Years ago a colleague named Owen Kubiksent me an enigmatic manuscript. After considerable headscratching I determined it was the journal of a young naval officer sent to the Pacific to capture a sociopath who had committed murder and mutiny on the whaleship Globe. We sold it to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and felt quite […] More >>
Archives for December 2014
Venting and Flogging
Rant alert. If the pressures of the Holiday Season have left you feeling a mite tetchy, you are advised to skip directly to the interesting offerings at the end of this essay. My annual gift issue of the magazine Sea History arrived this week. They send it free every Christmas to former subscribers, with an […] More >>
Putting the Book Back in Bookselling
My favorite thing about IOBA (Independent OnlineBooksellers Association) is the chat line. On the chat line I learn over and over how diverse a business this is. Here’s a fairly typical string in which IOBAns help each other sort out a problem: …I thought I had figured out a way to up the prices by […] More >>
Xmas Rant (one in an ongoing series)
Okay, it’s the Christmas season. I think I remember, from an abortive Sunday School career, Jesus telling us to suffer the little children – a tricky collision of images, that. And I recall him saying, “Blessed be the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God.” And, one I spent a lot of time […] More >>