Thursday, September 27, 2007

 

What is it...

...with this day? First thing this morning I started out by accidentally pushing the watering can off the top of a bookcase while I was taking care of the resident potted plants. Water got on the lowest shelf, splashed up on a bunch of books, and soaked my shirttails. And of course got the floor all wet. As I cleaned up - Books first! save the books! - a person with an overwhelming odor (not entirely unpleasant, just stunningly unavoidable - and believe me, I tried to avoid it) came in and spent some time browsing. I had to air out the shop afterwards. The stairwell was full of scent, too. I opened the door just as a smoker walked by in mid-puff, thereby trading one problem for another. Anyway, after that, the fresh air came in, which helped the floor dry more quickly. Then back to my desk for a round of bill-paying and politely refusing to buy people's moldy tattered books. Which they think are worth a lot. Because they are so old. Arg.

On to some non-whining: the good news in town is this, the Bangor Book Festival is happening in a week. The list of visiting and speaking authors is long and varied. A few of the other bookshops in town are venues for readings, but mine isn't on the list, sadly, although I did offer my shop as a venue - I think I wasn't asked because I'm on a second floor and hence not wheelchair accessible (no elevator). Oh well, now I can just relax and enjoy the festival, and not worry about scrounging chairs and decent lighting and signage, and oh yeah, dealing with people. Lately I am finding it more and more difficult to spend time around actual people. Kinda tough when I work in a bookshop. To avoid dealing with people.

I'll cut this short because I'm much too grumpy to be blogging. I just read a terribly depressing bunch of information about global warming, and I'm feeling very "what's it all for" right now. Back on Monday, with my usual optimism firmly in place.

Comments:
Here's something to cheer you up, a collection of endpapers:
http://drawger.com/show.php?show_id=27
 
Hi Sarah,
Just to give you something else to cheer you up. I happened to be down near West Chester, PA today and had planned my trip to allow time to stop at Baldwin's Book Barn. It really is a barn and it is full of books. What to my delight did I find but a set of Dorothy Dunnett's Nicolo series. Since I have heard so much about them from you and other post-ers I immediately bought the first one, along with John Gardner's Nickel Mountain (someone I've been meaning to read but haven't) and an old Ray Bradbury that was recently been reprinted - Some of Your Blood (I read Ray when I was young along with just about every other 'Golden Age of Science Fiction' author and he really gave me some things to think about as a 13-15 year old). I am reading Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. I liked his Polysyllabic Spree so much (as well as "about a Boy") that I have been keeping an eye open for him. I bought that book last weekend when I was in Wellsboro at a small second hand bookstore there. Lots of good reading in the near future I hope, but unfortunately the real world is dragging me back. Papers and grading and lessons for the next week. It does sound as if I am globe trotting but it has just been a couple of busy weekends. Now, if only I could make the trip to Maine a little more frequently I'd be able to stop in to see you and bring you nice copies of interesting books that I have finished reading. Books that I know you would like to have. Maybe next summer. Keep you chin up. I liked the end papers, always have enjoyed opening a book and seeing them there.
 
Thanks, Lesley - love that V for Victory design in particular, and I'm very curious about the bookplate on the pastedown, I wish I could get a closer look at it.

Back before I started painting again I used to work in collage, and I'd often use decorative endpapers out of old books (which were already falling apart, I should note). I liked ones with inscriptions, or library "discarded" rubber stamps, and such.

Hey Jodi - I hate to tell you this but I have yet to read the House of Niccolo series (I have read all the Lymond Chronicles, and I loved them). But given my recent reading about Venice, I can see that I am headed in that direction myself. I have a few of the books in the series so far, but not the first one. I'm waiting for it to turn up secondhand. It will, it's just a matter of time... Glad you like Nick Hornby, I've read everything of his in print - and I'm always watching for more.

Come up and visit again, any time. Any time I'm open, that is.

:O)
 
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