BibliophileBullpen

I told you what you would get when I got busy: bupkis.

Sunday I was ‘appraising’ a friend’s books, that’s a generous term, I was helping her ‘get rid’ of some books. Sorting them into Keep, Sell and Give Away piles. In the end there were five books to keep and six boxes of Give Away. All the give aways were divided between the nursing home library and a charity thrift shop in the welfare district. I seem to spend a lot of time just funneling unsaleable books to various charities to keep them out of the hands of the penny sellers.

Monday, ah yes Monday. Monday I called my garage to get a tire changed only to find that I am the last person to find out my mechanic lost his lease. Having to find another mechanic is bad enough, that’s like having to switch gynecologists, it’s terrifying. But I happened to have built and maintained the website for my mechanic, and the costs of upkeep came off the top of my repair bill. I just wish he had told me before I renewed his damn domain for another year. I spent the next 15 hours massaging data for another bookseller, where his data was in the wrong format for Amazon upload. After correcting all the data inconsistencies I finally got 75% uploaded with all the ARCs kicked out.

Tuesday I was cataloging a history collection for insurance purposes, an hour away on a good day and 2 hours away during traffic, and then there was a snow storm coming home, so after a 3 hour commute I just put my feet up and vegged processing my own orders.

Wednesday, that was yesterday right? I got a shipment of orders packed and shipped, then let my sister in law scream at me on the phone for about 30 minutes about how put upon and stressed out my brother is. (no sympathy here, he put himself in charge and tells me dick, the nursing home administrators treat me like a total stranger. he can bite me. so can she.) then i spent another 5 hours revising and reloading all the Amazon data I had uploaded on Monday because the catagories weren’t quite right.

I tried hiding under the covers today. I want to rewrite the Jay Presson Allen biography on Wikipedia, it’s terribly spartan. But alas I have work calling me from my office, if I process the orders today, I can pack them tonight and post them tomorrow morning….and THEN I can take a nap oh wait..tomorrows Friday – damn.

g2 knockoff I saw at walmart, originally uploaded by jgodsey.

this looks kinda like a G2, cept it is shorter about the height of a moleskine

I have posted enough BAD packing to last me forever.

But if you listen real hard you can hear me make a girly scream. My mail box contained an Ebay item that I had thought was lost, AND this little gem.

I still haven’t opened it yet to see what it is, I just like looking at the perfect packing job. A proper sized box, item safely wrapped, BIBLIOMANIA even went so far as to make pen marks on the tape, so when I whip out my knife to open the bugger up I wouldn’t accidentally injure my precious purchase.

Bibliomania you rocked my world.

I feel so lazy, I haven’t added anything the BiblioBullpen Cafepress site in ages.
A customer asked me to put the owl logo on a mug, so I did. But I thought it looked lonely. So, I added her favorite quote. I supposed I should get off my keister and add more designs – perhaps tomorrow – but then again, where’s the rush?

Scott Brown’s Fine Books Press publication ‘Editions & Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beat,’ by Nicholas A. Basbanes has got a lovely write up in the LA TIMES.

Besotted by books

‘Editions & Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beat,’ by Nicholas A. Basbanes

By Martin Rubin, Special to The Times

February 23, 2008

If anyone in the United States is truly a book person, surely it is Nicholas A. Basbanes. For two decades, the literary critic and columnist has cast a fond, even loving eye, on the culture of books, their substance, their wider meaning in society and the people who — in ways similar and markedly different — share his passion. His intense engagement with all things bookish shines from every page of his new collection of journalistic pieces, each one sparkling with insights born of total immersion in his beloved subject.

Basbanes already has written a handful of indispensable books on this topic, but, as he makes clear in his introduction to “Editions & Impressions,” he selected these particular essays “precisely because they are not replicated in any substantial way” in his other published work. The essays are radiant with his joy in discovering and exploring the byways of the book world. And what a world it is, full of fascinating characters and interesting tales, which Basbanes, with his experience covering “every imaginable kind of story as a newspaper reporter,” is perfectly fitted to evoke.

( keep reading . . . )

There’s always one
Originally uploaded by jgodsey.

I usually rely on stuff like this in the stores to tell me when holidays are imminent. But since stuff starts appearing 60 days ahead you never really can tell. To be on the safe side I just got some of these SMENCILS for my brother’s kids. He may be a jerk, but these kids are rather sweet.

The Smencils are pencils made from rolled up recycled newspapers, and made to smell like things that are normally eaten: chocolate, bubblegum etc… well at least my sister in law can’t complain about them eating too much candy, too much paper perhaps.