Chapter 108 Strange Book Fair Superstitions, Or, Lunacy and the Arrangement of Books, Redux
I spent today removing books from their various hiding places around my house and beginning to fill up my “test bookshelves” in preparation for the book fair on February 9 and 10.
My test bookshelves are as many folding, portable bookshelves as I think I can fit in my half-booth (three or four) filled with all of the books I hope to bring to the book fair. The week before the fair, I set up the portable bookcases in the living room and start loading them with books. Should I group them alphabetically? By size? Color? Spine out or face out?
As you know from my extensive past experience exhibiting at exactly one book fair, I then spend ridiculously inordinate amounts of time arranging the books on the test shelves to see if they all fit, to cull the books that do not fit, and to determine which books should be displayed face out instead of spine out. At the last book fair, I sold some books to other booksellers before the fair opened, which meant that my test shelf arrangement had to be totally re-arranged at the opening of the fair.
Based on this experience, I realize I don’t need to have a pre-arranged book layout before I arrive at the fair. If I have to re-arrange my display before the fair opens, it is probably a waste of my time to pre-arrange the books before the fair. Yet, I continue to compulsively fill up my test bookshelves yesterday, today, and tomorrow (and probably next week, too). Pre-arranging the books has become a part of my book fair superstition, something I do in hopes of good sales, much the same as a baseball player who wears a certain pair of “lucky” socks that he wore the last time his team won the game. It’s that idea of, “If it worked last time, maybe it’ll work this time.” I’ll let you know if that idea proves true after the fair. 
Test bookshelves last week:
Test bookshelves this week:
What I hope bookshelves look like by time I get to the fair:
See you in the stacks!
Tomorrow: To Bring or Not to Bring — Choosing Books for a Book Fair
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You’ve got me rolling here.
I wasn’t expecting the last line and pic.
[...] the fair the next day. Since I hadn’t followed my usual superstitious ritual of setting up test shelves at home, it took me a while to arrange my books on the shelves and in the glass trophy case we used [...]