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December 30, 2005

Got to thinking about all those reference books/CDs we don't have. If I had $600, what would I buy to start with. Well you could certainly start with some of the basics. I would probably start with the three McBride books and then go on to some references in science fiction. My final list would probably look something like this (in no particular order):

A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions compiled by Bill McBride - $15
Points of Issue compiled by Bill McBride - $13

Book Collecting for Fun and Profit by Bill McBride with the assistance of Brendan LeFebvre - $15

Hawk's Authors' Pseudonyms compiled by Pat Hawk - $125

ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter and Nicolas Barker - $30

First Editions: A Guide to Identification by Edward N. Zempel - $60

Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction and Non-Fiction, Revised Edition compiled by LW Currey - $70

The Locus Index To Science Fiction (1984-2003) by Charles N. Brown and William G. Contento, combined with Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections by William G. Contento. - $50
The Locus Index to Science Fiction lists all SF, fantasy, and horror books, magazines, and stories published from 1984 through 2003. The Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections lists the contents of anthologies and single-author collections published prior to 1984.
Index includes:
* List of books and magazines by author and title.
* List of stories by author and title.
* List of book and magazine contents.
* List of book and magazine cover artists.
* Chronoligical list of books and stories for each author.

All lists contain extensive links to the other sections for easy navigation.

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Weird Fiction Magazine Index (1890-2003) by Stephen T. Miller & William G. Contento - $50
An Index to all professional, semi-professional, and major fanzines published since 1890. Covers over 1,100 magazine titles, 15,000 individual issues, 25,000 authors, and 100,000 stories.
Index includes:
* Magazine checklists.
* Author and title lists.
* Cover artist list.
* Issue-by-issue list.
* Chronoligical list of stories for each author.

All lists contain extensive links to the other sections for easy navigation.

Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749-2000 by Allen J. Hubin - $50
This massive bibliography indexes by author, title, series character and setting over 106,000 detective and mystery novels and collections. Listing of alternate titles and publishers brings the total to over 139,000 books. Includes author, title and contents lists of stories in single author collections, chronological list of books and stories, publisher list, and an index of films derived from the books and stories.

Detective and Mystery Fiction: An International Bibliography of Secondary Sources Third Editionby Walter Albert - $30
The first edition of this bibliography won a special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. This edition contains over 10,000 annotated entries, extending coverage through the year 2000.
I. Bibliographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, & Checklists (377 entries)
II. General Reference Works: Historical & Critical: Books (984 entries) & Articles (2,112 entries)
III. Dime Novels, Juvenile Series & Pulps (1,267 entries)
IV. Authors (5,867 entries)

Mystery Short Fiction Miscellany: An Indexby William G. Contento. - $50
Combines Index to Crime and Mystery Anthologies by William G. Contento with Martin H. Greenberg (G.K. Hall 1990), Indexes to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, The Saint Detective Magazine, and Mystery Short Fiction: 1990-2003.

A Master Index to:
o Mystery short stories in anthologies.
o Mystery stories in single-author collections published since 1990.
o Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The Saint Detective Magazine.
o Other mystery magazines published since 1980.
o Indexes 2,400 books and 2,200 magazine issues, 56,000 stories by 8,900 authors.

The Index to Adventure Magazine by Richard Bleiler - $30
An author, title, illustrator, and issue-by-issue index to Adventure magazine, "The No. 1 Pulp". Revised and expanded from the two-volume hardcover edition.

Well that may not add up to quite $600 but it is a good start. Actually I've just listed a few general books which should, IMO, be on every booksellers shelf: the McBride's (available from us), and Hawk's Pseudonyms, Carter's ABCs, and Zempel.

The other references are available on CDs (we may have a copy or two of the Currey CD but I don't think we have it listed). The other CD's are available though Locus Press

And that's only the begining.

>> 'til next time - DW <<

December 15, 2005

I've been off chasing rainbows. I didn't find the end of any, but did see a few rainbows. I came back and was running around the boards at some of the book places and came across a question about replacing endpapers. In one of the answers there was a reference to the site on recasing a book.

After looking through the illustrated instructions, I went to the main site Procedures and Treatments Used for Book Repair and Pamphlet Binding. This University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintained site has a tremendous amount of illustrated instructions cover many aspects of bind and repair of books. If you are at all interested in this subject, I urge you to visit and bookmark the site. You'll find many hours of fasinating reading. The subjects covered are:

Binding Pamphlets & Papers
Binding Pamphlets
Adding Envelopes
Sewn Pamphlets: single
Sewn Pamphlets: multiple
Adding Title Covers
Envelope Binding
Multiple Binding: "S'mores"
Disbinding & Rebinding
Loose-leaf Binding

Paper Repairs & Treatments
Page Mending
Tape Removal
Replacing Page Parts
Filling-In, Framing, Mounting
Forming Signatures
Vise Gluing
Inserting Loose Pages
Stubbing in Pages
Page Cutting

Book Repairs & Treatments
Recasing a Book Block
Replacing a Book Spine
Reconstructing a Book Cover I
Reconstructing a Book Cover II
Variations: Quick Hangs & Half Hangs
Enclosures: Flaps, Wraps & Hard-shelled Wraps
Enclosures: Light-weight Boxes
Enclosures: Heavy-duty Boxes
Adding/Making Pockets in Books
Temporary Spine Repair
Tightening Loose Hinges

>> 'til next time - DW <<

November 17, 2005

Suppose you have this large blank area in your book store which just seems to cry out for a large (40' x 17') mural. What would be more natural than a theme of an upstairs balcony peopled by famous writers. Or so though Mary Manley of Barter Books in Alnwick Station , Northumberland. The final list was cut down to 33 writers:

Charlotte Brontë, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie , Angela Carter, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, William Faulkner, Samuel Beckett, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Mark Twain, T S Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Emily Dickinson, Ted Hughes, John Keats, Wilfred Owen, Alan Bennett, George Bernard Shaw, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare , Doris Lessing, Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, and Spike Milligan.

There are some other characters in the mural like Toad, Ratty, Mole, Badger, and Scarecrow. And thus we have Peter Dodd's Famous Writers Mural

Not the writer's you would have chosen. Read Mary's reasons and I'm sure you'll agree she made a good choice given the circumstances. In any case you really should go look at the mural.

On a different subject, we have been thinking of offering gift certificates for our customers. If you are interested, drop us a line about gift certificates.

>> 'til next time - DW <<

November 11, 2005

Looking for a Childrens book? Don't know the title? You do know something though - it was about a boy who goes to an island where all he eats is tangerines. What do you do? It obvious that you need a touch of Nostalgia. (just scroll down toward the bottom and input tangerines, then Go!)

Loganberry lists a lot of the "tangerines" success stories. In fact their rate of success is about 75%. So, if you are looking for a childrens book, try them. They also have news of upcoming books, author pages and other features. For example, from their page on Jane Werner Watson, they have news from their contact at Random House (01/05), which purchased the defunct Golden Press, that says that Elves and Fairies is slated to be reprinted sometime... perhaps in 2007.

>> 'til next time - DW <<

October 18, 2005

Well, I've been busy. Finally got the site rearranged somewhat [see the list of Internal Links / Condensed Site Map below]. I got back to help Joan today by pricing some books and ran across the little book which is a delight to read. O.K., so I'm not pricing books - but I am working, aren't I?

I also realized that I hadn't done a book review in quite a while. It isn't that I quit reading books, heaven forbid, but I just haven't had the time. But this little book was so nice, it just screamed out for a review.

Papa, My Father (A Celebration of Dads) by Leo Buscaglia - Bibliography, Fathers and Sons. Review copy: SLACK Inc., Thorofare, NJ Distributed to the trade by Morrow, c1989. 125 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill. ; 20 cm.

This is the first Buscaglia book I've read. The writing is a nice relaxing style, almost like you're sitting around the fire place hearing the stories being told. The book consists of 11 sections; an Introduction, and ten vignettes about his father and his affect on the life of the writer. You can pick any one of the pieces and read it by itself. I started in about the middle of the book, on Papa, the Oenophile. This starts out "Like all Italians, Papa loved his wine, ...". It continues with a story about the yearly wine making and then an experience Leo had in college where what his Papa taught him about wines stood him in very good stead. But the "real story" is the love that shows through and the demonstration of the statement of the first piece in the book: "... When I wrote my first book Love, I dedicated it to my parents who, I wrote, 'never taught me about love - they showed me.'" The rest of the book is like that too. Leo talks about his father as Papa, the Husband; the Educator; the Philanthropist and seven other roles he played in Leo's life.

When you finish a section you can put book down and go on about your business or, more likely, first lean back and bask in the warm feeling you got from reading it. You'll enjoy each little story individually and the book as a whole. The book ends "Thanks Papa, I'll always love you." It shows.

>> 'til next time - DW <<

October 10, 2005

Something that has bothered me from time to time through out my writing life is the difference between the use of which and that. I mean basically being able to write, not my technical writings which started some 40 or more years ago, nor this writing I do on site. Like some other people I know, I'm a bit lazy, so I never really got around to looking at the difference. I really thought that it made little difference. However, as I intimated below, I care a little more about trying to write "properly" these days. So, when "several" months or so ago, I was corrected by someone I though knew the difference, I decided to find out. Well, I did. I just hope I use the words correctly from now on.

Basically, the difference is simple. Which is used when the phrase is not necessary to the meaning of the sentence. That is use when the phrase is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. There's a little more to it than that and you can read all about the difference in the which vs. that in the Q&A section of the on-line Chicago Manual of Style.
About the Chicago Manual of Style - Under the stewardship of The University of Chicago, the manual has evolved, beginning in 1891, from a style sheet to a phamphlet to, in 1906, a book: Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use. The 15th Edition, at about a thousand pages and $55, is a reference book and the authoritative voice for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers.

>> 'til next time - DW <<

October 3, 2005

A long time ago I saw the movie Don Quixote and fell in love with the idea of passionate service. [Sometime back then, I heard the translation for the Mexican version - El Hombre de la Mancha - and thought the way it just rolled off the tounge was so great, I mostly referred to it as that from then on.] When I saw the movie, I was too young to have a beloved of my own so I substituted mankind at large for Quixote's Dulcinea. Although the idea of the personal passionate service died down fairly rapidly, I still liked the book very much. I've read the book several times but those were all also quite a while ago. Strangly, it's one book that I don't re-read through the years. Strange because I re-read all of my other favorites. Maybe the reason is because all I still have to do is lean back, close my eyes and go galloping off to find some more windmills to fight. There is something comforting about fighting windmills. You have no doubts that you are in the right and that you shall either persevere and bring honor to your beloved or die in a great cause serving justice and truth. What could be a finer way of life.

Why do I bring this up? Because, anyone living in the neighborhood of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Meadows Museum in Dallas, say within several thousand miles, who also likes Don Quixote as I do, can see the current Meadows exhibition, ?Weaving the Legend of Don Quijote?. The exhibition will be running from Sept. 15 to Nov. 13. It also features tours and theatrical readings from the novel, as well as lectures by SMU faculty. Although the tapestry collection is the main focus of the exhibition, there are also displays of antique books, paintings and even embroideries.

Since Meadows Museum is the first and only U.S. stop for this exhibit, there are some who are traveling a long way to see it. The exibition was organized by the State Corporation for Spanish Cultural Action Abroad. The senior curator for Meadows, Salvador Salort, attributes this to the museum?s prestigious reputation.

Read more about the exhibition in Rachael Dunlap's column Don Quijote exhibit at Meadows Museum in the online version of the SMU " The Daily Campus ".

>> 'til next time - DW <<

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