How many weeks start with an earthquake and end with a hurricane? Up early Tuesday morning August 23 for the drive down I-95, which I’ve been doing for so many years that I can now do it in my sleep (almost.) Woke in time to shop Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts in their lovely new […] More >>
Archives for August 2011
Going, Going, Gone!
Front elevation of the future. (See below.) In 1993, after seventeen years in the used book business, I finally saw the light. Retail bookselling was not for me. I closed the shop in downtown Gloucester, my fifth location since 1976, sold all my non-maritime, non-rare stock, and headed home. As chance would have it there […] More >>
Ecology 101
No bookfairs to scout or participate in this weekend. Maritime List #204 is in the can and ready to go on line. (It’ll be on the tenpound website Monday – a collection of reference books about Melville and Moby Dick). Maritime List #205 has been written and sits on the shelf awaiting photographs, and I’ve […] More >>
A Contrarian Speaks His Mind
Something about a thawed-out skating rink that makes a book dealer’s heart skip a beat. The moldy walls, the gloomy vault of the ceiling, the scarred, unforgiving concrete floor… And the lights! Those Am-I-Going-Blind/I-Am-Going-Blind war surplus mercury-xenon floods… That’s how we know we’re home! Like bats in our cave. (Mental flash here of a flock […] More >>