DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: A HISTORY

Our colleague, Ann DeVere who owns Plaza Books and we shared a customer last week who collected role-playing material, known to the trade as RPG Stuff. One of my students in Bookstore 102 wants to deal in this genre, also. Ann sent me this about the Father of D(ungeons) & D(ragons):

Regardless of color...

Wonder Bread, the famous Duck Bread from my apprenticeship had red, yellow, and blue balloons  on its wrapper. Perhaps Betsy did her apprenticeship in their bakery so that she could make this listing:

A Strategic Plan for the 21st Century

Here at Greyhound’s Books we are unabashedly an Upper Middle-Class (UMC) Bookstore. We come by it naturally, because it is, and has been, our life position thanks to our parents who worked so hard to help their children climb into the educated, professional ranks of society. In many ways, we’ve acquired our educations the hard way - school yes, life-learning, apprenticeships, and hard work combined with rote memorization. In other words, we’re authorized to be snobs because we’ve demonstrated our professional credentials, good taste, and discriminating eyes.

Our stock is designed to appeal to the UMC: we sell quality books, don’t bother with what I generally call “crap,” - either in condition or content -and require a certain level of knowledge and taste from our customer base. If you have no idea of what you want to buy, you generally get short shrift from us. If you vaguely know what you want, we have all the time in the world to work with you. If you look like a freak, you’re usually not welcome. Cell phones are anathema.

Who is Sanora Babb and Why Was Her Timing So Very Bad ?

We have the largest selection of author-signed books in the Valley -over 2500  different titles in all genres - so we're always looking for more. Sanora Babb's first published novel is The Lost Traveler and we bought an inscribed copy of it this week. Much of a Bookman's time is taken up in research. We have to make sure we're providing our customers with good and absolute value for their money. Doing this, of course leads us to find out very interesting facts about books and authors. Old Sanora Baby, was quite the gal ! Follow the link, if you'd like to become enthralled:   Sanora Babb

A B(ad) A(ttitude) A(ppears)

I must admit, I applied for ABAA membership a number of years age, but couldn't get enough members to endorse me. Why ? Not because of the quality of our stock-in-trade, but because I'd built no buying relationship with my potential sponsors. As the late, great Mark Twain, or perhaps - it's disputable -  Groucho Marx said: I won't belong to any organization that would have me as a member. Today's question came in the e-mail from our colleague Ann DeVere at Plaza Books:

BookThink's Top Ten Auctioned Books on eBay for April 2011

Just the fiction, M'am, just the fiction:
Top Ten

Pusillanimous Pissants !

A gentleman called today looking for a book. He had seen an overage, overweight, overwomaned actor on a television show hosted by three women who lack only brains, taste, and a cauldron to be Shakespeare creations.
When OOOA was asked what he had done to overcome the tribulations of his pitiful existence - although the question was couched in the vernacular - his response was that his reading of a particular book carried the day for him. The book ?

Busty & Butty Chicks with Big Hair

Frank Frazetta the heroic fantasy cover artist, is known for, to use current parlance, hot chicks, in leather, or nothing but skin - big busts, big butts, big hair. They pair - no pun intended - very nicely with his massive thighed, heroic men with big swords and bigger muscles. Think Sophia Loren in her heyday and Ahhhnold with no accent. But wait, there's more to our Frank.

Modern Library Books

Our friend, Maryann, a local Las Vegas author, has developed a fascination for Modern Library Books. Our friends, Michael and Andy deserted us to open a fine bookstore in Horse Cave, Kentucky. We all still talk and interact, and Michael sent us an interesting piece on Modern Library books. You might also want to check our previous post on Modern Librarys after you look at this:

A Book Fair Experience

Book shows and sales aren't anywhere near as good as they were 25 years ago. Booth rentals have skyrocketed, organizers have really gotten into their horses' patoot personas, and customers are more interested in looking than in buying. However, there's hope:  New York Antiquarian Book Fair