 6pm. We schlepped the rest back to the hotel and then had a very nice dinner at the Icon Grill. Tomorrow we are going to meet with a friend or two of Suzanne’s and do a bit of book hunting.

It was a great fair. Great dealers from all over, met some folks I’ve been wanting to meet, met some folks I didn’t know I wanted to meet, but am very pleased to have met them (and look forward to doing so again). Sold some good books. Met some new clients. Life is good. Have I mentioned recently I truly love this business.