Book Patrol's second installment celebrating The Guild of Bookworkers 100th Anniversary show centers around two works on the theme of crime & punishmentFrom the Contemporary Juried Exhibit:Weitlauf, Ashlee. T is for Torture: Tempe, AZ, 2005. Pamphlet that uses letterpress, photo lithography, and photopolymer printing on handmade paper. The pamphlet is about the illegal torture activities that the United States is committing. It includes text that describes what the USA is involved in, what national and international laws have been broken, and testimony from torture victims.From the Retrospective Exhibition:Davis, Jerilyn Glen. Herman Melville Billy Budd Sailor: New York, 1987. 24 x...
I Love the Smell of Books in the Morning
Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty. First appeared here SlateBeing a bookseller I know that smelling books is part of the job. Who knows how many books I smell a year, hundreds? thousands? It is an important step when trying to determine a books value. Does it smell musty? mildewy? damp?Steven Poole has a nice blog piece on the smell of books, "Smells Like Literary Spirit", at the Guardian Unlimited
Abebooks – They Just Don’t Get It -Part 2
So I blogged yesterday about the OJ thing how out of touch Abebooks is with the booksellers who have put them on the mapThen today I see they sent out a press release on the results from their ridiculous poll about the new OJ book.What a set up! They email their clients (us) and promote the poll on their blog and their website and then in turn take the results and send out a press release about the "revulsion" from the book world regarding the book.Simply blatant self promotion to get in on the hyper-attention the OJ story is getting...
Barnes & Noble – Is the End Near?
A bold thought but are we starting to see at least some withering of this biblio monster?Barnes & Noble reported their 3Q earnings (or should I say loss) today.The first flag is that they called these results preliminary. As you might know, they are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is never a good sign. They responded to the investigation by creating a special committee of its board to undertake an internal review of the company's option grant practices. The way I read it is that once they tell the truth one will see a very different...
They Just Don’t Get It
I assume many of you booksellers out there received an email from Abebooks today. They called it the Bookseller Bulletin and this is what it said:Have your say on the new OJ Simpson book It has been announced that OJ Simpson is set to release a new book. AbeBooks.com wants to know what booksellers think: Are you planning to stock the forthcoming OJ Simpson book, If I Did It? Give us Your Opinion(This is not a live link, believe it or not the text at the end of this page's url says DO_NOT_COPY_THIS_LINK)Thank you for participating - watch for the...