Years ago I sold my 10,000 books, dropped ABE, and retired my sidekick Joe Burns – none of which I regret. I do miss Joe on occasion, but I don’t miss coughing up tens of thousands of dollars each year for the pleasure of his company. I don’t miss those 10,000 dust-gathering, stinky old books […] More >>
Archives for April 2016
Jumping the Shark
This was going to be one of those blog entries that writes itself. By last Thursday I had the basic idea figured out. Sunday, April 17 was going to be the day Marvin Getman jumped the shark. Over the past few years Getman had proved himself an energetic and innovative promoter, opening new venues in […] More >>
And Elsewhere in the News…
It’s gotten to be a running joke at book fairs. I stand by the entrance at the start of the show and take a picture of the people waiting to get in. Sometimes the image of a long line gives a sense of the excitement that awaits within. Sometimes it’s just the same few sad, […] More >>
My MacArthur Genius Grant
Promoter Sandy Smith hired a well known graphic artist to design a signature image for this year’s New York Antiquarian Book Fair. I think it was supposed to… I don’t know what it was supposed to do. Send a message to millennials that the book fair was cool? Evoke the pleasure we all had when […] More >>