Return to Serendipity

Suz & I are digging through the shelves (& countless bags) the
afternoon.

Changes afoot here...please bear with us...

Apparently, I am one of the .5% of Blogger users that posts using FTP to my own domain. I've just learned that Blogger is going to stop supporting FTP as it is used by so few and is rather resource intensive for them.

I am in the process of deciding if this means I am going to shift to a different Blogger product/service or switch to a blog client that still supports FTP. The old school geek in me likes the idea of having all my bits on my own domain...but I must say I like some of the widgets, etc that would be available if I stick with Blogger.

Regardless, I'll do all I can to maintain things as they look and feel. Hope springs eternal.

Day Two in SanFran, Packing up, & another reason I am fond of Phillip Pirages

It was a quite a day. We started a bit late...arriving shortly after opening this morning. I think we both thought it opened at 11am...and we were good and early for that . Once there, things were great fun. We bought a lovely book this morning for a client...always nice when you can make a friend happy buy buying a good book and make one's clients happy for selling them a good book. Met some interesting folk during the day and sold a few more.... Happy book folk all around...

The show wrapped up at 5pm. We packed up our cases and turned them over to Caladex, a logistics company that specializes moving books, art and the like from point A to point B. In this case, the value of having them put my cases on a pallet, wrap them in plastic and take them down to LA where they will magically be waiting for me in my booth is of great value... We made it back to the hotel, had a nice, quick dinner with friends (and a very decedent desert: "funnel cake sunday"...every bit as healthy as it sounds).

A special thanks to Philip Pirages. At the end of the day, I changed into comfy cloths (and, most importantly, comfy shoes). When I changed in the men's room, I placed my iPhone, hotel key, a check or two and various other bits of brick-a-brac on the wee shelf. When I did this, I *consciously* thought, I must not forget these things. ... In the ensuing minute or two, I completely forgot them... Philip came by the booth about 15 minutes later, my wayward bits in hand, and asked if I was missing anything. I am very grateful to have friends and colleagues who try to save me from myself. Philip Pirages, purveyor of beautiful books and finder of misplaced critical items. Thank you, again.

Set-up for (and a great dinner in) San Francisco...

Well, we have made it safely...our books made it safely and all is well. We arrived on Tuesday and had the afternoon to have a wonderful late lunch at House of Nanking. I was lucky, several years ago, to have the person who first recommended it tell me to ignore the menu completely and ask that the chef just send out little things (the functional equiv. of dim sum). They ask how hungry you are (very) and they send out the right amount. We also discovered that they have a newly opened sister restaurant (see below). I also picked up three new books...woohoo.

Wed. Suzanne worked while I, too, worked...however, her work involved phone calls and reports and cogent mental efforts, whereas my work involved going out to North Berkeley and visiting one of the few truly great experiential shops in the US. It is difficult to say how much I

love Serendipity Books, Peter B. and the nature and spirit of the shop. I found a few things and took home something that has hung in the shop as long as I can remember...more on this at some point in the distant future.

We had a very nice dinner Wed. night at Miss Siagon with Brad and Jeniffer (of The Book Shop). The food was good, the company was better. We went back to the hotel (our strange and pleasing little literary themed inn down the road from the hall)...I catalogued for a bit but mostly rested up.

We were at the hall at 8am. I left at about 5pm. To be fair, I kibitzed a fair bit and even did a bit of shopping. Thee booth looks pretty good...amazing what having nice books to show will do for a booth . It is always amazing what comes out of the woodwork at fairs. Strong contingent of UK booksellers, all of whom will head down to LA next weekend. Really just a great group. It is shaping up to be a good show...now we just need humans to come wanting to buy books.

A pretty big group of us (10) all traipsed over to Fang, the recently opened "sister restaurant" to House of Nanking. We were able to do the same thing...that is, ask the chef to bring out surprises for us and he did a remarkable job. All told, about 13 dishes were brought out (including some alternatives for the two vegetarians in the party). The two standouts for me were the "duck bun appetizer" (think peking duck slider...very interesting and wonderfully flavorful) and the "Lettuce Beef" (no lettuce, wickedly good). I had a nice unfiltered sake. We finished with a complimentary little desert and a chinese liqueur that was a lovely, simple finish.

I've a few new slips to clip and then to sleep. Show opens at 10am. Come join us if you can.

Poem: Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh

From NYT PersonalTech: Digital Muse for Beat Poet:

Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh

By Gary Snyder

Because it broods under its hood like a perched falcon,

Because it jumps like a skittish horse and sometimes throws me,

Because it is poky when cold,

Because plastic is a sad, strong material that is charming to rodents,

Because it is flighty,

Because my mind flies into it through my fingers,

Because it leaps forward and backward, is an endless sniffer and searcher,

Because its keys click like hail on a boulder,

And it winks when it goes out,

And puts word-heaps in hoards for me, dozens of pockets of gold under boulders in streambeds, identical seedpods strong on a vine, or it stores bins of bolts;

And I lose them and find them,

Because whole worlds of writing can be boldly laid out and then highlighted and vanish in a flash at “delete,” so it teaches of impermanence and pain;

And because my computer and me are both brief in this world, both foolish, and we have earthly fates,

Because I have let it move in with me right inside the tent,

And it goes with me out every morning;

We fill up our baskets, get back home,

Feel rich, relax, I throw it a scrap and it hums.

[Copyright Gary Snyder, used by permission]

Recommended Inappropriate Books for Kids

Curious Pages is dedicated to recommending inappropriate books for kids. Their selections are wonderful, as are their images. I promise you will waste a good part of your day and, most likely, add it to your rss feed. It is my favorite recently discovered blog.

Ulysses as you've never Seen...

Can anyone truly doubt that had the technology existed, James Joyce would have written Ulysses as an illustrated web comic?

I didn't think so... To our great relief, Robert Berry has done a brilliant job adapting Joyce's tome to web-comic form at Ulyesses, "seen". It is worth every minute you spend with it.

Of Rare Books, Emerging Technology, and Social Networking...

There is a well-known curse, "may you live in interesting times". For the rare book world, times have seldom been more interesting (and here I speak only of the book trade, though the worlds of librarians, archivists, curators, etc have been similarly afflicted). The book trade has seen the death of book arbitrage, regional scarcity, and several of our beloved journals/institutions...we have seen a radical shift in the previously rather caste system of dealers and the emergence of a vast class of hobbyist "dealers"...we are in the midst of a radical shift from how the trade used to function to a newer-if not better, different-state of being (e.g. open shops dropping off droves, print catalogues becoming less common, the emergence of other venues for data transfer, etc).

At the same time, there are some really interesting elements emerging. As we seem to be losing one of the *critical* venues for the transfer of bibliophilic passion...the open shop...other venues finally seem to be emerging. The lose of the open shop has been worrying me a great deal for, as one who hopes to be wandering the stacks for many decades, I've been worried where the next generation (or two...or three) will be bitten by the biblio-bug. The primary petri dish has historically been open shops...you could go and hang out...handle books...talk with the owner(s) and similarly afflicted. You had a place you could *be* where you could handle books, listen, and learn. The loss of open shops has meant, in a real way, the loss of one of the primary gateway drugs that hook those so inclined and lead to more sophisticated distractions.

We are finally beginning to see some interesting and potentially important alternatives. As social networking sites have come into their own, we are seeing vibrant bibliophilic communities emerge. Facebook has dozens and dozen of Pages and Groups dedicated to authors, specific books, broad genres, periods, booksellers, printing, binding, etc. (Lux Mentis can be found here). Twitter has vibrant communities of librarians, booksellers, book lovers and, well, any number of other interest areas (Lux Mentis can be found here). Even "business networking" focused LinkedIn has interesting bibliophilic groups emerging (I can be found here). There is also the rather brilliant LibraryThing, a social networking site for booklovers where, among other things, you can post your collections, find others with similar interests and engage in any number of other distractions (I can be found here).

As one who spends a lot of time thinking about and exploring how to find/reach/engage the next generation of collector, I've spent a lot of time exploring these venues and am beginning to be pleased with what I'm finding. I've had dozens of "first contacts" by young (in the collecting arch, if not chronologically) collectors, asking interesting, engaged and/or curiosity questions and established collectors/clients tell me how much they enjoy the sense of community and ease of contact.

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of leveraging modern technology in an interesting way in the sale of a collection of Sommerset Maughan photographs. Not long ago, I'd have had to pack them off to the California dealer who I knew had a sophisticated collector of such material and then wait for him to be available and view the collection. Instead, she and I had an iSight based video conference...I held up each of the 110 photos, she did a screen capture of each one and threw them up on a unique webpage of thumbnail images. She then emailed her client a note saying she had something she thought he'd find interesting with the link to the page. He viewed it and responded very quickly that he wanted it all. From start to finish, it was about 24 hours...a wonderful improvement over the weeks or months it might have taken not that long ago.

Much more recently, I received a Twitter "Direct Message" (a message to a specific recipient that others can not see, as opposed to the norm that can be seen by the world). It was from someone I had never met, but "Followed" on Twitter as he did me (me, because he was clever, witty and posted consistently interesting things; he, because he clearly had too much time on his hands). It turns out he is a lit scholar and an extremely interesting gentleman. It also turned out he was assisting in placing a remarkable "lost" archive of the personal papers and manuscripts of Montague Summers (the full story has recently been published in the Antigonish Review). His DM, completely out of the blue, was to ask if I might be able to assist in placing the collection. One thing led to another, and I am very pleased to say that the archive is currently with me, being catalogued and prepared for, most likely, institutional placement.

While the scope and significance of the Summers collection is wonderful and far and away the important element of the transaction...the fact that I would *never* have had it *except* for Twitter is, I think, a fascinating element. It is a sign that new meeting places are beginning to gel and evolve into important forums for the trade (as seller, collector and/or dealer). The key, of course, is that it is not enough to simply hang a virtual sign...the onus is on you (collector or dealer) to connect. To talk. To post. To engage.

Interesting times, indeed.

Best recipe in years: Corn Soup with Candied Bacon and Chives

The brilliant and deranged mind of Portland Food Coma is to be thanked for this. I've made it several times now. Far and away the best soup I've made/had in years. Candied Bacon...it's not just for breakfast anymore:

Corn Soup with Candied Bacon and Chives

1 Tbl. Olive Oil
1 Small White Onion, Diced
2 Shallots, Diced
5 Garlic Cloves, peeled
3 Fresh Chilis - Preferably Cherry Peppers, Sliced
3 Cups Fresh Corn Kernels
1 lb. of good, thick slab bacon (grey salt and rosemary is nice).
Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1 Quart Whole Milk
1 1/12 Tbl. Ancho Chili Powder
1/2 Stick Butter or more........
Salt + Pepper
Chives, chopped for garnish
Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
1. Make the candied bacon. Lay all of the strips on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Sprinkle each with brown sugar and bake until golden and crispy. Remove to a paper towel to drain and chop up. You'll probably eat most of it before the soup's done.
2. Heat half of the oil and butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add Half Of the onion, shallots, and garlic and cook for 4 minutes.. Then add Half Of the corn and fresh chilis and cook for 3 minutes more - stirring frequently. Transfer contents of the pan into the food processor and add 1 cup of the milk. Process to a smooth puree. Now pour the puree through a mesh strainer to remove the skins of the corn (I like to use the back of a ladle to work it through [or a Foley Mill]). Repeat this step with the other half of the onion, garlic, shallots, corn, and chilis.
3. Return the pan to medium heat and pour the puree in, whisking frequently as it comes to a simmer. Be careful not to burn it at this point like I often do. Stir in the remaining milk, as well as the smoked chili powder, and simmer for a few minutes more. Add the cream, taking care the soup doesn't get too hot or it will break. Season with salt (I like alot of it but maybe that's why I have such high blood pressure) and pepper. Garnish with the candied bacon and chives. Serve.

Note: All soups get better overnight - and candied bacon is good for everything.

N.B. I used a wand to puree everything and a Foley Mill for the processing of the soup and thus could do it in a single batch. Seriously, buy a Foley Mill...outstanding kitchen tool.

Little Rare Book Room...My favorite holiday carol...

From the brilliant HP Lovecraft Society, please enjoy a favorite of mine, "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?