Most folks take pictures of the front of buildings . . . The 19thc family who built this estate also built a castle in my hometown, so I found the front overly familiar. I find the backsides of things much more interesting.

Most dealers were crammed into the foyer and anterooms (which probably look elegant and spacious when not occupied,) a few of us had the terrace which wasn’t as appealing at 8 am during the rain, but for a few hours there it was delightful, then the sun came out in earnest and fried my substantial backside.

This is the view from the terrace, instead of swans there were wild geese, but alas no croquet wickets.

Same shit, different show. I sold an awful lot of $2 items, just enough to pay my booth rent and expenses. Not enough to retire on.

I didn’t get to ‘see’ all the other booths this fair, every time I went for a walk I ended up jawing with other dealers about repair products. Someone called me the ‘Avon lady’ of book repair, which I thought was a joke until other people advised me to get a cart and go door to door. In actuality I’m becoming more like Dear Abby. Folks explain their book repair dilemmas in great detail and ask what’s to be done. I like it when I tell them to leave well enough alone – makes their eyes bug out. With repair less is more, not everything can be fixed, so BUYING something isn’t always the best option.

I still need to dig out the biz cards from these two booths, so I can give them proper credit. The only things I liked where I was able to snag pictures.

Poster Classics, Hillsdale, NY – vintage poster dealers

T.W. & Barbara Clemmer, Lehighton, PA – used booksellers.

The Portland Book Print and Paper Show, was held in the basement of the Holiday Inn and a good time was had by all, of course there was free liquor involved.

<--typical booth with a view. [courtesy of Commonwealth Books , MY best customer of the day]

Despite the lack of bling, I had a very nice time. I most enjoyed Don & Samantha Lindgren’s Rabelais Books pre-fair Whine and Cheese Party – but then once you ply me with food and liquor and I always write nice things. I didn’t buy anything at the fair beyond a Thorne Smith novel, but I did managed to snag a few things from Rabelais. I am such a sucker for books about food, or food, or books, or books with food on them.

Unfairly it was the ephemeral things that catch my attention. Among the novelties, I thought Mac’s Rare and Antique Books,Winslow, had a clever vintage display idea for these ‘Golden Book’-type books.

And these damn useless but gorgeous things I almost bought from E Blackbird, Saco. They are handmade Japanese placecards – aren’t the Dragonflies are to die for?

But the coolest thing, I got to see was what Elizabeth Baird was doing with amputee paper dolls. Yes, you read that right. She’s been salvaging damaged paper dolls by replicating their missing anatomy or accessories. In this example the doll is actually missing her legs and feet. Using a color copy of a complete figure, she can create prosthetic limbs for little Mary or Suzy whatever and she can go merrily along her way – to a collector for whom she is still appealing. Elizabeth is also providing replica hats to complete ensembles – all clearly marked and made of modern materials, but you so seamlessly created that you have to flip them over to see the evidence. Too bad I loathed paper dolls as a child, well, all dolls, cause this is just nifty.

Aside from lack of sleep, an hourplus commute and lot of toll booth tithing, my weekend was only marred by an incident where some old fart of a bookseller who was not appropriately briefed about my radiance, decided to follow me around and reprimand me for taking pictures of other people’s wares as well as underselling him on repair items. I warned him that by the end of the day I was going to have to hurt him, but he didn’t take the hint and proceed to lecture me about how he was just advising me on how to be more ‘professional’ – now granted it isn’t unusual for me to tell someone to their face to ‘bite me’ but usually it isn’t before 9am. C’est la vie. I killed him and tossed his body in the dumpster near the loading dock. That’s what Bruce said I could do with all my day’s kills.

Feeling lucky I got a table at the Portland, Maine Book Print and Paper Show this weekend (Thanks Bruce). So, of course I had to buy new trunks (hey, it was either that or buy a new vehicle.)

Then I had to find folding bookcase of my own – (thus a trip to the store fixture store)

Then I had to restock everything – unlike running next door to Lowell to get leather dyes – the archival stuff meant a trip to the mother ship out in Holyoke (University Products = 2 hour drive)

But I killed two birds with one roadtrip, as I nipped over to Connecticut to select plastic containers. (I can lower my prices if I bottle my own stuff)
Now I can tackle this pile of paper on my desk from the Cat Rescue folks . . . like a cat in a litter box, you can never cover it all. . . .

As I have mentioned, I have done a few book fairs, this is the 1st time sans books. Lessons learned:
1. don’t wear white shirt.
2. get waterproof boxes
3. stock more leather products
4. bring more ones
5. man can live on red bull and little powdered donuts alone

The last of three postings of photos of the Tijuana bookfair went up to the Tijuana Bible blog this morning.

Yesterday was the last day of the fair. There were more new books and fewer used books than in the few past years I have attended and attendence seemed a bit off. Overall tourism is down by 30% this year in Tijuana and it appeared to hurt the book fair.

The drop in tourism is ascribed here to alarmist announcements by the US State Department about the dangers of travel to Mexico. Nonetheless undesirable elements from the United States continue to come. Donald Trump is building a 400 unit condo with accompanying shopping and entertainment features in Playas de Tijuana just a few kilometers south of us.

The fair was fun though. As always (as you can see from the photos) lots of children were in attendence. Our ecology group from Playas, Las Gaviotas, had a small booth for 2 days. I picked up a couple of nice pieces on Baja history and 6 books on bullfighting, two of which had very beautiful calf bindings over their intact wrappers.

The fair is for two weeks around the end of May each year. Hope to see you here next year. Two more years and I can exhibit!
–

– Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson

The largest Spanish language book fair north of Guadalajara (in the Americas) runs for 10 days from May 25 through June 3, the XXV Feria del Libro de Tijuana (yes, they number the things like Super Bowls).

Each year the fair is named in honor of a Mexican author and this year the fair will be an homage to Federico Campbell. Among other authors to be in attendence will be novelist Jose Agustin, author of La Tumba and other novels. Other writers to be present include Hector Anaya, Javier Villareal, Anabel Hernandez, Alain Derbez, Francisco Martin Moreno, Ignacio Padilla, Jose Manuel Valenzuela, & Babara Colio.

The fair is cosponsored by the city government through IMAC (Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura) and the Union de Libreros de Tijuana. It will be located in the street in the heart of downtown on Avenida Revolucion in front of the old Jai Lai Palace. It is the largest cultural festival of the year in Tijuana says the director of IMAC. There will be more than 80 booths, 25 of them of local Tijuana bookstores.

I know that with 2 to 3 million people 25 bookstores does not qualify Tijuana as an internationally acclaimed book town, but having 25 local booksellers exhibiting at the fair seems pretty good to me. And I bet it surprises a lot of people who thought they knew what Tijuana was like. (I think that rivals the number of night clubs on La Revo.) Come to Tijuana, where the party never stops. Illustrative video at Youtube:

As the song says, “welcome to Tijuana, tequila, sex, y marihuana,” but stay for the last poignant 30 seconds of the video and the lovely violin. (I think this is my favorite Tijuana video for those last 30 seconds.)

Lynn

Ps: We are 3 to 3.5 hours south of Los Angeles.

Event triptych

I did take a walk through the rest of the joint. And it was filled with untouchable pretty prettys. To give you an idea of the tenor – I peeked into a booth where a large Victorian box covered with seashells caught my eye. The occupants were standing outside the booth looking in, so I said “I once made a box like that for my Mom, but I used macaroni.” Well you would have thought I had just shat on their carpet. I dunno about those folks but I thought it was a damn clever joke for end of the day.

Bookfair backsides – my god we are a hefty people

I made my obligatory glad handing with the 7 or 8 dealers I knew there. Luckily no one to whom I owed money. Then tried to chat up a couple new ones – not fooling myself, I can see the gears turning behind their eyes “who IS this peculiar person?”

Johnnycake Books, Salisbury, CT.
I was oh so tempted to go a little wild with the cookbooks. These were lovely.
Best condition I have ever seen in vintage cookbooks

I did manage to keep my purchases down to only cash on hand. I didn’t even take the chance of pissing money away on frivolous things like food. I brought a couple of cheese and pickle sandwiches to eat in the car. (borrowed of course, the car not the sandwiches – Mama still needs a head gasket) The Bayside makes its SERIOUS money on food and parking – $12 bucks to get into the parking lot and $50 to get out . . . . it IS Dorchester after all.

John Brooks Dodge Collections, Bedford, MA.
Nearly every book fair is 50% ephemera these days, the stuff sells better IRL than on the net I am sure.
These Valentine’s cards are gorgeous

Bookworm & Silverfish, Wytheville, VA.
Quite a number of vendors from out of town.
Here Patrick is showing off some spectacular full color US War Dept posters

Paper Art, Newburyport.
You KNEW I had to look inside this flip file.
That’s where I found my Muerto. He looked so lonely.

Choosebooks.com These guys weren’t taking any chances.
they were handing out packing tape, post it notes, shopping bags, hair pins, sexual favors – very slick, very hungry.

Griffon’s Medieval Manuscripts, St Pete, Florida.
Nice folks with some very pretty stuff under glass.

From the customer point of view I thought it was a damn nice fair, and I hope it grows like Topsy. I’d like to hear that it was monetarily successful. Ian @ Lux Mentis has already started posting his impressions and Don Lindgren is 7 ways of giddy about the impeding birth of his new Rabelais Bookshop due to land in Portland, ME sometime in April.