Coffee & Tea With I.C.S.

As Barbara & I were having our early morning revitalizer today, she mentioned that the I.C.S. books we bought this week had an excellent suggestion: dust your windows before you wash them. Now, this may be obvious to many of you, but for us it was a revelation. Also, you may be asking what the hell are I.C.S. books. Aha ! Gotcha.

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

We Don't Have Employees

Many bookstore have part-time employees, some of which are unpaid apprentices - read "Book Groupies" - who want to learn the trade. Publishers Weekly links to blogs that sometimes have interesting articles. Here's one:  Employees From Hell !

And, Since We're Talking About Numbers...

In the Harry Potter series of books, there are 4,169 pages. But, more significantly:

Vacation's Over - For Everybody !

Our colleagues from Amber Unicorn Books spent last week vacationing at the World Science Fiction Convention (WORLDCON) in Reno, where they found a dealer who had paperback copies of the Winston Juvenile Science Fiction Series. My mentor and master, Rick Cook - Attic Books, Laurel Maryland - was in town, again vacationing as were we, and Myrna & Lou told us about the paperback Winstons. My immediate thought, of course, was a blogicle, thus ending my vacation. We dumped Rick & Ellen at Southwest yesterday morning, and I hit the google, finding:

36 BATTLE ON MERCURY by Erik van Lhin pseudonym [Buy it!] [show this book only]

Del Rey Lester writing as Erik Van Lhin.

75.00

ABAA

L. W. Currey, Inc.

Philadelphia, Toronto: The John C. Winston Company,. [1953]. pictorial wrappers.. Shelf wear at edges, a good copy. (#132298). First edition. Part of the classic Winston science fiction series for young readers published between 1952 and 1961. Once thought to be an advance issue or uncorrected proof, this paperbound issue may have been prepared for use at U.S. Military base libraries or perhaps was a remainder issue. The book is made up of first edition sheets complete with the illustrated Schomburg end papers enclosed in stiff paper wrapper which has the dust jacket pasted to it. The jacket is a later printing with 29 titles listed on the rear panel instead of the 15 that were listed on the first printing jacket. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 5-160. Philadelphia Toronto: The John C. Winston Company

Once again, Lloyd Currey strikes.  As did our colleague - and Rick's brother-in-law, John Knott:

Paperback, Softbound, Chapbook, Chapter Book ?

We still speak English here at Greyhound's Books, but sometimes it's hard, especially with book-related or literary terminology. For your information, from my favorite, Wikipedia:

Just an Observation. And a Question.

Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor were friends but not married. Both are dead. Eddie Fisher was married to Elizabeth Taylor. Both are dead. We recently found a signed copy of Fisher's autobiography - it has a picture of Taylor & Fisher shot through the back window of a limo, probably on the way to their honeymoon.Thus endeth the observation. Now for the question:

There are Signed Books, and Then There are SIGNED Books

New arrivals for our signed books section are always fun to price. We acquired three signed political pieces this morning, two of which are SIGNED, and one of which is signed. "Why the differentiation ?"  you ask. I reply: "Cause !

I Spel Cheked It Gud !

Bookseller Competencies is one of the key topics in Bookstore 102. We expect authors, editors, and publishers to demonstrate competence in their fields, as it can either add considerably or detract significantly to or from our reading, and opinions of authors. Publishers Weekly, in the current issue, had an interesting article from the New York Times on this topic, too: Oops !

Americana Exchange Article

I recommend you subscribe to the AE Monthly, 'cause there is always an article as interesting as this one in it:
AE Article

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):

AE Monthly Articles Worth Reading

The future of antiquarian bookselling: Antiquarian

Powell's Lays Off Employees: Powell's

Never a Dull Moment

Since we are a small store, we must limit the genres that we carry - we don't carry psycho-babble self-help books; best sellers unless they are best sellers that have proven their enduring worth, and then only in First Editions;  popular biographies of glitterati; or the rest of the genres we consider to be crap. An individual came in yesterday looking for sociology, which we don't have. He then asked for Kalil Gibran, which we do. Then came the real question: "Where are your books on hemp ?"

A Colleage Asked...II

We get many calls for book appraisals, and most people decide against paying the $ 150.00 per hour that we charge for them. We also discourage people from investing in appraisals unless they have some kind of provenance for the book, or strong knowledge that the book is worth considerably more than the appraisal fee. If you look at the research I did for my colleague and my response to her. you'll see why this is:

A Colleague Asked...I

Our monthly Las Vegas Bookmans Guild was last Wednesday night. One of my colleagues asked for some help in identifying a book she had bought just because it was unusual. She had done a search by the ISBN, and met with no success, so she sent me the following information from the copyright page:

englanninkielinen alkuteos
Red Storm Rising
c  Jack Ryan Enterprises Ltd. and Larry Bond 1986
Published by agreement with
Lennart Sane Agency
ISBN 951-0-14528-9
WSOY:n graafiset laitokset
Juva 1987
8vo HB w/black cloth boards, DJ is black and red with the title "Myrsky Nousee"
in yellow and Tom Clancy in white.  There is also a gold tear drop on the front.
(To Be Continued)

Memories of a Misspent Youth

THE magazine of my youth was Mad - you know, Alfred E. Newman and Spy versus Spy - and recently we bought a history of Mad for our stock. Did you know:

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 ?

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:

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.