Chapter 141 Little House in the Suburbs

Guess what this is?

Though I realize it may not look like it to you, this is a little piece of paradise to me.

Any guesses as to where this is? Need another hint?

I’ll be fulfilling a childhood dream and travelling here sometime this summer.

Still can’t guess what it is? It belonged to this woman’s family.

Don’t know who she is? If you were a kid in the 1970s, you will be able to tell from the next image, I am sure:

That’s right. It’s Laura Ingalls Wilder. That last photo is from the Little House on the Prairie television show from the 1970s. While the show does not compare to the books, I must say that I learned that there were books to read from watching the show as a kid. Then I read each and every book. And loved them!

Sometime this summer we will be driving ourselves and Tom and Huck across the country to see Wilder’s real-life homes in DeSmet, South Dakota and Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Why? That’s a story for another post.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 140 What We Did Over the Weekend

What did we do this weekend? Not a lick of book work. Oh, okay. On Friday I visited my friend Mr. Z. for lunch and book talk. But that’s far too enjoyable to be considered work.

Huck played in his first Little League basesball game. He wants me to tell you that he got two hits and struck out once.

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday night, one day early. It’s just easier to boil corned beef for four hours when I’m home all day, and on Sunday I was home most of the day.

You’ve read about my Italian in-laws’ fabulous holiday feasts. They’ve set the bar very high, cooking home made raviolis with gravy (that’s tomato sauce, to us non-Italians) that simmers for a few days, and offering as many as four different desserts. My mother-in-law came for dinner Sunday night, and we had corned beef and cabbage, which she thinks is very Irish and very good. St. Patrick’s Day is my people’s time to shine, culinarily speaking. Being of partial Irish descent, I boil all the flavor out of a fatty piece of beef for four hours, throw in one of the world’s most flavorless vegetables — cabbage — along with carrots and — what else? — potatoes, and then proclaim it delectable.

I think my Irish ancestors would be horrified, as authentic Irish cuisine is pretty tasty, but a Paddy’s Day corned beef brisket is the soup du jour of us Irish Americans. I like cooking, but it just isn’t one of my better skills. My mother-in-law smiles politely and eats it anyway, because she’s really just here on St. Patrick’s Day for the bread.

Though I’m not a chef, one thing I can do fairly well is bake. So, today Huck and I baked Irish soda bread from scratch. Spread on some real butter and have a nice cup of tea. It’s delicious!

Lastly, Thoughtful Husband and I spent most of Saturday and Sunday sanding and prepping the playroom (which is going to become Tom and Huck’s bedroom) for painting. We got a bit of it painted Sunday, but there’s still a good deal more to do:

Yep. Those are stripes. Navy blue. I know it looks strange now, but it’s going to look great when I add two more colors (uh-huh) and it’s done (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).

See you in the stacks!

Tomorrow: Summertime plans — yes, they are book related.

Chapter 139 Eye Candy

I’m knee deep in research on a new acquisition today. Actually, I’m almost in over my head. I love doing research, so days like this are among my most treasured as a bookseller.

Since there isn’t much time for words today, I’ll give you what most bibliophiles like to see, at least if they can’t see actual books — images of books. These are a few of my favorite book covers. None of these titles is especially significant, historically or literarily. I just like the visual appeal of the covers. Am I the only one who occasionally (wink, wink) buys books for the shallow reason of looks alone? I like these covers because their designs perfectly reveal the tone of the writing inside.

If only I were organized, all of these titles would be listed for sale on my website. They aren’t listed there yet, but they will be soon. If you’re interested in one of them, drop me an email (info @ bookhuntersholiday.com) and I’ll send you a quote. Meanwhile, just enjoy looking at books.

Have a good weekend!

Chapter 138 No Rest for the Wicked

See that lonely basketball hoop in the photo above? It’s the sign that basketball season has ended. Tom’s team had its final game last weekend. No more two-evening-a-week practices and no more weekend games. A calmer schedule. I think of it as a sports break for me, even though Tom and Huck would much rather play sports all the time. I like these breaks; it means I have more time to read.

However . . .

This week, Huck started playing baseball. It’s his first year in Little League. Practices. Games. A busier schedule.

No sports breaks for this mom. But lots of fun. Look at that green, green grass. Baseball is a definite sign that spring has arrived, or is at least on its way. Will my son think I don’t care about him if I read an Emily Dickinson bibliography in the bleachers?

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 137 Book Club Editions

One of my regular readers posted an interesting comment in response to my posts about introducing newcomers to antiquarian books.

He writes:

“Getting away from the ‘aquarium’ book sales to book sales in general I have sold BOMC books on eBay for good money because I pointed out to people that BOMC is a good way to get an early edition for fewer dollars than firsts. - I’ve found First Edition (stated) books in BOMC DJ’s and sold them with the BOMC DJ’s (as opposed to throwing one or both away) because it is “one of the few and unique printings to be found this way.” During the same time frame and with the same book other sellers had no bids.

Who is it that makes BOMC a bad word? (OK I know it is an acronym…) It is the booksellers doing it not the buyers! -

Salesmanship with integrity will sell books and bring repeat buyers. Find what the person you are addressing is interested in and let them know there are books on the subject.”

While I generally agree with the idea that Book Club Editions (BCE’s) are not necessarily worthless (they are, in a few cases, the first appearance in print of some important works), I worry that too many booksellers offer BCE’s for sale as true firsts, not necessarily out of malice or intent to defraud, but out of ignorance. More than once, I’ve bought a book online after being assured by the seller it is not a BCE only to have it arrive and be easily identified as a BCE. Many sellers, particularly those new to the trade or those who don’t bother to educate themselves on such things, don’t know how to tell a BCE from a trade edition — something that sounds like it should be easy, but is, in some cases, quite difficult. A good bookseller educates himself about these things, and also clearly identifies a BCE as such when selling one or he probably won’t be in business for long.

First, the definition of Book Club Edition is offered here.

Others have written about identifying BCE’s and much better than I ever could, and their information is below.

For specific guidelines to identifying BCE’s, read this BookThink article and this TomFolio article.

There is also a very helpful illustrated guide to the difference between BCE’s and trade editions at My Wings Books.

Is it possible to build a collection of BCE’s? Perhaps. Part of the fun of collecting books is building an original collection that no one ever thought about before. However, part of the fun of collecting books is also building a collection that has some meaning, not just gathering a group of reading copies. BCE’s are largely regarded as reading copies, because they are almost never the first appearance in print of a given work. Thus, their value in terms of collecting is quite low. That does not mean that BCE’s are worthless. It means that they are not useful to someone trying to build a collection of significance. I know of no collections built solely of BCE’s, though it is an interesting exercise to think about how such a collection might have significant meaning.

I am reminded of the difference between antiquarian booksellers, who usually sell a particular copy of a book — a first edition, a signed copy, an association copy, a copy in a unique binding, a copy in the finest condition — and used booksellers, who usually offer books of all kinds and conditions, largely to people who want reading copies. The book world needs both kinds of sellers, and both kinds of sellers serve a specific purpose. The point is to determine which type of seller you want to be and to work toward that goal.

More importantly, for booksellers who want to be taken seriously, the point is to always clearly identify a book club edition as such when selling a book. Additionally, there are many conflicting opinions in the book world about “supplied” (switched) dustjackets. Again, the point here is to always be clear in your description that a dustjacket has been supplied if you find yourself putting a BCE dustjacket on a first printing of a particular book.

Thanks to Paul for making me think a bit about BCE’s today.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 136 An Apt Metaphor

I don’t keep a commonplace book, a place for writing down the words of others that I admire or want to remember. I find absolute joy in the well-turned phrase, the complex thought made incarnate in its articulation, and, yes, the imposition of order and elegance brought about by a few well-placed punctuation marks. I should keep a commonplace book, but I think the last time I actually did I was in high school. Time is a precious commodity, especially when your time is demanded by others, and I must admit that the idea of a commonplace book, while appealing, has fallen by the wayside due to time constraints right now.

From (cringe at the source, but my time is limited today) Wikipedia: “Commonplace books (or commonplaces) emerged in the 15th century with the availability of cheap paper for writing, mainly in England. They were a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They were essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: medical recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces were used by readers, writers, students, and humanists as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they had learned. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator’s particular interests.”

If you’ll allow me, I’d like to make this post a bit of a commonplace book. As I read the Sunday paper, the Parade Magazine insert had an interview with Frank McCourt, former English teacher and author of the well-known Angela’s Ashes and several other books. The title of the article was “We All Can Have Second Acts (& Third!)” McCourt discusses how he made the transition from writing teacher to published author. He says a few things that I think are worth remembering, whether one is a writer, a teacher, or a bookseller. Here are a couple of favorite phrases and an apt metaphor I found to be both true and inspiring:

“Pen and paper. That’s what I loved. You make little marks on paper, and if you make enough of them, you have a story, and isn’t that pure magic?”

And,

“And that’s it. No matter how long you live, you have stories to tell, and nestling in each one there may be a nugget of wisdom.”

And, my personal favorite, since it is a metaphor involving a reference to my beloved Western Americana:

“Dreams come with tremendous energy, with shimmering horizons. What else is there to do but head off on the Conestoga wagon of the soul?”

When you find what you love, what else is there to do indeed? Amen, brother.

Chapter 135 Of Contests, Idyll Musings, and Book Fairs

Monday came too soon! With the time change (spring forward — lose one hour) and the minor (yeah, right) house project we’ve taken on, I didn’t do anything book related all weekend. Thoughtful Husband tackled cleaning out the garage (something that hasn’t been done in months) and I played around with paint colors and possible furniture layout for Tom and Huck’s playroom and bedroom. Additionally, I went to Tom’s final basketball game, to a party for my brother’s fiancee, and to a birthday celebration with a close friend. It was an enjoyable weekend all the way around, if busy.

Those of you new to bookselling might be able to use the book that is offered as a prize in this contest. Sponsored by the indefatigable Joyce Godsey of the Bibliophile Bullpen, the contest offers you a chance to put into words why you want to be a bookseller or any other bookselling topic. Go for it! The prize has great information and a nicely illustrated dustjacket.

There’s a new bookseller and a new bookselling blog to read. Click here to read about Idyll Musing’s start in the business.

And, lastly, in answer to a question from a reader who wants to know how to get information regarding selling books at book fairs, here’s my two cents:

1) Attend a fair — at which you’d like to exhibit — as a buyer at least once, if possible. Make sure it seems like a worthwhile investment of your time and money. Not all fairs are right for all kinds of sellers.

2) Get to know other booksellers. Introduce yourself when you go to book fairs. I’ve been able to save some of the cost of doing a book fair (and have more fun, too) by sharing a booth space with another bookseller. If you’re just getting started and you have a small amount of stock, sharing is a good idea. Sharing also means you have someone to stand in the booth when you need a break and vice versa. Sharing means it’s much more exciting than being all alone as the new bookseller at the fair.

3) When you go to a fair ask around about the fair’s organizer. They usually have a website with all of the pertinent information about signing up, booth fees, etc. Costs vary depending on the fair, its size, and duration.

4) Invest ahead of time in book stands, portable book cases, a good calculator, business cards, etc. It helps to be able to spread out the costs of these things rather than pay for them all at once.

Happy Monday! See you in the stacks!

Chapter 134 Might as Well

Thoughtful Husband and I live in the same house in which he grew up. We bought it from my mother-in-law thirteen years ago. It took all we had just to buy it at the time, and we made a few cosmetic improvements — new paint, new landscaping, refinished hardwood floors and new kitchen appliances and countertops — but we refrained from any really costly, major renovations, thinking we’d get to it some day. We were just happy to be in a house in the Bay Area.

Then we had kids, and any disposable income and spare time we had for renovations went right out the window. Here we are now, thirteen years after moving in to a 60+ year-old house that needs a new roof and new windows, a better heating system, and updated plumbing and wiring. One reason we’ve never updated our bathrooms is that we know it will lead us to say, “While we have it ripped up, we might as well replace the pipes. And if we’re going to replace the pipes, we might as well replace the wiring. And if we’re going to replace the wiring, we might as well . . .” It just becomes too overwhelming, not to mention expensive.

Eventually, we will do all of these things; just not right now.

So, last night we were assembling the furniture our friend gave us for the kids’ playroom, which is actually just the third bedroom in our three-bedroom house. Turns out the new furniture doesn’t quite fit along the wall the way we had anticipated. It would, however, fit the wall in the second bedroom, which is the one Tom and Huck currently share.

Well, we concluded (ok, I concluded it while Thoughtful Husband frowned and shook his head, realizing that resistance is futile), we could switch rooms. Tom and Huck’s room could become the playroom and the playroom could become Tom and Huck’s bedroom and everything should then fit comfortably.

“And, honey, if we’re going to move all of the furniture, we might as well paint both rooms. It’s been six years since we painted and we could do it ourselves on weekends. How hard can it be?” I asked enthusiastically.

“And, if we’re going to paint both rooms, we might as well think about making the decor in Tom and Huck’s room a little more grown up looking. They’re not toddlers anymore.” (Now Thoughtful Husband’s head is in his hands and he is trying not to hyperventilate.)

“But, you know, I think the [old] playroom is really cold, so maybe we might as well get new windows in there, the double-paned ones that are more efficient, if the kids are going to sleep in there every night.” (There’s no stopping me now.)

“And if one room is going to get new windows, we might as well replace all the windows in the house at the same time so they look uniform.” (He is plugging his ears with his fingers, as if he can’t hear me. Imagine!)

“Honey? Honey!?” (He is slumped on the floor in the fetal position.)

So, the half-assembled furniture sits in the playroom while we figure out what, if anything, can be done in a single weekend without getting carried away by the might as wells.

Have a good weekend and see you in the stacks!

P.S. I did something with regard to the Dante catalogue today — I bought another book!

Chapter 133 Extreme Home Makeover — Well, Kind of . . .

We live in a three-bedroom house. It’s not large, but it’s just right for the four of us. Thoughtful Husband and I have one bedroom, Tom and Huck share another bedroom, and the third bedroom is called “the playroom”. It’s a repository for thousands of Lego pieces, various toys, and Tom and Huck’s music instruments. The playroom is usually a mess, and other than making the boys straighten it up about once a week, I just close the door on it at the end of the day. As the kids are getting older, we are gradually phasing out the little boy toys and replacing them with music instruments and Legos. Tom takes guitar lessons and Huck takes drum lessons, so perhaps one day they’ll have a band! Right now, they practice their instruments in the playroom and they have “band practice” with our triplet neighbors (hence the keyboard). Yes, they’re noisy and quite out of tune, but they have so much fun and I’m glad they want to play here, so I try to tune out the cacophony and fantasize about making this room my office and library when the kids move out someday.

Today, a good friend gave us some children’s furniture — two corner desks with hutches, two work tables, and two end tables with drawers. He’d been planning to use them for his own kids but a last minute move meant they wouldn’t fit properly in the bedroom his kids would use. We thought it would be great to give our kids a space for homework that they can use as they get older and we figured the furniture could also be used to store some toys and school supplies, so we accepted it gratefully.

This evening, Thoughtful Husband, Tom, Huck, and I unpacked and assembled most of the furniture. Here are a few “before” and “during” shots. When we’re finished, I’ll show you the “after”. We’ve still got a ways to go before there’s a place for everything and everything in its place.

The playroom on a normal day. Cluttered and messy.

My creative solution to storing Lego sets. I bought these scrapbook supply holders on sale at Michael’s Crafts for less than $20 apiece. Each plastic drawer holds one set of Lego plus its building instruction book. This way, we avoid the Star Wars Legos getting mixed up with the Aqua Raiders Legos or the Mars Mission Legos. It’s not the most beautiful set-up, but it looks so much better than 10,000 tiny plastic bricks on the floor.

Thoughtful Husband and Tom assembling one of the work tables.

In case you’re thinking I didn’t get much book work done today, you’re wrong. I spent a few hours at my local library doing bibliographic research on a recent acquisition!

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 132 Literary Influences — Richard Osberg

Every year near the start of spring, I am reminded of an English professor I had in college who made us memorize and recite the first 18 lines of the General Prologue to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Middle English, for those who are not literary scholars, is the language written and spoken in England from the early 1100s until about 1500. Geoffrey Chaucer is the best-known English poet to write in Middle English, the vernacular of his time.

If you don’t care to read the Middle English version of Chaucer’s Prologue below, I’ve also included a more modern version. If you don’t care to read that either, Chaucer’s general premise is that the arrival of spring makes people long to go on a road trip, the primary road trip of the time he was writing (sometime between 1387 and 1400) being a religious pilgrimage. Those road trip books and movies everyone likes, the ones that celebrate the journey over the destination — their origins are in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. If you’ve never read it, I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

I’m reminded of Chaucer and my professor this week because Spring is in the air here in the Bay Area. It’s been sunny, and flowers are beginning to bloom. A fresh breeze (as opposed to a howling winter wind) blows through the air. I look out the window and see the daffodils bloom, and my mind thinks, “Whan that Aprill. . .” For some reason, I can still recite most of the lines from Chaucer’s Prologue in Middle English, and nearly two decades later, so can those friends of mine who studied under Mr. Osberg. In fact, in our nerdy, English-major ways, we have been known to greet each other with the lines, “Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote…” even though many years have passed since those happy school days.

I was also reminded of Chaucer today because I received the alumni magazine from my college in the mail and, sadly, learned that the professor who taught me those 18 lines and helped me to appreciate their beauty died of brain cancer in October. Mr. Richard Osberg (he had a Ph.D. in Middle English, but always wanted to be called “Mister” as opposed to “Doctor”) had a great teaching style that made seemingly dusty, ancient works like Canterbury Tales (written even before Gutenberg’s printing press) seem like new discoveries for his students. He even looked the part of the academic — full mustache, Chaucer tie, vest, tweed jacket with elbow patches, and — though perhaps it is a trick of my memory, I can’t be certain — a pipe. I took Mr. Osberg’s Chaucer class, and then his Critical Composition class, and, as a senior, wrote my thesis on Arthurian legend under his direction. Being an English major at a university in the middle of the then up and coming Silicon Valley, surrounded by technology and the idea that worth was defined only by IPOs and stock options, I found it comforting to know that this man made a good life being a prominent Medievalist and a splendid teacher.

I didn’t keep in close touch with Mr. Osberg after graduation, but I did enjoy the end-of-quarter potluck dinners at his and his wife’s house, his wonderful poetic ability, his championing of the Oxford English Dictionary, and his amazing powers of making the old new for us students. He’ll be much missed, and he’ll also be fondly remembered as one of the people who showed me that a life spent studying old books and sharing their lessons is a life of great value indeed.

Obituary here.

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES
MIDDLE ENGLISH
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

MODERN ENGLISH
When in April the sweet showers fall
That pierce March’s drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has with his sweet breath,
Filled again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and leaves, and the young sun
His half-course in the sign of the Ram has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)
Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in distant lands.
And specially from every shire’s end
Of England they to Canterbury went,
The holy blessed martyr there to seek
Who helped them when they lay so ill and weak.

In memory of Mr. Richard Osberg, teacher of Chaucer to all Santa Clara University English majors from 1982-2007.