Bookstore 106 Starts Soon at UNLV

Follow the link for information: Bookstore 106  Or call me at 444.9415 during normal business hours.

UNLV Upcoming Courses

 Now available for on-line registration:

Bookstore 101:   Bookstore 101  Starts 9/25

Bookstore 103:   Bookstore 103  Starts 11/06

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

Aggies, Miggies, & Bunny-in-the-Hole

Our friend and colleague, Pat McCarty, the premier book restorer, binder, and repairer in the Valley, did a class on making marbled paper for her apprentices yesterday. Thence the title of this article, all blasts from my past as a marble-shooting child in Boston. I was treated to seeing the variety of patterns Pat's students created, and regaled with the tales of the effort involved. Too much work for me, but a grand experience for them.

Bookstore 101 Started Last Night

And what a pleasure !  The first night we discuss the types of bookstores that the students would like to have. Art. Only.  Black Studies. Only. Bricks & Mortar stores - Yes. Internet sales - Yes. Where ? A resounding response: "Why, here in Las Vegas, of course."  Almost perfect business models for this town and this time.

Borders Is Dead, and Rightly So

In both Bookstore 101 and 102, I stress the need to have a smart business model for  my students' putative bookselling operation. The CNN article below tells the sad tale, and points out why we didn't "make a run for the Border(s). CNN Borders  It's quite a cautionary tale.

A Student Sent This !

Very interesting, and she even sent it Snail Mail because she couldn't find our e-dress. Sort of like when air was clean...British Bookstore Bollicked  Thanks, Holly.

Another Stump the Chump Winner !

Suzanne the Student did a presentation on John McPhee and mentioned to the rest of the class that his style is for the most part "Creative Non-Fiction." We all nodded wisely, and when we could, did a little research. Wikipedia is a fairly reliable source, and I quote from it:

Wow !

Last night's session of Bookstore 103 was absolutely dynamite ! My favorite student, Kim, told us about J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Dixon. My other favorite student, Carla, told us about mysteries - Diana Mott Davidson and Dorothy L. Sayers. My other favorite student John discusses Robert E. Howard and Roger Zelazny. My blah, blah,  blah, Suzanne tackled Edward Abbey and John McPhee, much to our amusement. My blah, blah, blah, Holly, didn't join us. Our colleague and friend, Myrna Donato from Amber Unicorn Books sat in to enjoy my favorite students' presentations. In honor of Kim & John, check out the following from PW:
Kids
SF/F/H

Enjoy !

Bookstore 107 - Non-Fiction

A couple of new - just this morning - items for our stock made me think about all the different kinds of books that fall under the overarching heading of non-fiction:

* Fishing Canada's Mountain Parks - a boxed, limited, signed book by James Butler and Roland Maw.
Limited editions are always cool, but this one is practically frigid, because it has an honest-to-God fishing fly fastened to the title/limitation page.

* Craft of Cooking - although it's a later printing of Tom Colicchio's opus, it's signed by Chef TC.

And I thought Non-Fiction was just boring history, or biography, or science, or ...

Jazz and Bookstore 103

The current iteration of Bookstore 103 - The Who of Professional Bookselling - started last night, and while we were going over the book search references, a student asked "Why Jazz?"  My response was that quality books on Jazz, the original American art form, are hard to come by. As is often the case, when we were out scouting this morning, we stumbled on a collection of Jazz books and music, with a heavy emphasis on Django Reinhardt, all highly collectible ! Who says the Bookstore courses don't pay off ?

When I'm Tired, I Write !

Well, Bookstore 103 is currently available at UNLV.  Now what ? That's easy, at least or me. I just finished up most of the work on:

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.

Some Model Bookstores

From August 2010 Fine Books & Collections: Stores

Who Was I ?

One of my participants in the last offering of Bookstore 101 was in yesterday. She's interested in stocking a large selection of woman's studies books, and brought me one on a Hollywood star. I mentioned to her that the book could fit into two genres in her store: movies, and woman's studies. It hadn't yet occurred to her that if she had two copies, she could stock one in each section and still be true to her chosen business model.

Ephemera Lives !

In Bookstore 101, I talk about ephemera being an interesting adjunct to a bookstore's regular stock, but what is it ?  Simply stated, it's paper goods other than books, and includes brochures, maps, monographs, catalogs, and just about any other printed material that you choose to label as "ephemera," since it's your house, and your rules. 

Billy & Betty Blackberries

 Friend and local author Steve Grogan sent me this about on-line booksellers. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to mention it during the Tuesday night session of Bookstore 101, but here's a link to an extremely interesting article.

http://www.slate.com/id/2268000/

Notes from last night's Bookstore 101 Session 2

We discussed book identification, with an emphasis on differentiating between publisher's and book club editions of hardbound books. As usual, I cautioned the participants that "book club" does not necessarily mean "bad book to buy." Bookthink.com sends out a monthly electronic newsletter, and the article below comes from one of their editors. This copyright article re-published by permission:

Exceptions to the Rule:  The Science Fiction Book Club