A year-end rant...[mis]packing revisited...or Why Ebay Still Makes Me Itch...

I will preface this minor rant with a "the book arrived safely and all is well" and I know there are those who feel that I should, thus, keep my mouth shut...but I can't...oh well: So I "win" an auction on behalf of a client for a lovely little circa 1560 emblematica volume. I was able to secure it within what we hoped to pay (a bit north of $3,000), I was able to pay by EFT (and thus avoid the ebay/paypal "convenience" premium) and the shipping by FedEx (from the EU) was very fairly priced.

When the package arrived, my heart was in my throat. The images tell the proverbial tale. The book arrived in a FedEx Tyvek envelope...mind you, this is a good thing, as FedEx appears to have thrown it in a mud puddle somewhere along the route (the mud splatter can be seen in the first picture). Tyvek is great stuff...but I could tell it was "unboxed" within and was thus nervous from the start.

I opened the Tyvek to find a padded manila envelope. I admit that I pretty much loathe these things. I am the first to say that if you are shipping a reading copy of this or that...something that cost $20 or less perhaps...then a padded envelope is probably perfectly fine. However, when you are shipping a valuable (or reasonably valuable) book, incurring the "cost" of using a bloody box is really not too much for a client to expect. Prior to this book, my "record" was receiving a $700+ volume in a padded envelope (and bumped at two corners as a result). Here, a $3000+ book had been so packed....urgh.

Hope springs eternal, so I thought, "well, hopefully it is between overlapped cardboard pieces to protect it." With minor trepidation, I opened the evelope and found another layer of bubble wrap and brown packing tape. I could make out what appeared to be wrapping paper under it...but now cardboard. Perhaps it is under that?!?

Having opened the bubble wrap with care, I found the wrapping paper and more brown tape. I opened this carefully...reasonably taken aback by the lack of any protection for the corner, etc. The book itself was, overall, happy. The head and heel are gently bumped, but may well have shown that prior to this ride across the sea. In the end, I shouldn't *really* complain, as the book arrived safely.

However, I really do just find it upsetting. Here is a book, over 450 years old and reasonably expensive, that was effectively wrapped in bubble-wrap and dropped in an envelope. I just really don't think this is "acceptable"...although, admittedly, it did arrive safely. I guess my rule of thumb is that I ship books the way I would like to receive them...safely and well packed in a crush resistant box. Packing materials are relatively cheap and a straight cost of doing business. When I do have to use a Tyvek envelope (for a pamphlet or the like), I wrap/pack it in paper and bubble and then between stiff cardboard overlapped sheets taped tight to protect the edges.

I don't really ship anything under $25 and most of what I send is a fair bit more than that...and I completely understand that the metrics are very different if you are moving a lot of lower end material. That said, I just don't understand how someone can put a $100, $500 or $3000 book in a padded envelope and think that is is "ok". grumble grumble grumble

Holiday wrap-up...

Somewhat fitting on New Year's Eve. We are back down in Portland after spending the x-mas holiday in Tenants Harbor with my parents. It was the usual crazy, slightly masochistic fun that all family gatherings should be...

We had our traditional lobster dinner on the Eve (10 people, as many dead crustaceans). This was followed by everyone getting night gowns/night shirts/pajamas from my Grandmother and, once changed, the annual reading of D. Thomas', A Child's Christmas in Wales. (Here if you would like a copy of Dylan his very self reading this wonderful classic.) I will not mention that after the boys went to bed, we all watched "V for Vendetta", because that seems a less than jolly flick for the Eve. On x-mas day, we had our annual roast beef and Yorkshire pudding extravaganza. We had special holiday poppers this year that had a musical theme. In addition to our wee paper crowns and jokes, each "prize" was a numbered whistle. After the meal, baton in hand, my mother led us on a variety of very poorly played (and off-tune) holiday songs...very funny.

The tree this year was quite exceptional...over 12 feet tall and very "open", allowing my mother to work her magic and show off her many, many antique and repo ornaments...blown glass to big pickles to strange feltwork...and glass bead chains that came over from Germany many generations ago. There is a smaller tree in the big bay window overlooking the harbor and the electric train and antique village (made by my great-great grandfather) was set up under it. Just beautiful and very holiday-ish for all.

Everyone got way too much...but I was the luckiest boy. The first image shows the 350ish pound circa 1850 guillotine paper cutter that was under the tree for me from my parents. It is in exceptional condition, much of the original paint/gilt work is still on it after all these years. I can now cut an entire ream of paper in one slice. It is, quite possibly, the coolest present I have received since my teens (the competition being a MacPlus in the year they came out). The only problem was the 350ish poundness of it...I nearly pulled several "things" while schlepping it out to the car.

The boys got matching jammies...this included the newest addition, my nephew Oliver who joined the family last November. The boys all had a great time. The older two looked pretty cool in their trains and had a great time. They (and the family, et al) got a Wii and, "don't Wii in the living room" jokes from their grandfather notwithstanding, it was a smashing success. I hate to admit how much fun it is and how brutally cool the controller technology is. Watching my mother pay tennis with the boys made the holiday...great fun for all.

Oliver proved that he is, indeed a proper member of the family my picking up a book and amusing himself during dinner with it. He'll be reading in no time...

Many books changed hands in many directions. Andy (my BiL) and Oliver and my two boys and I all received a copy of The Dangerous Book For Boys. The boys got many, from the new (and strange) Ripley's Believe It or Not to some good kids lit, to add to their ever growing collection(s). Suz gave me a hardback copy of Gaskell's, A New Introduction to Bibliography. I have already started it, in preparation for attending the UVA Rare Book School this coming year.

I have one last entry before the new year...a minor rant that I want to get out so I can start the year fresh and happy *laughing*. I hope everyone had a wonderful bookish holiday.

A lasting legacy...Here's to Harold Alfond

After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.
- Cato the Elder

Harold Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoe Co., passed away last month at 93. During his life, he gave away about $100 Million. It has just be announced that he spent his final months planning for a much grander legacy. Called the Harold Alfond College Challenge, his plan is to see that *every* child born in Maine receives a $500 contribution to start a college fund.

I love Maine. We have more than one program that promotes reading for the young (and old) including the brilliant Raising Readers program that sees that every child gets books of their very own when the go home from the hospital and after every wellchild doctors visit. The Maine Laptop Initiative sees that every Maine 7th and 8th Grader gets their own iBook for school. Now we have a first of its kind program (in size/scope) to see that every child has money put away for their college. The blueberries and lobster isn't too bad, either.

Harold Alfond managed to do something that very few people ever manage to achieve...create something that will do "good"...indefinitely. Remarkable. I wonder when someone will build a monument to him.

Engineering a Solution to the "Library Problem"

A husband and wife pair of engineers had 3500 books and no shelving or organizational scheme. The solution is explored, in detail, at their blog Hackito Ergo Sum. It is a sound plan and they seem happy. All is well.

Interestingly, the "geek factor" of it was enough to get it posted on Slashdot (N.B. the couple hosts their blog on their own hardware and he wisely posted it immediately to /. to avoid having the hordes of /.ers crash his system. The posts there are a riot. My personal favorite:

Oh, painful memory (Score:5, Funny)

...of my ex-daughter-in-law, who decided to surprise me for my birthday by reorganizing my (3500) books:

By height.

Great fun, all around...

Quick blog update and a huge apology...

It has been too long since I updated my book blog list...and I am not really going to do so now as I just don't have the time. That said, I have to note a few things and make a big apology.

1: Don and Samantha Lindgren of Rabelais Books are blogging and is is great if you like cooking, food, wine, $300,000 fungi and pink sheep. I bought two copies of Beyond Nose to Tail for the holidays (one for my Brit. BiL and one for...er...me). It is a great read.

2: Bitch with Books is subtitled: "The Babble of a Bitter Book Seller, Bad Typer & Mostly Silly Girl"...all may be true, I just really like the blog name...and that she admits to playing D&D.

Finally, I have a huge and wildly embarrassing admission to make. I am very fond of a young man named Jeremy Dibbell. He is charming, funny and a wildly obsessive book human...all good things. He is also the scribe behind one of the few blogs that I check pretty much every day, PhiloBiblos where he blogs *much* more regularly than I about all the things that I wish I could blog about if I could find the time (he, clearly, is more organized that I). He even covers bookish events IN MAINE better than I...it is very sad. I have just discovered that despite my personal appreciation of his great blog, I had failed to include it in my list...because I cross-wired it in my marginally functioning brain with "Philobilon" (another bookish blog, but of a rather different bent...). Mea culpa. I have rectified it and do strongly suggest you stop reading my drivel and read Jeremy's far more cogent posts.

Art by writer's...well, art other than the written word...

John, of the Duck fame, recently emailed me about an exhibition he is hosting at the shop/gallery. The focus of the exhibit is of artwork created by those best known as writers. I've chatted with John about the event and it sounds like it is going to be an amazing show. I am posting the press release as it was sent:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Writer's Brush
An Exhibition of Art by Writers

15 December 2007 through 15 January 2007
Opening Reception 15 December 6-10 (or longer if we can stand it):

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are pleased (neigh unto delighted) to announce our next exhibition, a monumental show of visual art by writers, mounted in conjunction with the publication of the wonderful new book on the subject, entitled The Writer's Brush, by Donald Friedman, with supplementary essays by John Updike and William Gass (see the wonderful review in this week's New York Times Book Review).

The first leg of the show took place in New York in September and October at Anita Shapolsky Gallery, and our show is an expanded (and I hope improved) version of that event. It will run from the 15th of December through the 15th of January, with an opening reception on 15 December, at which Mr. Friedman and some of the writer/artists will be present and happy to sign or inscribe books. The show will go to Los Angeles from mid-February through mid-April at Denenberg Fine Arts (with a reception during the Los Angeles Antiquarian Book Fair), and perhaps then on to Houston. It will contain work by more than 120 writers, including:

Walter Abish, Rafael Alberti, Roberta Allen, A.R. Ammons, John Ashbery, Enid Bagnold, Amiri Baraka, Djuna Barnes, Mary Beach, Andrei Bely, Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Elizabeth Bishop, Star Black, Jorge Louis Borges, Breyten Breytenbach, Joseph Brodsky, Charles Bukowski, Gelett Burgess, David Burliuk, William Burroughs, Josef Capek, R.V. Cassill, G.K. Chesterton, Tom Clark, Daniel Clowes, Jean Cocteau, Norma Cole, Douglas Coupland, Morris Cox, Jim Crace, E.E. Cummings, Annie Dillard, J.P. Donleavy, John Dos Passos, Rikki Ducornet, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Durrell, Russell Edson, David Eggers, Kenward Elmslie, Mary Fabelli, Jules Feiffer, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jacopo Fijman, Charles Henri Ford, Federico Garcia Lorca, Kahlil Gibran, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Allen Ginsberg, Louise Gluck, Guenter Grass, Alasdair Gray, Nicolai Gumilov, Alan Gurganus, Brion Gysin, Donald Harrington, Hermann Hesse, Jack Hirschman, Susan Howe, Georges Hugnet, Victor Hugo, Aldous Huxley, Tama Janowitz, Charles Johnson, Donald Justice, Anna Kavan, Weldon Kees, Robert Kelly, Jack Kerouac, Maxine Hong Kingston, Bill Knott, Richard Kostelanetz, Alfred Kubin, D.H. Lawrence, Jonathan Lethem, Wyndham Lewis, Pierre Louys, Mina Loy, Lucebert, Clarence Major, Gerard Malanga, Andre Malraux, Robert Marshall, Henri Michaux, Leonard Michaels, Henri Michaux, Henry Miller, Susan Minot, Bradford Morrow, Walter Mosley, Vladimir Nabokov, Hugh Nissensen, Clifford Odets, Fernando del Paso, Kenneth Patchen, Mervyn Peake, Claude Pellieu, Francisco Picabia, Alexandra Pizarnik, Sylvia Plath, Beatrix Potter, Annie Proulx, James Purdy, Alexei Remizov, Kenneth Rexroth, Maclaren Ross, Peter Sacks, William Saroyan, Mira Schor, Maurice Sendak, Charles Simic, Patti Smith, William Jay Smith, Iris Smyles, Ralph Steadman, Mark Strand, Aldo Tembalini, Igor Terentiev, Cecilia Thaxter, Ruthven Todd, Frederic Tuten, Josef Vachal, Cecilia Vicuna, Tino Villanuevo, Kurt Vonnegut, Janwillwem van de Wetering, Derek Walcott, Keith Waldrop, Rosanna Warren, Lewis Warsh, Denton Welch, Marjorie Welish, Richard Wilbur, Tennessee Williams, Gahan Wilson, Stanislaw Witkiewicz and Unica Zuern (and a few others not all yet committed, if you can imagine that).

A catalogue will be made for the exhibition, with an introduction by the magnificent novelist Joseph McElroy.

Best wishes,
John Wronoski

Lame Duck Books
Pierre Menard Gallery
10-12 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-868-2022 (bookshop)
617-868-2033 (gallery)
617-407-6271 (mobile)

www.pierremenardgallery.com
www.lameduckbooks.com

Clearly, a trip to Boston is in order...

The conversion of the front room begins...

So here are some images of the front room for
comparison...the "before", as it were. The images cover the two walls that will be covered with bookcases. There will be shelves on both sides of the chimney and the chimney itself will be covered with wood paneling to tie it all together (we will also be covering the cheesy "rebuilt" bricks in tile...the best solution we could come up with short of rebuilding it.

We will be shelving over the radiator with a reflector and fan integrated into the design. That wall, once finished, should be quite lovely and will be the first thing one sees when they walk in.

The back wall (facing the bay window, the corner of which can be seen in the first image), will also be covered with shelving...running over the doors. My favorite part is that there will be a very narrow case running up between the two doors...basically wide enough for two or three books per shelf.

Built into the "end" of the of the case at the far left (just beyond the closet door) will be a ladder (to reach the top of the 11 foot shelves). My understanding is that there will be a "notch" at the end of the shelf at the wall so that the ladder can be held in place when not in use.

The "boxes" have been built and are being lacquered. We decided to paint them in the booth because it allows us to lacquer them...same color we intended, but *much* harder...it should hold up pretty much forever. We will be spraying the shelves, too...but then I will hand paint the trim fore-edge.

We have begun the painting the room...which is great because it gives that sense that something is actually happening. We are using Pratt & Lambert paints: Wolf (25-20) for the walls, Manchester (29-27) for the trim and shelves and Half-Tone (29-25) for the inside of the boxes. If you are *really* interested, you can "Launch Color Visualizer", choose "Explore our Colors" and type in the color code in the "Quick Search" field. In short, the walls will be a dark grey/clay, the trim a light grey and the inside of the boxes a sort of pewter. It should be quite striking in the end...or horrid. Time will tell.

Brian has moved in already and the rest of the floor is now filled with bubinga furniture. Brian is particularly fond of this wood and uses it a fair amount. I'll put up an image of the coffee table that will be in the front sometime soon. Amazing. More to follow as images/events require.

Wishing you happiness in this time of terror...or something

It has been too busy of late and I apologize for my silence, several quick posts to follow starting with:

The holiday music here is all brought courtesy of the fine folks at the H.P. Lovecraft Society. They offer not one but TWO collections of holiday music: A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice. Each arrives with its own songbook, what more can one ask for. OH, I know, you can get both of them in a limited edition tentacle stocking (mine, from last year, can be seen to the right).

I offer, for your holiday pleasure, the lyrics of my personal favorite, the "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

I know, I know, I posted the lyrics last year too...so what. It is great. I am going caroling in my neighborhood singing nothing but the Little Rare Book Room. Enough of this "good will to men" and "season of joy" blatherings...

HPLS has many other lovely holiday gifts, I highly recommend the Bibliophile t-shirt (no small praise as I tend to avoid t-shirts as much as possible). As I am on a bit of a Cthulhu run, I will also give a plug for a personal favorite of mine, Baby's First Mythos (I occasionally give this at holidays...and at every baby shower).