Fosters - Australian for Beer, McCullough- New South Walesian for Literature

Two of my favorite authors are Morris West - The Shoes of the Fisherman, et seq - and Colleen McCullough who had many of her books made into big- and small- screen productions. For example:
    * Tim - movie,  1979 with Mel Gibson and Piper Laurie
    * The Thorn Birds - TV miniseries, 1983 with Richard Chamberlain
    * An Indecent Obsession -  movie in 1985 starring Gary Sweet
    *  Rome - miniseries HBO. With Kevin McKidd

Do You Know the Way to Sanjulian ?

Robert E. Howard's heroic fantasy is highly collectible - you know: Conan the Arnold before he became Guvuhn Ore, and when he couldn't speak English a little. Although Frank Frazetta did much of the cover art for the paperbacks, we found one of the Bran Mak Morn books today, with cover art by Manuel Pérez Clemente.

The When of Book Clubs

We were on the road yesterday, and Barbara asked me about the origin of Book Clubs, since we do carry some book club editions in our store. She again won the game of “Stump the Chump,’ but as usual, I prevailed, and offer you the following not-so-trivial information about the last club standing, Book-of-the-Month Club:

Why Don’t You Buy Books in your Store ? Part III

Now we get to the aggravation of buying books in the store, and the questions that usually arise  from doing so:

Why Don’t You Buy Books in your Store ? Part II

We tend to buy the first few books written by significant authors of fiction. Think Stephen King. His first few books are scarce in collectible condition, and highly desirable. His last 7,853 books are word-processing on paper. Same with James Patterson.  Same with most popular fiction authors who write with a collaborator. But… and there’s almost always a “but” in the book business, and some people even think that it’s me - some authors just keep getting better, and some who write in collaboration write better together than individually.

Why Don’t You Buy Books in Your Store ?

We’re often asked that question, usually in a really snotty tone of voice. We’re a small store, about 1000 square feet, and have to be very discriminating in what we choose to offer to our customers, thence our motto “Books of Worth in All Genres.” Our colleagues in the Valley have stores that are twice the size of ours, but they carry huge selections of mass market paperbacks. We don’t. Other bookstores in town acquire their inventory from people who want to dispose of their books, either for cash, or for store credit, or a combination of both. We don’t. We hand select each and every book that we choose to stock based on these criteria:

It’s Time to Cook

The year-end holidays - for us here at Greyhound’s Books these start on the 4th of July - are a great time for cooking. And be truthful, some of you who don’t cook will buy prepared food for the Groaning Boards that you will grace.

Welcome to America - Now Speak English

We are a simple people here in the USA, and tend to avoid Briticisms - Smith and Smythe are pronounced exactly the same over there, but not here unless you’re a pretentious twit - and other foreign pronunciations in our daily discourse.

An Old Friend Came By...

for his annual visit to our store. As I've said many, many times, the best reason to be in the book business is the customers who educate the bookseller. Our friend has started a new collection - fine or beautiful bindings. so, we nattered on for a while, he found some interesting pieces in our store, and, as usual, I forgot to tell him about another wonderful collecting opportunity. I canvassed our colleagues at Amber Unicorn and Plaza Books, and they had no samples in stock, just like us. However a Google search will provide you some wonderful examples of:

I Hate Christmas !

Because... I get all philosophical at the holiday time of year, and when I get philosophical, I get even more boring than usual. This Christmas season we've garnered many kudos from our customers because of the quality of our stock in trade. We also, just this morning, got an e-mail detailing the January Las Vegas Bookmans Guild meeting. Which set me off, and inspired the following screed:

A Christmas Present

Most of us have had the rather dubious pleasure of having unacceptable customers in our stores, and we on the Western Slope have managed to 86 most of them. Our esteemed colleague, Ann Devere had an encounter with one of our 86ees, which resulted in the following review posted on Google. Be warned, dear reader, this is an early Christmas gift for all the Bookmen in town, and in view of Ann's almost unlimited patience, an especially good gift for her! The solecisms and  errors in the text below were committed by it's original writer. By the way,if you have frequented Plaza Books, I would encourage you to provide your own review.
Review Plaza Books Here

Unaccustomed as I am to...

follow blogs, I found this one to be quite worthwhile

Explorer's Blog

Man Does Not Live By Books Alone

M. C. Beaton, AKA Marion Chesney has written a charming series about a lazy, Scottish village policeman who would rather remain in his hamlet than be promoted and have to move to the city.

One of Our Contributors Provided This

She chose to send me this e-mail rather than posting it, 'cause she knows we like historical mysteries. Now If I can get her to make these postings on her own, it'll save me doing it. But the info is inter:
Five Mysteries

And the Answer Is...

"Who Am I" Answered

We Do It All Here On the Western Slope of the Valley

Our esteemed colleagues at Amber Unicorn Books are the local specialists in cookbooks. We're behind them so far, but Myrna can feel my hot doggie breath on her neck as we increase our cookbook holdings. We're the First- Number 1 - to offer you a recipe, though. From Publishers  Weekly  What's Cookin' ?

Another Comic Book Article

This is not very upbeat, but worth reading Disheartening News

Even Comics Need Love !

Our friend, and contributor to this blog, Zac Carter, is one of the comic book - he calls them "graphic novels" - mavens in the Valley. In honor of his return to Las Vegas, I've posted this link  Comic Book Poopies for those of you who might be interested in non-books.