Booking Diversity

Speaking of delicious, I guess one of the most unique and ghastly items I found was an unassuming octavo, ex-library book offered by Lux Mentis Booksellers of Portland, Maine, and it was quite extraordinarily expensive. It was A History of Gastronomy by Jay Jacobs, categorized under Deviant Psychiatry. What is so hot about that, you might ask? Well, there were two library cards still in the pocket and they were each signed by Jeffrey Dahmer, arguably the 20th Century's most infamous cannibal serial killer. The fact that he took out ‘A History of Gastronomy' twice shortly after killing his first victim is ...well...intriguing. They believe that Dahmer was trying to understand his aberrant desires. Yuck!

I chatted with Jeff Towns from Dylan's Book Store in Wales, UK; that would be Dylan Thomas, not Bob Dylan. He was there for the San Francisco fair and then going on to the Los Angeles show the following weekend, as were many of the other booksellers we spoke with. He said that if he could do both shows it was worth the time and expense. He noted he had been coming to the states for many years to sell books and had usually done quite well.

My husband, a retired tall ship's captain, was practically embedded into The Wayfarer's Bookshop from West Vancouver, Canada. They specialize in exploration, travel, and voyages. Wow, so many great pictures and books about square-riggers and travel in the days when travel was very difficult. Speaking of Canada, if you've never been to the "book town", Sidney, British Columbia, you should go.

We spoke briefly with Julia Jordan of Blue Ridge Books in Orlean, Virginia. I'm sort of dog crazy, and she had a great collection of dog and horse books, which I also sell and collect myself. She also had some lovely Oriental prints of birds and flowers, and a number of very good children's books.

I visited with Vince Koloski and David Silberman at the San Francisco Friends of the Library booth. I love Friends of Library stores because they usually have really good books for really reasonable prices. They are one of the few places where you can buy a book and actually make a small profit when you sell it. We later went to the Fort Mason store and came away with two boxes of good stuff, including a third edition Betty Crocker.

The best part of it all was the contact with book dealers. Just walking around listening in on some of the conversations was interesting. There was more talk about politics than usual. It is usually just books, books, books, but the 2008 election is engendering more than normal interest. Some of the stalls we meandered through were interesting just because of their locations; the people who have a bookstore near my daughter's home in Covina, California -- Jen and Brad at The Book Shop -- have several dogs that need to be groomed and my daughter is a dog groomer; they also had really nice books. Rannoch Books in Inverness specializes in Civil War books and I happen to have a really rare Civil War item that they will be interested in, I'm sure. H&H Book Services in Glendale, California, does restorations, conservation boxes, and custom folders for manuscripts, and I have a customer who needs to have a book restored and a gun collector who needs a conservation box. We are going to Utah in April, so we will drop in on Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake. Carpe Diem Books in Pebble Beach is looking for books on Monterey, California, of which I happen to have two. What fun it is to meet like-minded people and explore the amazing world of bibliomania!

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Booking Diversity

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Booking Diversity

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