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Hope to read from you soonest

Every few weeks I throw up Book Repair for Booksellers on Craigslist...not that it generates any sales, but it may drive a few people over to SicPress for supplies...hey...a girl can dream right? and like any good or bad Craigslist ad it generates a bunch of spam that purports to be from 'REAL' people. Most often it is someone wanting you to send you a cashiers check etc etc etc.... But lately the ones I am getting are rather cryptic.....i mean it is BLATANTLY suspicious..the lack of articles in the grammar for one thing... but I am left wondering exactly HOW they intend to make a buck by buying my book....or pretending to by my book...i guess the mysteries of the criminal mind will keep me guessing for years. Hi Seller, I read your description and am highly impressed and Interested in buying your Books. I'll be needing some Books and Magazines to Open my New Book Store and i got your advertisement on Craigslist when am searching via the Internet, so i decided to mail you. I'll like to have details of the Books/Magazines you posted on Craigslist, the total selling of the item to me, As I will not be able to come down to check it out and i will love to know if you have more Books/Magazines to sell out as well Co's i will like to buy more Books/Magazines to keep in my Book Store. So kindly get back to me with the list of the Books & Magazines you have for sell and pics if you have any that you can send to me. And remove the ads off Craigslist.org as i will like to buy the items from you immediately and keep in my Book Store for whom might need them.Hope to read from you soonest. Regards, Mrs Susan

wet apples

On Saturday I took the trip into Boston to the Book, Print and Ephemera fair at the Radisson. It's always a nice little fair - spread out over a few conference rooms close enough to be considered intimate yet not so crowded that it would be squalid. And the usual cast of New England characters show up making it a good day to get out of the house...but it rained...a lot...and i made an asinine decision to go my usual route...drive to a subway parking, change trains and get off three cold and wet blocks from the destination... completely ludicrous...unless the Radission was charging $15 bucks an hour to park I would have actually SAVED time and money if I had just driven straight in to town and parked in the garage. By the time i arrived I was a drowned rat ..btw just because your trench coat LOOKS waterproof doesn't mean it is...i'm just saying....my heart really wasn't in the shopping.. i was too cold and wet and the the lighting was too dim to enjoy it...i think my eyes have altered again oh joy. I took a couple of turns around the place, shook a few hands gave away some free erasers and bought a total of one book...an English Cookbook on Apples. Not that I didn't see at least 5 books that I would have gladly stolen if given the chance, but folks always bring their BEST copies of things where I would be perfectly happy with the second worst copy. I haven't met all the booksellers in the world, but I am kinda going with the hypothesis that the difference between a real bookseller and a collector masquerading as a bookseller is the quality of their personal collection. A professional bookseller's collection is usually kind of embarrassing when they kick off. You see we have sold off any book worth its salt and replaced it with a reading copy, whereas a collector takes more joy in the having and holding part of business and will keep the better copy for themselves and sell the lesser. But that's just my opinion, i could be wrong...anyone have a Weegee by Weegee without a dj? thanks for looking.

the private library

If you haven't been keeping up the biblioblog The Private Library has been rocking....and this latest series of educational posts "Photography and the Private Library" are not to be missed. The information and history offered freely for the enjoyment of one and all is an embarrassment of riches...the kind of biblio material usually available at a cost. This nine part series is worth reading and perhaps saving. So pour yourself a cuppa and go do something on the net that won't make you feel like you are wasting your time.

some fridays are worth the wait

I spent thursday churning out a large order for a special customer...well technically it took all week and as profitable as it was - it's all spent every penny on frivolous things like insurance and utilities. But after I had washed my hands of the entire thing and before I wrote the 1st check, I celebrated with a trip to McIntyre and Moore in Cambridge. Granted the shop has changed locations more times than Nathan Detroit's crap game, and has even changed hands...for me there is ALWAYS something to buy. ' I wasn't looking for anything to resell just books for myself and I kinda had to stop after an hour or so, because the longer I looked, the taller my pile became. (M&M likes that, they give discounts on the height of your book stack...no shit.) I came away with much to read: A Great Idea at the Time by local boy Beam is the history of the Great Books series; The WPA Guides: Mapping America...the history of the WPA Guidebook series; Writers, Plumbers and Anarchists: the WPA writer's project in Mass; Swindler, Spy, Rebel: the Confidence woman in 19th century America; a contemporary travel book about a guy who rode from Turkey to Wales on horseback; and a UK travel book that follows the BBC shipping forecast route...I kid you not; and a copy of Barbara Ehrenreich's 1973 monograph on Witches, Midwives and Nurses. [the copy of McCaffrey's Hound came in the mail from Old Bag Lady books] . So all in all it was a good day for the pile on my sideboard.

we buried my cousin last week..you know the one, the younger, happier, friendlier, more successful cousin, the yardstick i have been compared to most of my life. i am sure we could have been fast friends if we hadn't been family. she was killed slowly and horribly by stomach cancer. the universe is awful funny like that. this is Franklin, he was grabbed up by dog, found sick and injured and THEN put outside in a box by the trash. he still wobbles when he walks but he's doing alright. just in case, i made arrangements to be planted in the yard with the pets when the time comes.