Saturday, November 26, 2011

Time To Say Good-Bye

Poor Barbara ! She hears the same thing from me in many different ways that it must get boring for her, but she generally agrees with my diagnoses. The guiding principle of our business life is to make as few stupid business decisions as humanely possible, and we've pretty much got that down pat. This principle also argues that if a genre, or author, is no longer worthwhile, we delete it from our inventory; if an approach does not work, we abandon it. For example, when we first moved here, we contracted for a years' advertising in the RJ. That was a stupid business decision, and we've not repeated it.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I HATE ISBNs

Mostly because of the ignorant Billy & Betty Blackberrys I have to reach around to get the expensive books that they have passed over while scanning the ISBNs of the crap that they buy to sell for fifty percent more than they paid for it. However, this ISBN leads you to some of the best autobiographical writing I've read in the last 30 years:  0-7434-1065-3.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Books of Worth In All Genres

Yes, that's our motto here at Greyhound's Books, and we have a ball seeking  out books that are interesting and scarce for our stock. We do this every day. Our customers, and our colleagues seem to enjoy some of the books we buy: the customers spend money; our colleagues keep egging us on to find more and better. Some books of interest, and of course, worth that we bought this week:

Monday, November 14, 2011

Twenty-Four Skidoo !

We have the largest selection of author-signed and -inscribed books in the Valley, and just celebrated a milestone: 2400 of them on our open shelves. We have to keep out-doing ourselves, and this past weekend we added some more in a variety of genres. Take a look:

Friday, November 11, 2011

Westeners International, Redux

Like many other organizations, WI has a list of the top 100 books in their field. Here 'tis:
WI Top 100.  Enjoy !

We're All Westeners, But...

The major joy of owning a bookstore is the constant knowledge acquisition that comes with buying, pricing, and stocking interesting books. This week's knowledge came from the books published by the Denver Corral of the Westeners International organization. Who are they?  From the WI website:

Thursday, November 10, 2011

My Ungrateful Friends and Colleagues


Not content to know what the largest book in the world is, they now want to know the smallest ! Next they're going to want the median book, and the mode book. Anyway, here 'tis: Small Fry

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Las Vegas Bookmans Guild November Meeting

Will be held at:
Strings Italian Cafe
2222 East Tropicana Avenue  Las Vegas, NV 89119-6573

(702) 739-6400  
 Wednesday, 9 November, 6:30 meet-&-greet, order 7:00

TOPIC:  What I Bought For Stock This Month That is REALLY COOL  !

We've Recovered From Sunday !

Every year, our colleague, Myrna Donato - Amber Unicorn Books - and I do a show and sale at the Vegas Valley Book Festival's Feasting on Words day, the first Sunday in November. This year, our friend and local author Steve Grogan, author of Vegas Die, Captain Cooked, and a new I-book, was a featured author at the FoW show, and caught Myrna and me at our best ! Thanks, Steve.

Monday, November 7, 2011

By The Pound !

Our colleague and friend, Ann DeVere - Plaza Books - and her henchwench, Maryann, mentioned at the dinner table last night that a customer came in to her store with a collection of Elvis-iana, which all of us would cheerfully buy. Ann bought most of the books, but passed on the Elephant Folio - 24 x 32 x 3 inches - piece. The book was quite pricey, but the problems inherent in preserving the quality of the book in a store are almost insurmountable. Selling the book on-line, as Ann does, poses truly  insurmountable problems - the damn thing is so big and heavy, and consequently fragile, that it would almost have to be shipped by truck. Ah yes, the problems of bookstore ownership. Believe it or not, there is a bigger book - the largest in the world:

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

UNLV Registration for 2012 Now Open

The first of the Bookstore Series for 2012 is Bookstore 104 -It's A Mystery. This is a course similar to Bookstore 103, but it is a specialty class in collectible mystery authors and books, and requires, as usual, considerable outside work. Registration and details: It's A Mystery
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

A Tip of the Hat to Carl Sagan

The next 2012 offering is:
BOOKSTORE 105 BILLIONS & TRILLIONS: THE YEARS OF SCIENCE FICTION

An advanced Bookman seminar on Speculative Fiction - Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror - stock for a credible bookstore, either brick and mortar, or click and order. Prerequisite: Bookstore 101 and Bookstore 102, or instructor's permission. Considerable out-of-class work is required. Enrollment is limited.
Registration: Bookstore 105