An intellegintly designed alternative....

A prof. in Swarthmore's Biology department is offering this handy sheet of Textbook Disclaimers. It includes many for those annoying theories like gravity, special relativity and that whole "spherical earth" hogwash. Oh, and this one:

This book discusses evolution. President George W. Bush said, "On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth." Therefore, until 2009 this material shood be aproched with an open mind, studeed carefuly, and critcly consid'rd.

He also has a great page title "Evolution Outreach Projects - Part of the Axis of Evo". From his site, a great quotation from Darwin, himself:

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

Don't miss the "Darwin has a Posse' page. Also, there are only 350 days until Charles Darwin's 200th birthday (12th February, 2009). Mark your calendars now....

Libraries of the world (Set Two)

Here is your next installment of overly lovely libraries (many more to follow).

Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra - Coimbra, Portugal


Biblioteca Di Bella Arti - Milan, Italy


Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I - Lisbon Coast, Portugal



Biblioteca do Palacio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III - Lisbon, Portugal


Bernadotte Library - Stockholm, Sweden


Beatus Rhenanus Library - Basel Switzerland


Biblioteca Palafoxiana - Puebla, Mexico


Biblioteca Angelica - Rome, Italy

Aesthetically pleasing libraries (Part 1)

Courtesy of my mother (a medical librarian) and from her friend, Juan Maria de la Camara de las Heras, of the Hospital-Ribera in Valencia, Spain, I offer the following series of images of libraries. I will post about five each day until I run out. It is unclear whether Juan took the pictures himself...regardless, they are exceptional. Enjoy.

The images are:

Strahov Monestary Library, Prague

Strahov Theolog. Hall (orig. Baroque cabinets)

Strahov Theolog. Hall (stat. of John the Evangelist holding a book)

August Herzog Library, Wolfenbuttel, Germany

Angelica Library, Rome Italy

Abby Library, Gallen Switzerland

Day three, pack out and home....

The nicest day thus far for the weekend. Sun was out, sky was blue and there were some humans present (and cheerful). We had breakfast again at Hudson Deli and headed for the show well sated. Bought a handful of nice things.

It seemed to start a bit slower, but picked up quickly and was rather steady through the day. Several sales and what will, with luck, turn out to be good first contacts. Overall, a very nice day.

It was a great fair. Well run and painless. Our location does not make me jump with joy, but it has potential. We have not figured out what our schedule looks like for next year, but this would definitely be on our short list for another go.

I did manage to be either the last one out or very close to it (I *might* have beaten Bruce out by a step or two). My assistant, while very good and moderately helpful, was not particularly strong on the packing/lifting/sorting front....though very good on the overt cuteness and cheery disposition fronts...which are good, too.

We were out at 7pm. Made it to Reins Deli for a late dinner that was extremely entertaining (more on this later) and made it home around 1am. Eli slept the vast majority of the way...which was the rational thing to do.

Addendum: There will be a follow-up to this weekend re my assistant...including tales of adventure and chopped liver (and, possibly, a pod containing my real son).

Greenwich Day Two...

Note to self, being effectively the last booth as people exit a fair is nice...as everyone pretty much has to go by you...but is not so nice as many/most are so spent by that time that they wander by, dazed and confused and wanting nothing more than to flee. This is the conclusion John and I have arrived at...such is life. It was a good day, just the same.

We started the day comfortably...leisurely morning rituals followed by a nice deli breakfast. The show ran from 12 to 6. It was supposed to be done at 5...but apparently those not in the other room near the exit thought staying there an extra hour would be great fun. It was nice for customers and I can't begrudge it at all. Eli was really great. Overall, very nice and charming and generally the best boy he could be. His reward for this exceptional behavior was a swim in the pool here at the hotel until he got good and prunny (the surest sign of a good swim).

Lots of nice conversations and a good deal of interest in a number of things....we shall see. The highpoint, so to speak, of the day was the amazing spread put out be the fine folks at Pryor and Johnson. At the end of the day, around 4pm (who knew we would be open another 2 hours), they put out fresh fruit, a wide selection of wonderful cheeses, about 5 pounds of pate, shrimp, smoked salmon, etc....and liquor. Nice wines, very nice ports and whiskeys, etc. I had some cheese and fruit and a finger or so of Balvenie Portwood 21 Year Old Single Malt. If I ever produce a book fair, they are my first call (I will not, ever, produce a book fair...ever).

Show opens tomorrow at 12. Closes for good at 4pm (unless, perhaps, the front room decides we should stay until early evening) and then pack up and, most likely, the long drive home. Then no show until March and St. Petersburg.

Greenwich Village book fair - Adventure Day One

What a horrible and great day...and how often can you say something like that. We drove down on Thursday to Tarry Town to our current favorite "just out of the city with free parking and a pool" hotel (the Marriot). The drive down was fast and uneventful. I have my youngest assistant with me (pictures tomorrow). My son (6) Eli was great fun on the drive and has a strange obsession with hotels. He has asked several times if we can live here forever.

The drive into the city was exciting...in that "oh my god, I hope we don't die". I deliberately waited a bit to start in, in hopes that they would clear all the rush-hour accidents off the road. This turned out to be the right call. It was a long, slow drive (about an hour and fifteen minutes to do what should have been about an half hour drive). We passed several accidents and watched an SUV do a very exciting series of 360s down the middle of 287 (but did not hit anything). It was one of those "I know I can drive in this safely, but all these other whack-jobs are seriously unknown quantities". In the end, we made it in safe and sound, found the school in the Village where the show is being held.

I managed to hurt my lower back the day before I left for the fair and had promised my wife that I would, for the first time, hire porters to carry in my boxes. My shipping boxes came back from San Francisco and I did not repack things...I just threw them into the van with some additional material and hit the road. The net result of this is that I had 8 boxes in the 65 to 75 pound range plus my other stuff. They do not have "porters" at this fair, they have "stevedores" (mind you, a stevedore is "a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port"...but that is hair splitting.). That is, you hear "stevedore" and you picture big muscular guys who wrestle shipping crates for a living.

The first two pictures are the stevedores I was assigned. As you can see, burly dock workers able to move anything not bolted down *laughing*. They were wonderful. I convinced them to take a handle each (yet another reason Pelican cases rock) and they handled everything with aplomb. I did not let them schlep the plate display case...I just couldn't. I recommended them resoundingly to all others as people traipsed in...I hope they had a good day (this fair is, as I understand it, a fund-raiser for the school).

I managed to get in around 11:30am or so...the show started this evening at 6pm...that is, I had about 6.5 hours to set up. Anyone who knows me, knows I can set up a booth in no less than 5 hours...don't ask, I'm just that pathetic. That is, generally, with a real assistant (wife, mother or some other long-suffering supporter). Here I had my six year old son, Eli. In the end, not only was I able to get set up...and reasonably well, at that...but we were able to get it done *with* time to go down and enjoy the wonderful dinner the school provided for attendees (great salads, hummus, sushi, chicken and drinks). Ok, admittedly, only just barely...but it really was "ready" by 6pm.

Eli was reasonably helpful and especially helpful re all things I loath doing (crawling about on the floor running extension cords and the like). Once the fair started, he sat in our chair and played game boy and responded in very cute fashion to the myriad of people who asked him questions. I am hoping he tries to hand-sell his book tomorrow (he has an inscribed copy of "The Book that Jack Wrote" by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Dan Adel). He helped research and write the description and is pretty excited about it. He was truly on his very best behavior. He might have received a Sky-High Sunday when he got back to the hotel.

Lots of people, good stickiness and some good sales. A great start to a show. However, a wildly long day and I need sleep. Show starts tomorrow at 12 noon and runs to 5pm. Come and visit...better yet, buy a book.

I've lost a human (or, at least, his number)...

Here is hoping that the very nice binder who called me some time ago regarding Dr. Syntax might call me again. I have the set in hand, but as the dust settled from my recent spat of shows, I've realized I locate your contact information. It is a grey and foggy day...I should just go to bed.

Pretty big news for strange little me...

I just received official word that I was voted into the ABAA (and, thus, ILAB) at the meeting during the ABAA fair in LA. I am, needless to say, pretty excited and pleased by this.

I am in the midst of recovering from plague, and this news has made my day (admittedly, it also would have made my day were I well, but it is especially nice to get really good news when feeling punky). I think I am going to make a nice pot of tea and bask in (or wallow in, as the case may be) my warm, fuzzy feelings.

I would like to thank my sponsors: Priscilla Juvelis (primary), Dennis Melhouse and Jim Logan. I truly appreciate their support, encouragement and mentor-ship. It has meant (and will continue to mean) a great deal to me personally and professionally. I will do my best not to make them regret their support *laughing*.

Congradulations to the two other new members voted in at the LA meeting: John Kuenzig and Joseph Bray. Bully for us all!

Addendum rant: Sex, violence and forfeiting civil liberties...

Ok, I'm still annoyed and have found solace in the intellectual arms (and humor) of Henry Rollins. I offer for your enjoyment two of the gems from the past: his Letter to the FCC (sex bad, violence good) [N.B. there are some bad words used in these clips...if such offends you, go elsewhere]


This one is Henry feeling a bit annoyed about the assault on civil liberties that has been a major theme of the White House for the past several years.



I don't know about you...but I feel better after listening to Henry. Remember, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)

Annoyed by stupidity today.... [Warning: Rant]

We have Congress about to cave on yet another fear-mongering attack on privacy and on the Constitution (and a simultaneous broadening/gutting of FISA), Bernanke is poised to cut rates yet again in an attempt to stave off a recession and the House has approved contempt citations against Bush minions amid teeth gnashing...but what is getting the most focus by the press: Jane Fonda said the word "Cunt" on the Today show.

Fonda, 70, is part of the the 10th Anniversary performance of "The Vagina Monologues." She is reading a monologue *titled* "Cunt" and said the name of the piece on air. That the piece revolves around de-mystification of its subject matter and female empowerment and getting *beyond* pejorative linguistic associations appears to have been COMPLETELY LOST on Meredith and the Today Show folks. They issued a public "apology" for the "remark" and people have been blathering about it ever since.

Mind you, according to that fount of knowledge Wikipedia

the Vagina Monologues has been translated into 45 different languages and performed in over 119 countries. Celebrities who have starred in the play include: Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Idina Menzel, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon and Oprah Winfrey. Ensler [the author] was awarded the Obie Award in 1996 for ‘Best New Play’ and in 1999 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting. She has also received the Berrilla-Kerr Award for Playwriting, the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, and the Jury Award for Theater at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

What the hell is going on in this country when no one apologizes for the ongoing rape of our Constitution over the last 7 years or so but public apologies are required for stating the title of a monologue. No one seems to be apologizing for fiscal mis-management that my great-grandchildren will still be dealing with...but people are prostrating themselves to make amends for the "damage" done by a word. Truly, this country is doomed if we can't do any better than this in vetting the wheat from the chaff as to what actually MATTERS in this country.

[Mind you, it is an offensive word and one that I generally avoid. However, it is the nature of its burden and weighted meaning that *gives* it such power in this context....the irony of the apology is sadly rich...]

ADDENDUM: Apparently, this catastrophic embarrassment to the core of the American ideal has also fallen to the wayside... While it is clear that "dirty words" trump government sponsored torture, recessions, undermining the 4th Amendment and nearly all other minor issues....*nothing* beats a mass shooting at a college. The US media pigs will be feeding at NIU's trough for days. I guess I should be thankful that international news streams are so easy to follow these days (CNN's front page is focused on the shooting with supporting tales of a 10 year old who shot his sister over chips and Valentine's Day "moolah"....BBC's lead story is "

Bush defends US record on Darfur" and Hezbollah's current threat to Israel, etc....you know, news). It is really bloody sad that the best source for news *about* this country come from *outside* this country....except of course for the violent or prurient, that we do better than anyone. I'm going to bed, maybe it will be better tomorrow....or at least I'll be less annoyed.

Results are in for the First (and hopefully not last) Ancient Near Eastern Valentine Contest

Eisenbrauns (biblical and near eastern biblio-specialists) has announced the winners of their Ancient Near Eastern Valentine Contest. The winner can be seen at the right and translates:

I love you.
I’m going to steal your heart
Because I am hungry for your love.
There is no other woman in my heart.
Unloose the bolt to your heart.
Dance with me till the land brightens.
You are my first, my end, my everything.

Heaven on earth is being in your embrace.
You are beautiful of face.
Your body is carved in alabaster.
I adore you like a flower or a star.
You are my first, my end, my everything.

I taste your lips and they are like a soft breeze.
I smell your perfume.
You are a goddess to me.
I was blind but with you I see.
I will take away your clothes
Because we wish to make love.
I breathe upon your body,
Making you tremble with exultation.
I kiss every place of your body.
You fill me with desire.
I will obey your every command.
I can’t stop loving you.
I love you.

Please note that the image is not pure digital, but was apparently hand-drawn (or hand-burned)...just wonderful. Also, don't miss the .mp3 that accompanies honorably third place winner: The Cyprosyrian Girl.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Another (better) report of the SF Fair...

Chris Lowenstein of Bookhunter's Holiday has posted a great and detailed overview of the SF show and her adventures there. It is a great read...and I am stealing several items off her show check list. Chris and I chatted at the show, but too briefly as I was still in set up mode and later failed to follow-up. An oversight I will have to make amends for down the line.

Grammar wonks rejoice:

Some of you likely know that Paul Brians wrote a lovely book called, "Common Errors in English. However, did you know that pretty much the entire book is available at his website in an easy to search format? I offer the following (recently explored on one of the biblio list groups) example:

I/me/myself
In the old days when people studied traditional grammar, we could simply say, “The first person singular pronoun is “I” when it’s a subject and “me” when it’s an object,” but now few people know what that means. Let’s see if we can apply some common sense here. The misuse of “I” and “myself” for “me” is caused by nervousness about “me.” Educated people know that “Jim and me is goin’ down to slop the hogs,” is not elegant speech, not “correct.” It should be “Jim and I” because if I were slopping the hogs alone I would never say “Me is going. . . .” If you refer to yourself first, the same rule applies: It’s not “Me and Jim are going” but “I and Jim are going.”

So far so good. But the notion that there is something wrong with “me” leads people to overcorrect and avoid it where it is perfectly appropriate. People will say “The document had to be signed by both Susan and I” when the correct statement would be, “The document had to be signed by both Susan and me.” Trying even harder to avoid the lowly “me,” many people will substitute “myself,” as in “The suspect uttered epithets at Officer O’Leary and myself.”

“Myself” is no better than “I” as an object. “Myself” is not a sort of all-purpose intensive form of “me” or “I.” Use “myself” only when you have used “I” earlier in the same sentence: “I am not particularly fond of goat cheese myself.” “I kept half the loot for myself.” All this confusion can easily be avoided if you just remove the second party from the sentences where you feel tempted to use “myself” as an object or feel nervous about “me.” You wouldn’t say, “The IRS sent the refund check to I,” so you shouldn’t say “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and I” either. And you shouldn’t say “to my wife and myself.” The only correct way to say this is, “The IRS sent the refund check to my wife and me.” Still sounds too casual? Get over it.

On a related point, those who continue to announce “It is I” have traditional grammatical correctness on their side, but they are vastly outnumbered by those who proudly boast “it’s me!” There’s not much that can be done about this now. Similarly, if a caller asks for Susan and Susan answers “This is she,” her somewhat antiquated correctness is likely to startle the questioner into confusion.

He covers pretty much all the biggies, including one of my most favorite abominations, the use of "impact" as a verb and another of my favorites, "affect vs effect". As a bonus, there is a great list of grammatically fun sites at the bottom of the page. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin

Today is Darwin's 199th birthday. Only 365 days to plan for his big one next year.

I wonder if Mike "I don't believe in evolution" Huckabee is celebrating...

Day Two in SF, packing up and heading East..

We staggered in on Sunday around 9am. The show opened at 10am and ran until 5pm. There was again a small crowd waiting to get in and traffic, while slightly lighter, was reasonably steady on Sunday. Interestingly, and important for our weekend, people seemed more willing to pull the trigger today.

I bought some great/fun stuff...mostly on behalf of clients, some for stock. I picked up a nice, inscribed copy of Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales for Eli (he will probably want to hand-sell it in Greenwich Village). I also bought a great little collection of P.K. Dick material from Brian....and sold him some nice west coast Beat material. Overall, the fair was great fun...reasonably strong selling, great buying...almost an over-abundance of options (there were a *lot* of dealers).

I discovered a good thing: When "packing up" entails just packeding ones books into crates and leaving them to be taken away, packing up is relatively painless. We said goodbye to people and went to dinner before heading out to the airport.

Our plane was late, but the airline was kind enough to call us around 6pm to tell us so, and we were thus able to reschedule our shuttle a bit later and have one last dinner in SF (Indian). We made it out to SFO, boarded about when we expected (1am) and I took some TylenolPM and slipped into a slightly contorted coma (though we did get emergency exit rows, which made the trip much better). Landed in Boston, caught the express bus at the airport, watched the Italian Job and were deposited at our car. I had fantasies about getting work done today....but I think a continuation of my coma state is probably the best idea. Can't wait to go out next year. [N.B. There are some bonus pictures and as soon as I unpack my camera, the likilihood of them getting posted radically increases....]

Day One in SF

Quick breakfast and we were off to the Concourse. There was a line forming when we arrived (about a hour before opening). Went in, tidied up, turned the lights on and did a bit of shopping and waited for the proper opening.

The fair was steady through most of the day. A lot of looking, a few actually buying...a lot of "engagement" and interesting conversations. It seemed very nice to us (first timers), though we did here some complaining from others (though complaining is an integral part of doing shows .

It was a very long day (show opened at 10am, we were there around 9am...we did not close until 7pm). 10 hours is a long time for anything...standing on concrete is is just painful.

We demurred from one dinner offer because after the day, we just couldn't bring ourselves to figure out how to over the bay bridge before bed. They had a great time without us (and did not wrap up until 1am or so)

We had dinner with my Craig Harris again and with one of my more favorite humans on earth, Brian Cassidy. Nice Irish place right off Bush Street. The drinks were good (Smithwicks and Manhattans) and the food hit the spot (around the table we had fish and chips, shepherds pie and rubens). Good drink, good food, good fun. Nice wrap to a fun day.

Set in SF and a very fun evening....

So after another very nice breakfast at what is rapidly becoming our favorite hotel, we were off to the Concourse. We toyed with walking, but ended up in a cab as we had our carry-ons and show bag and misc. other bits of brick-a-braq. It is only about 1.1 miles from the venue and we were there in short order.

We arrived and found pretty much exactly what can be seen in the first image [N.B. If you right click on any of these pictures (or yesterday's, etc) and choose open in a new tab (or window) and it will open a really nice big image]. It is a big and reasonably well lit hall and the pipe-and-drape system is interesting and quite elegantly designed. Best of all, they is designed to "take" adjustable shelving. I've never seen this before, but it let us put up a "top" shelf, above the folding shelves, to display some oversized books and plate sets in a nice way. When we made it to our booth, we found our 13 big black cases waiting for us (8 of ours, 5 of Don's). Having schlepped a booth full of cases into a hall the previous week, I can not express how nice it was to see that big pile happily waiting for us.

We shoved the big cases around a little bit and figured out a way to use some of the extra tables we found stacked in our booth. We ended up with a big trophy on each "side" with a four-foot peninsula at the center and we each have one eight-foot table down the side. The center counter case is slightly off center which allowed use to tuck in a little four-foot table on Don's side (at least a picture or two tomorrow showing the entire booth...Don was not set up before we finished). We ended up pulling our big table forward a bit and staking some of the Pelican cases and covering them with the very red plastic table cloth(ish) material we found in the booth...anything for a bit more horizontal surface(s).

Once we got the tables set up and the shelves up, everything just fell into place nicely. Oh, we checked all our leg supports and shelf supports in the cases. I can not stress strongly enough how important it is to check them. I saw a table go down on someone a year go or so and never want it to be me...and did have a shelf let go (luckily, it was with the first book placed and it had not fully left my grip. I check *carefully* before each setup.

We've sold a handful of things...sadly, one of them being one of the items I was most amused to bring out to this show (more on this in a later post). The booth is set up and ready for the morning. I have had email from a half-dozen people or so who have told me they are coming and tomorrow should be really fun.

We left well before set-up finished (close to a first for us (read, "me"). We walked, uphill, to the hotel to get ready to meet some of Suzanne's friends. San Francisco is a great city...in desperate need of an ironing. We met Suzanne's friends at Bourbon & Branch, a speakeasy cocktail bar a few blocks away (down). Reservations strongly recommended, you get a password to get into the unmarked door. It is very well designed, has a great feel and you can actually have a pleasant conversation with your friends without shouting. The drinks were great, the company even better. It was really a place. We left, picked up some great Pakistani food on the way back (up) to the hotel and called it a night. Show starts at 10 tomorrow.

Serendipity at Serendipity (or: how I spent the nicest afternoon I can recall)

So shortly after my last post I set out for Serendipity Book in Berkley. The shop is legendary, as its owner, Peter B. Howard. One of the things I was looking forward to on this trip out, and part of the reason I came out early was to be able to spend time at this shop. Six hours later, I can attest that it was one of the very best days I've I had in a long time and that I only just scratched the surface (I did not even get upstairs at all.

The definition of serendipity is the art of finding something while seeking something else. I suggest it is impossible to enter Peter B.'s shop seeking X and not finding wonderful copies of A, G, Q, V and Z. There are just so many books...great books, unique association copies, you name it...that you simply can't process it. I arrives shortly before noontime and do not think I left until around 6pm or so. I spent the first hour or so just wandering around the labyrinth-like rooms and sub-rooms, trying to make some sort of sense of where to start and how to proceed. Ultimately, I started and the front and worked back (to the back of the front room....argh).

A quick description of the pictures might help. The first is taken at the front doors looking in, diagonally across the front room (in the shot, r to l, are Joe Maynard, David Bergman and Peter B. (seated)). The next image is looking at the front wall from about the middle of the room [N.B. the white space above the windows is at 8 or 9 feetish...and then there is another five vertical feet of books...I have not idea what is up there, but I want to know...]. The next is looking down the main side room, brown bags filled with amazing things, you carefully go down through bits of this and that and suddenly happen upon something remarkable...serendipity, indeed [N.B. at the right side you can see one of the two sets of sliding shelves allowing Peter B. to keep far too many good books on site]. Finally, though hard to see, is the two volume set of The Key to Serendipity [Vol. 1, How to Buy Books from Peter B. Howard and Vol. 2, How to Find Books in Spite of Peter B. Howard]. Every shop should require at least one book to understand its working and nuances....some obviously might need two...or more.

It took a great deal of self control, but I managed to only leave with a half dozen books. The range of what I took home gives a great micro-glance of the shop. Item 1: a wonderful little collection of hand-colored erotic plates of the The Seven Deadly Sins; Item 2: a lovely copy of a Nonesuch Press volume that is very hard to find in nice condition; Item 3: a 1803 imprint of Astle's The Origin and Progress of Writing in the remains of its original binding (and with all its fabulous plates present). Just a ridiculously diverse group of serendipitously found books.

To top off a lovely day, I managed not to have to ride the BART back as Craig Harris (Bridge of Dreams) was in the shop for most of the afternoon and offered to drive me (and my new friends) back to the hotel. We were joined my Suzanne (who had been working in the hotel all day) and went out for a nice dinner of Greek food. Yum.

Set-up is tomorrow, starting at 9am. I'll keep you posted.

Morning, heading out and Obamerama...

Good morning campers. I feel human again. It is quite shocking. I slept well and long. The water pressure here is such that it can be adjusted to "painful" (something that I wish I could do at home). Breakfast was, as promised, a treat. Great coffee, fresh pastries (the little wild blueberry and mandarin orange danishes were amazing), wild mushroom quiche, sausage and a sort of french toast strata just scratches the surface. It was very good.

We were joined at breakfast by one of Suzanne's classmates from HBS. VC, investment banking, smelt breeding research and the book trade makes for fun and strange conversation.

I checked email before heading off to do some booking hunting and found a message from a friend who is doing some work with/for the Obama campaign. I clicked the link included in his missive and was brought to the page clipped above. It is a very good sign, I think, when support for your campaign is such that it manages to overwhelm your rather robust ecomm servers. Doubly interesting that basically at the same time Hillary is having to loan her campaign $5MM, Obamerama's campaign has raised over $7MM. It is going to be a fun few more weeks...

Go West, young man...the joys of modern air travel…

So we woke at 2ish am and drove to the bus station where we loaded up and were off promptly at 3:15am. Two hours, some nice orange juice and rewatching The Queen (in which, Helen Mirren does not “get her kit off” (one of my all time favorite actress quotations)) later and we were at Logan.

There were at least two other dealers on theWe arrived around 5am and got our bags check and were through security in short order - next time everything gets shipped except our carry-ons and clothing. Then came the sitting while trying not to drift off (and miss the flight). flight this morn. The flight was...er...long...and torturous…

Not all that long ago, I flew frequently. I flew frequently for long distances. It never bothered me. That is not the case any longer. I am, I guess, older, bigger, grumpier and/or the airlines have shrunk, you know, everything… The only saving grace was that the gentleman ahead of me did not opt to tilt his seat back…

We arrived at about 11:15am (reflecting the wonderful loss of 3 hours on the way out that are, wickedly, returned to us on the way back). From there, the day radically improved.

We check into the Petite Auberge on Bush St. We have a lovely little room overlooking the private courtyard. I am typing this in the common room downstairs, nibbling on a very nice roasted mushroom spread on fresh french bread and sipping sherry. All hotels should have hors d’overes and wine/sherry in the afternoons. I can’t wait until breakfast in the morning (we are staying here because it is one of my parent’s favorite hotels, 26 rooms and just wonderful). We had a lovely time chatting with a family from Australia here for the weekend.

After checking in, we wandered over to Chinatown. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year and it was very festive and fun to poke about the shops. We had dim sum for lunch at House of Nan King and that was great. Unusual dim sum, no carts, you just say you want it and the chef sends out plate after plate of wonderful things until you realize you have grossly overeaten. Yum.

Serendipity Books and others tomorrow. I’m going to go slip into a coma.

Packed and ready...and still have about 1.5 hours to

sleep... It is 12:20am. We leave on the 3:15am bus for Logan Airport (it is the best way to get from Portland to Logan...get on, watch a movie/sleep, wake up at Logan). So I can sleep from now until about 2am or so. On the plus side, we are on a direct flight to SFO (read, lots of sleep time) and, best of all, we get into SF before noon and can run amok all day. I can almost taste the dim sum.

Someday I will learn the art of packing light. That is clearly not the case this time around.

We are hoping to spend most of the day on Thurs. at Serendipity Books and are hoping to get by Tavistock Books and whomever else we happen upon. We have confirmation that all our cases have arrived and will be in our booth(s) for setup. It appears that air travel is smooth for the next 24 hours (knock on wood). All is looking well.

Hope to see you in SF. I'll post again as soon as I am able.

Day Two and wrap up of NJ 2008

Just a quick update as I need to get on the road pretty soon and head north. After a very rainy, icy and generally slow start, day two started with a blue sky and about twice as warm. While it remained somewhat slow, overall it was a pretty good show.

As a general rule, a great show is one where you have strong sales *and* good buying opportunities. An icky show is one where sales are soft and there is nothing to to buy. Good shows can cut either way, good sales but nothing to buy or soft sales but good buying. This show fell into the "soft sales but good buying" category.

I did have one sale that made me extremely happy. A very young lady (12ish) and her mom were spending a fair bit of time looking at two different unusual Bemelmans' titles. I asked if I could be of assistance, assuming it was the mom that was interested, only to learn that it was the young lady who was very interested in Bemelmans, having started with Madeline and moved on. We had a very nice conversation about him (and Thurber and White). She pretty much made my day.

The buying at the fair was pretty great. I picked up a wonderful Witken volume inscribed by the artist to another (lesser known) photographer. I picked up a nice copy of Corso's, Bomb that should be fun to have in SF (the poem itself is in the shape of a mushroom cloud; the work is second, arguably, only to Howl as to defining the core of the Beat voice). I found a Lowenfels volume with an exceptional Rockwell Kent DJ that I have never seen before and a smattering of other fun things. I'll probably post on one or two of them shortly. We shall see.

Two images: the first is most of the booth and my mother's decapitated head (as a general rule, it is not nice to decapitate one's mother, but every now and then it can't be helped). The other is the *real* reason my mother wanted to come...my slightly over 1 year old nephew, Oliver. It was his first book fair and he was very excited.

Set up, evening show and dinner...

Well, the day started in a sketchy fashion. We left my sister's at about 8am and there was a very nice coating of ice over...well...just about everything. As we left on the route we wanted to go (to avoid the *huge* 45-degree hill leading down from the strange little spot were my sister lives), we found the road blocked by a school bus that had skidded to a stop blocking the road and taking down someones small fense. We managed to get our heavily loaded van down this huge hill with great care and at about 5 miles an hour or so. Once we got on 80, it was not too bad....very slow, but we arrived safely and a bit early. Best yet, I was able to park under the covered walkway which was good as it was raining quite hard.

Mom and Eli helped with the set-up. We had a nice lunch and I was completely ready with about a hour and a half to rest and prepare. It was quite a new experience *pathetic smile*. The show started at 5pm with a small group of bookish folks braving the weather to poke about. We had a sale or two, which is nice and bought some pretty nice/unusual material. There is some really wonderful stuff hiding in booths here in NJ. Details and some photos to follow.

This show has a dinner following the first night for attendees and a poker game for those so inclined following the meal. The dinner was nice, good salad options and three different meats (chicken, pork and beef, each in their own, very healthy, sauce). I could feel an artery harden in my chest while just looking at the options. OH, and a very nice cheese cake for dessert. The only problem was, there were only 3 8 foot tables and I made the grievous error of changing my cloths before dinner and thus ended up in the final 10ish people and tableless.

Gary Austin (Austin's Books and the promoter of this show) did his usual masterful job of dealing with problems and had a new table rolled in and set up for the nomads. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I used the interim to take me nicely loaded plate of food back to my room. I am very fond of many of the people here and I *know* I should have hung out and eaten there and had some drinks, etc. To be honest, however, I was up really early (for the x-th day in a row), started it with a very stressful drive, set up the booth and then did a show for 4 hours. I just *really* wanted to change into sweats and go to bed. So I did.

Night all. Tomorrow should be great fun. Starts at 10am, runs until 5 (I think). We'll then pack up and go to my sister's for the evening. Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue.