I’m still up in the woods, so didn’t get much of a sense of the much-ballyhooed (virtual) ABAA/ILAB NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR. My question is this: Did retail customers fill the (virtual) aisles and spend like drunken sailors (with apologies to all sailors), or was it more like the dealer-t0-dealer event I’ve been […] More >>
How Modern Greek Came to America
As promised, here is the first of 2 guest blogs by Curtis Runnels, who has kindly agreed to fill this spot while I’m up in the north woods trying to finish the damned novel I’ve been working on for 6 years. Curtis Runnels, Professor of Archaeology at Boston University and an expert in Palaeolithic archaeology […] More >>
Thanks, Gary. We Needed That!
Lots of ground to cover today, so let’s get started. Promoter Gary Gipstein is to be congratulated for going where other promoters feared to tread, and taking the risks and undergoing the hoop-jumping necessary to stage 2021’s live, in-person version of Papermania. Yes, there were a few things left to be desired. At the Hartford […] More >>
How Ya Dooin’?
So, how ya dooin’? Are you getting rich? Going stir crazy? Happier, in your isolation, than you’ve ever been? Lonely? Confused? I wish I had answers for you, but I don’t. All the dealers I’ve talked to, mostly old timers with relatively well-established businesses, seem to have come through this first year and a half […] More >>
The Evolution of the Virtual Book Fair
Okay, I was wrong to chastise promoters for being too lazy to risk producing live book fairs. When even the vaunted ABAA New York Book Fair falls victim to the unpredictable ravages of the pandemic, live book fairs seem more like romantic gestures than calculated risks. Anyway, this weekend’s virtual Ephemera Society show was on, […] More >>
