Chapter 73 Making the Dream Real and More Reading for Booksellers

I wrote the other day about the bookstore of my dreams, but another bookseller has already made that dream a reality. Click here to see what I mean. Congratulations to Scott Brown of Eureka Books! (He’s also the editor of that wonderful publication, Fine Books and Collections Magazine.) I can’t wait to take a book hunting trip up the coast to Eureka, CA, to see it in person. The photographs are beautiful. Best wishes, Scott, on your new endeavor!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the always informative bookman Hugh Hollowell is back after a bit of a hiatus. He has an interesting new plan up his sleeve. Read about it here.

Christmas came early for me last week. I received an order from Oak Knoll’s sale recently. Sort of a Christmas gift to my business of reference books I really, really just can’t live without. Here’s what I got:

Author: Belanger, Terry
Title: LUNACY AND THE ARRANGEMENT OF BOOKS

Author: Zempel, Edward N. and Linda A. Verkler (editors)
Title: FIRST EDITIONS: A GUIDE TO IDENTIFICATION STATEMENTS OF SELECTED NORTH AMERICAN, BRITISH COMMONWEALTH, AND IRISH PUBLISHERS ON THEIR METHODS OF DESIGNATING FIRST EDITIONS.

Author: Moebs, Thomas Truxton
Title: U.S. REFERENCE-IANA: (1481-1899)

Author: Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall
Title: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BOOK.

Author: Jackson, Robert H.& Carol Z. Rothkopf (editors)
Title: BOOK TALK: ESSAYS ON BOOKS, BOOKSELLERS, COLLECTING, AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Author: Taylor, W. Thomas
Title: TEXFAKE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE THEFT AND FORGERY OF EARLY TEXAS PRINTED DOCUMENTS

I’ve mentioned Glaister’s and Belanger’s books before. I just never had my own copies, though I had perused both. A few books, like Book Talk and Texfake, I’ve wanted to read or re-read for some time. I thank those booksellers who have looked up references in their own copies of Zempel for me in the past or who have shared these titles with me.

It’s not easy to buy reference books. You’re not going to resell them and they aren’t cheap. Reference books are an investment in your knowedge as a bookseller. If you’re lucky, the information you find in a reference book as you are cataloguing books for sale will sometimes more than pay for the book. Remember: Knowledge adds value.

A heavy rainstorm is forecast for this area tomorrow. I (almost) hope for the power to go out so I can settle down with my new books and a pot of tea and read until the kids get out of school.

See you in the stacks!