Information wants to be free!

We’ve been tidying up our cataloguing recently, and generally trying to look at the world of rare books through the eyes of people who have an interest but weren’t abandoned in the wild and brought up by bookdealers. Those few unfortunates out there whose first words weren’t “Incunabula” (which most people think is a spell from Harry Potter) or “Trigesimo-Secundo” (which actually is).
In the interests of such bereft types, I’ve scrabbled together some information regarding book sizes, (in addition to the blog article I did a while back with the help of my little brother) and I hope it will be if some use.

In the future I’ll be adding more bits and pieces, problematic technical terms (or just silly words we use), and if anyone has any queries that need clarifying I’ll have a go at that or find some actual clever grown up who can…so feel free to ask.

Other Bookdealers Blog Too…3

Okay, that titling convention is going to get old very quickly.

Writing anything about bookdealers is very similar to that “Acknowledgements” bit in the front of your first novel. I say your first novel because mine exists only in my crowded little head, but it’s good, oh hell yes! Watch out Neil Gaiman! Beware Dostoevsky (that’s actually good advice)! Look to your laurels Jilly Cooper!

From this you will have gathered that the plot of my first novel involves impoverished, self involved, modern day myth archetypes who also shop and play polo. Tiger blood, that’s what I’ve got!

"Will the owner of the white Mercedes please return to reception? You're blocking the bookfair entrance! Thank you."

Ahem.

It’s akin to the acknowledgements page because; there are thousands of bookdealers (good, bad and print on demand), they all know each other (What? Fetish clubs are very convenient places to do business and often have very competitively priced cocktails), you’re never going to fit them all in and you’re destined to end up with a lame “You know who you are…” type of thing at the end. Believe me, I need all the friends I can get (everyone here, including my cat, is nodding at this), so this shall not happen to me! I shall bring everybody to your sage attention, everybody…

So…Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Greg Gibson and his Ten Pound Island.

Not content to leave it there I present his manly yet understated blog which I think you will find has citrussy tones over a solid bed of sandalwood: Bookman’s Log

 

All joking aside, it’s worth it just for this observation about the last California book fair:

“That said (Ever notice how the phrase “that said” has caught on? It’s made great progress in the language, despite the fact that it’s nowhere near as interestingly malign as the equally popular “with all due respect” which, of course means, “with no respect at all.”), much of the Saturday crowd were what I call “molecules.” Molecules are attendees who bump around the floor in a sort of random Brownian motion, occasionally bonding to a low valence book. Some molecules also form new compounds by bonding with free catalogs or other molecules.”

When my book is published, I want it to be low valence.