Day one at the Boston ABAA 2008 fair...

It has been a 13++ hour day, so this shall be short and I am beyond tired. Set-up started at 8am and we got the infrastructure up quickly across the back of the double booth we are sharing with Kelmscott Books. We ran our shelves and shelf-spans across the entire back of the booth (three 8 foot tables) and strung our lights across the back. It all tied together really well...

Due to reasons that will not be explored here, catering was taken care of by Au Bon Pain...coffee and pastries in the morning and very yummy boxed lunches for...well...lunch. They even threw in a really nice cup of soup. I know there were a lot of moving parts in making the food work and I think the results were absolutely first rate. Not only was the food great, but the people tending to it and assisting were very pleasant and helpful. It was very nice.

The booth looked great at opening. Our two booths "fit" really well and it really came off looking like one very huge booth full of good, strange, wonderful, sexy, significant and/or just plain fabulous booth. I think Fran and Co. are similarly pleased (at least I hope so...).

Show opened at 5pm with a good long line at the door and it really stayed strong and steady until the closing at 9pm. We had some good sales and some very strong interest in some of our more interesting/complex/signficant items...which is very nice. We'll just have to wait and see what comes from all the interest. Best of all, we had some great "stickiness"...many very engaged visitors, asking great questions and really interested and engaged in all they were seeing. It is so much fun to see so many bibliophiles in one place.

Tomorrow should be another long day. We start at 9am over at the shadow show being held at The Castle. Then our show starts at 12pm and runs until 7pm (if I promised you passes, they are at Will Call). After the fair tomorrow, we will be going over to Lame Duck Books to enjoy John's hospitality (roast boar is again on the menu...it should be a treats, more to follow). I'll try to post another update when I manage to drag myself home tomorrow...hope springs eternal...

On very slightly related matters, Apple has been kind enough to move their flagship Boston store across the street from the Hynes. It is three stories, very pretty and when we were leaving the show, they had a live band playing up on the third floor. Too much fun...