Packing for two shows...

It has been an interesting few days. I've reprinted all of my slips (I print a catalogue description for each book I bring to a show). I realized that I had at least two (and I am reasonably certain, three) iterations and I thought it would be nice to get them all the same (font, size, layout, etc). This takes time, but is reasonably brainless...which is very nice, as I have needed brainless work of late.

Packing is an entirely different matter. I am doing the NJ Antiquarian Fair on Feb 1-2 and the San Fransisco Book Fair on Feb. 9-10. Logistically, this means packing for both fairs pretty much...er...now. The SF books need to be shipped at the beginning of next week and the NJ books go with me on Thursday of next week. I probably should have paid attention to these dates when signing up *wry smile*. I have to small Pelican carry-on bags and small and sexy bits will go to NJ and SF...but I am otherwise having to vette what goes to which show.

It has been interesting, as I am being much more "thoughtful" about what goes where as I usually am. I usually take the "this is a sexy/fun/interesting/unusual book, I'll take it" appraoch. Now I am trying to be a bit more cogent in my approach as to what goes were...I am deliberately not bringing many art/architecture to the west coast (coated clay paper weighs a great deal, etc) and paying a bit more attention to "east coast/west coast" flavoring. The ultimate result appears to be that I'm adding quite a bit of "new" material to the corpus of both show piles. That, and I am doing way more work preparing for these two shows than I should be....

On the upside, this process has also allowed me to code material going to shows in such as way that I can print show catalogues as take-aways for clients and potential clients. That, alone, pretty much justifies the work. Back to the cutting....