Never enough Tolkien?

Good morning, bookies. Stand by for news!

*There's never enough Tolkien. When I saw The Children of Hurin was going to be published as a novel, I found it very strange. A new entry in the Canon of Middle Earth in novel form, 35 years after Professor Tolkien died? But I loved the book. In places it was sketchy, true, but in places it was completely fleshed out, and it was all JRRT. Indeed, in some ways it was far more ambitious than was The Lord of the Rings. It gives depth to the whole history. Glorious.

Now, there is a live chat for you fanatics out there, on October 14th. No, it's not with Professor Tolkien. Sorry. It's with Alan Lee, the Tolkien family's chosen artist for illustrating Middle Earth. Here's the link. Enjoy.
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/847-Children_of_Hurin_Paperback_Release_Event.php

And lest we forget, this is the 70th anniversary f the first publication of The Hobbit. As you may know, there is a film in the works (which the Tolkien estate fought to prevent. But they also fought to prevent the first three films, and as much as I respect Christopher Tolkien's editing of his father's works, I loved the movies) for sometime in the near future, along with two original films that will fill in the time gap between The Hobbit and LOTR. (These movies I am much less on board with. Original Middle Earth material from a non-Tolkien source? Color me dubious.)

*Another group weighs in on the debacle that has become Ebay. As I write this Ebay's stock is flirting with a 52 week low of $19.94. The linked article does a good job of explaining some of the mess and why Ebay's customers are leaving the site in droves.
http://ebaygossip.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/professional-seller-alliance-pesa-tells-it-as-it-is/

And if that's not enough for you, Morgan Stanley downgraded Ebay's stock today. Here's a quote from an article on the reasoning why: “Seller checks and proprietary data indicate that trends deteriorated more than expected in Q3 amid eBay’s ongoing transition in its core marketplace, greater economic sensitivity and poor demand,” he writes in a research note today. Joseph writes that he now expects greater deceleration in global gross merchandise volume in Q3 than previously expected, with a possible year-over-year decline in the U.S. And he also cautions that eBay faces a “challenging holiday season.” Jospeh also notes that the company’s current issues are likely to linger: he cut estimates not only for Q3 and Q4, but also for 2009. “We have less conviction in eBay’s strategy to transform its core marketplace from an auction-based ‘thrift’ to a transaction-oriented platform that better addresses fixed-price in-season retail,” he writes."

Put another way, the whole thing is a mess and nobody has a clue where it will wind up, including those running the company.

* Controversy continues to follow Gwen Ifill and her role as moderator in the VP debate. I'll say this: she stands to gain substantially from an Obama victory in terms of book sales, therefore she has a vested interest and should not moderate. Can't anyone spell 'conflict of interest?'

This and that

Good morning bookies. Stand by for news.

Confessing a guilty pleasure here, there are few things more entertaining than a snarky dust-up between overbearing literary types. You can almost hear this guy sniffing as he speaks. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/nobel-literature-chief-ba_n_130619.html

Gwen Ifill, moderator of the Vice Presidential debate, is releasing a pro-Obama book on the day of the election. It is the intention of this blog to be non-political and unbiased. (I already have a blog that is political and biased, why have two?) Therefore, this is mentioned only because it is book related and in the news.

The Jewel of Medina is still on the way to British bookstores, who seem determined to carry the book regardless of what some barbarians may do or threaten. Too bad the US publisher doesn't have such courage. Although things do appear to be getting a bit sticky over there. It would seem those who don't approve of the book aren't in a mood to discuss it's merits, but would prefer to just kill everybody instead. Tsk-tsk. Sounds like some anger management counseling is in order. Or maybe a course on tolerance.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24415019-5001986,00.html

And speaking of Lord Nelson (we weren't?), I found this article very interesting, for those among you who crave anything and everything Napoleonic and Oceanic. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/29/books.top.10s.nelson For those who aren't aware, books on the Napoleonic era navies are very popular. Authors such as Dewey Lambdin have carved out a loyal (if not fanatical) fanbase among readers who cut their teeth on the likes of CS Forrester and Patrick O'Brian.

Terry Pratchett was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Not only is this dreadful on any number of levels, not least of which is that he brings joy to millions with every Discworld novel, but to your friendly neighborhood bookseller this is quite personal. I met Mr. Pratchett at MidSouthCon 2006, and anyone who was there can testify to his popularity. I waited in line to get my 2 books signed for more than two hours, a line that filled the dark, dank hallways of that dingy hotel MSC has called home for years now, only to find out that Mr. Pratchett was due at a panel and we would have to come back that night to get our books signed. So I drove home, drove back, wiated in line again and finally was able to meet the most distinguished, exhausted but jovial gentleman. This link is to a speech Mr. Pratchett gave to the Tories in England asking for as much help as humanly possible for those afflicted with this disease: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/29/toryconference.health1

Lastly, I list this last link for those who love to read history because it is quite personal for me. The gist of the article is that historians used to do much more than list arguments for or against a particular viewpoint, or give a straight recitation of facts, historians were storytellers who just weren't making things up. And the best among them still are. David McCullough comes to mind. His biography of John Adams is stunningly entertaining, as is his history of the building of the Panama Canal. He is a role model for your friendly neighborhood bookseller, who is himself researching a book (that may or may not ever get written, but that's another story). The best history is history that is enjoyable to read.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24416689-5001986,00.html

That's all for now, bookies.

Good morning, bookies. Stand by for news.

Coming soon and good bets for Christmas gifts:
Titanic's Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler by Bradford Matsen. Look for this one October 1, that's tomorrow. Remember the TV show Deep Sea Detectives? These are those guys. I remember seeing Richie in a submarine exploring the wreck of Titanic and thinking 'yo, there's a book in there, somewhere.' Looks like I was right.

Kill Bin Laden by Dalton Fury. No idea what it's about, I just like the title.

The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly. Perhaps the greatest crime writer of our generation, so any new book from him is an event. Connelly likes to combine characters from different series, so in this one you get not only Mickey Haller from The Lincoln Lawyer but Harry Bosch as well.

Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements by Mary Buffett and David Clark. The guy is rich beyond measure, reading this can't hurt.

Today's cool, freebie site: http://librivox.org

Book copyrights only last so long and when they expire, the books are in the public domain. That is, anybody can use them in whatever way they choose. You could, if you wanted, publish a new series of Sherlock Holmes editions without paying anyone anything for doing so. Librivox takes advantage of that. Volunteer readers read books in the public domain. Sure, the quality of the readings is uneven sometimes, but for goodness' sake, it's free! You can download in MP3 format for your MP3 player, or to your computer so you can burn them to CD. I'm listening to The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Part II by Edward Gibbon.

There are at least half a dozen careers and skills I could see immersing myself in and being quite happy. Historian, writer, editor, bookseller, sex symbol...and bookbinder. I can only imagine how neat it would be to mold the bits of material and glue and leather and arcane matter into a gorgeous book, or to repair a rare but precious book and give it not only new life, but new glory. Just yesterday I found a new home for a rare book, a home in Ireland, no less, but the book could use some restoration. How I wish I could have been the one to give it. And so I read today's first story and wish that, in one alternate universe at least, it was me:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=18&id=23456

If you live in Kansas, or anywhere close, there is a place that is very close to my own heart. Although not strictly a book thing, it's a museum and I consider places that are havens for research to be in the same category. If you're a World War II buff, or have a relative who fought in the war and want to know more about it, or just want to wind up some places off the beaten track while in Kansas, give the WWII history center a try.

http://www.wwiihistorycenter.org/index.htm

I often wonder whether or not we here in the good old USA still have freedom of speech or not. And, if we do, what that means. Well, as we all know, the US economy is doing pirouettes these days and the Congress stayed over the weekend, supposedly to deal with the crisis. So Saturday night the House of Representatives passed legislation to shield American authors from foreign lawsuits because the foreigners might not like what we wrote. In other words, if I wrote a book saying that the kimchee in South Korea is better than in the North, theoretically I am now protected for giving my opinion. This sounds silly but might actually be important. For as more real world example, in the USA it is legal to deny the Holocaust happened. In most of Europe, however, they will get you thrown in jail. Ask British author David Irving, who was given a three year prison sentence in Austria for Holocaust denial. One presumes that the legislation passed by the House would protect an American from such a fate.

http://europenews.dk/en/node/14533

Thanks for reading, bookies. Good day!

The World of September 29

Good morning bookies. Stand by for news.

London: The headquarters of British publisher Gibson Square, which doubles as the residence for its publisher Martin Rynja, was firebombed Saturday. Gibson Square is planning to publish The Jewel of Medina, a novel about one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad. It was known to be a dangerous undertaking, Muslim extremists being what they are, but Rynja's stand was that in a free society, access to literature of all types is mandatory. Here in the USA Random House had plans to publish the book, but bowed to pressure.

Gainesville, FL: Last Tuesday English born professor for the University of Florida, William Woodruff, died aged 92. Late in life he became a surprise best-selling author with his biography of growing up in a working class England that has long since vanished. "The Road to Nab End: A Lancashire Childhood" and its sequel made him a hero and home and known around the world.

Teaneck, NJ: Russian emigre historian Marc Raeff died on Sept. 20th. Born in Moscow in 1923, he and his family somehow made it out of Stalin's brutal USSR in time for Raeff to serve in the US Army during World War II. So long, GI.

Washington, D.C.: Last Saturday, Jenna and Laura Bush read to an audience of children from their first book together, Read All About It, during the National Book Festival, the national celebration of books founded by Mrs. Bush. When it became obvious that a number of kids could not see the pictures in the book, the ladies organized a march to the front of the tent so the youngsters could see better, no doubt making the Secret Service very nervous. Bravo, ladies!

In the category of 'Ooohh, this sounds good': Bob Wittman, who founded the FBI Art Recovery Team and was its only undercover agent, has retired and signed to pen a book about his operations, tentatively entitled In Pursuit of the Priceless. That's the kind of thing that sounds like a great way to pass a long winter's night.

The Los Angeles area reporter for this blog, who also doubles as the creator, editor and inspiration for the site where some of my reviews have appeared, www.iloveamysterynewsletter.com, reports that Stephen Hunter was at a small book fair in West Hollywood yesterday. Hunter, you may recall, is the author of the Earl and Bob Lee Swagger (Bob the Nailer) thriller series. I'm currently reading his newest, Night of Thunder, so I was glad to here that he has finally retired and is now writing full time. Lucky him, lucky us!

Sally, the genius behind ILAM, send this bit about the panel of mystery writers at yesterday's fair: "it was a good group on Stephen Hunter's panel. Brett Battles and
Brent Ghelfi, Susan Arnout Smith and Evan Kilgore. Latter is unfamiliar to
me but he really kept things moving and was very well prepared. Anyway,
Brett has been to Bouchercon and was trying to tell Brent what to expect
since he only ever went to Anchorage which had to have been way less well
attended. They'll both be in Baltimore so I'm going to check in with them
there. Anyway, news. Harley Jane Kozak has a new book in her series coming
in March. Stephen M. Thomas (Criminal Paradise) has his second (Criminal
Karma) coming in, I think, February."

For you bookies who don't know, Bouchercon is the largest mystery convention in the world. Named for famed editor Anthony Boucher, it travels the country each year, this year being in Baltimore. Man, would BBG like to be there for that.

Writing writers

Good afternoon bookies.

Have any of you ever written to writers? I don't mean emails or blog comments, I mean letters sent snail mail?

There was a period where I did that a lot. I still would given the chance, but sometimes life intrudes and other things take priority. I thought up a question that I wanted to ask every writer, a question that had meaning to me and that they might have found interesting to discuss. A number of them said that was the first time they had ever been asked that question, and gave excellent (and sometimes quite long) answers. Some were flip about it, a few ignored me altogether, but for the most part I was thrilled with the replies and re-read the letters occasionally to see who was right and who was wrong.

And no, sorry, I won't tell you my question. I still like to ask it, still find it fascinating. Just recently I have gotten another letter from Elizabeth Peters, aka Barbara Mertz, a personal favorite of mine for her Amelia Peabody series. You'll have to think up your own question.

David Eddings wrote me a two page, hand-written letter (known as an ALS, Autograph Letter Signed). Dean Koontz not only answered, he sent me a signed photo and a signed paperback (and no, I didn't send enough postage for that). Arthur C. Clarke sent a polite form letter explaining why his physical condition prohibited sending signed letters anymore, then promptly signed it. Douglas Adams had a (funny!) smart-assed remark, Frederik Pohl went into great detail. Julian May told me all about her retirement plans and wrote something wonderful in a book I sent her.

One thing to remember if you write to authors or any celebrities: send a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply. If an author takes time to respond, expecting them to pay the postage is not only rude, it's insulting.

And lastly, recognize that some authors aren't going to respond no matter what you do or say. That's just how it is and makes you cherish the answers you do get all the more.

Book terms

After mentioning in todays first blog entry that 'Mint' has no part in a discussion about books, it dawned on me that not everybody gets bogged down in esoteric discussions about what are, and are not, the proper ways by which one might describe a book's condition. So I'll give you my personal list of conditions, which are more or less in line with the majority of sellers, even if some will no doubt consider me a Phillistine.

New- The book is new. Duh, right? But you'd be surprised how many sellers out there describe books as 'new' but when the buyer gets them they are mangled. This happened to me on Ebay just this year: a box full of 'new' and 'like new' John Ringo hardbacks were actually beat-up ex-library copies. Fortunately, the matter was settled neatly without Ebay's heavy-hand ever getting involved. Anyway, new means new.

Fine- A lovely copy, possibly looks just as good as new, but there is just the hint of spacing between the pages that show it has at least been leafed through, if not read very carefully. A Fine copy has no flaws.

Near Fine- Older booksellers skin crawls when they see this term, because for the decades before the internet it was not accepted in the world of used booksellers. (Except for the rogues among us) In essence, a Near Fine book has no real flaws, but it shows some light wear or usage in a few spots. Nothing that could be called a flaw, but not exactly perfect, either. I do use this term, and ask forgiveness of those who know better.

Very Good- Still a collectible copy of a book, but there are one or more flaws. Maybe a small closed tear in the jacket, maybe an owner's name in a book or a lean to the spine. All defects must be noted in the description. Now, within Very Good one will often see Very Good+ or Very Good-. Again, many booksellers won't like these variations but they exist. I look at it this way, if a VG copy is a 7 out of 10, then VG+ would be a 7.5 and VG- would be a 6.5.

God, I feel like a heretic.

Good- A better bookie than me coined the phrase 'Good ain't good.' If you see a book described as Good, that means it is NOT collectible. It's pretty beat up, has multiple flaws and in general has seen better days. That does not mean books in Good condition don't have their place. They're fine as a reading copy or for research, or if the book is rare or you need a copy to fill in a collection, and you find a Good copy at a price you can live with, great, go for it. After all, a well read book means that more than once person thought it was worth reading. But don't order a cheap Good condition copy thinking you're going to get something pristine.

These days, many dealers let computer programs do their work for them. They scan their books with a bar code reader, don't bother even looking at the book's actual condition, and let the default condition be filled in as 'Good/Good', meaning a Good book in a Good dust jacket. And if a seller can't be bothered to even look at the book they are asking you to spend your hard earned money to buy, then you should believe the book really is in 'Good/Good' condition, meaning beat up and smelly.

Fair- A fair book is really, really beat up, it is probably still holding together but unless it's rare and you are going to have it rebound, it's value is in the text and nothing else.

Ex-library- I put XL in a special category because the condition and reasons for buying them vary widely. Libraries mark their books up in a number of ways, from stickers on the spines to card pocket, taping down jackets to stamps everywhere. Many XLs have never been read but they still have all of these defects. So from that standpoint alone they are not collectible. And yet, some do have a bit of value. A rare XL might be worth buying because it's the only copy available, or other copies in better condition are too expensive or you already have a nice copy but need a dust jacket. XL dust jackets can be in surprisingly good condition, once the old mylar protective jacket is stripped off.

That's a brief run-down on conditions in today's world of bookselling. If you've got specific questions, please just ask, I'll do what I can to answer them for you.

Addendum: sometimes uploading to various websites can alter the condition settings a seller has loaded. For example, Amazon.com routinely changes whatever setting a dealer has used to 'Used: Acceptable' on their site. Very often there is nothing a seller can do about this at Amazon and we just have to live with it. What the hell 'acceptable' means is anybody's guess, but you know the really lazy sellers when you see this term used on other websites than Amazon. That means they can't even be bothered to use a default of 'Good/Good', they simply upload whatever Amazon has regurgitated to wherever they can list their books. They might as well be selling tires or scrap metal.

Sept. 27

Good morning bookies! Stand by for news.

The weather is Memphis today is gorgeous. The sky is that blue that is clean and bright and utterly indescribable. A warm sun promises the grass will need to be cut into the foreseeable future. The perfect day for book scouting, but your friendly neighborhood bookseller figures writing this blog is more important than digging for treasure, which is another way of saying he's feeling lazy today.

An interesting site I found today if you're an old book person. I haven't had time to really investigate the site the way it deserves, but it's obvious that someone has a serious case of bookaholism. Admiration from this corner, sympathy and understanding. This sort of obsession plugs right into my brain receptors. The owner makes some bigtime mistakes, most notably in his list of book description terms. For the record, the word 'Mint' has NO business in a book description. For restaurants and coin dealers 'Mint' might be appropriate, but not for books. And his ideas of where to buy used books are about five years out of date. But those sorts of errors can be more than forgiven by his impressive research on old books and authors. I'm grateful for such people.
http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ngcoba/ngcoba.htm

The Great Ebay Con by Stephen MyCoe. In this new book, a former Ebay employee reveals what a mess the company has become, and how you, too, can con your way into getting anything for free. Deal with Ebay at your own risk, bookies.

I think by now my opinions on dealing with Ebay are pretty familiar. But if you don't like my opinion on this, try http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080926/e_commerce_ahead_of_the_bell.html?.v=1

There, got the link fixed and it should work. The gist is that Ebay is bleeding customers because of their blizzard of new rules and it's hard to see where and how they will replace them. To be clear, though, I have absolutely nothing against Ebay itself. If the Ebay of 2004 were to suddenly reappear I could by and sell there with a clear conscience. It's the vicious Ebay of 2008 that I find objectionable.

I just heard that Paul Newman died. Like everyone else who watched him work and admired the way he lived his life, this is a sad day.

Forget? Not me.

Hiya bookies, sorry for the late blog today. After a late afternoon yesterday at the Germantown Friends of the Library Sale I made it to the Cordova FOL sale this morning, then spent the rest of the day doing legwork and paperwork for an aged relative who needs help. I did manage to squeeze in a visit to Karin at the English Major bookstore on Madison, where her friend Kelly was hanging lots of lovely and thought-provoking paintings (yes, they're for sale).

Will try to post something a bit more entertaining later.

Southern Festival of Books

Good morning bookies. Stand by for news.

So, did you know that Tennessee sponsors a major book festival every year, the second weekend of October? No? Don't feel bad, 99.73% of Tennesseans don't know it either. True or False: in 2004 and 2006 it was held in Memphis. I know, you heard nothing about it so it must be false, right? Bzzzz! The answer is true. The Southern Festival of Books moved from its location in downtown Nashville for a two year experiment at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, and it shoul dhave returned there in 2008. However, the City of Memphis was completely uninterested in doing anything that would return this massive cultural event to our city. Indeed, when it was here did you know it? in 2006 we had two of the most influential African-American writers of our times here, but did you see school kids lining up to meet them, or the mayor handing them the key to the city? Nope. Nobody cared and it's a damned shame. When the decision was made to return the festival permanently to Nashville I wrote them a snarky email asking why the didn't simply rename the thing the Nashville Festival of Books. But the truth is, with Memphis so completely indifferent, I understand completely.

Indignation aside, the Southern Festival of Books takes place the second weekend of every October in Nashville. About 200 authors in various fields are brought together on Legislative Plaza to hold panel discussions, sign books, sell books and generally mingle with readers. It's always a fun show. Why Tennessee doesn't do more to promote it is anybody's guess.

After the beginning, but before the middle

This continues the saga of how I became a bookie, following up the blog entry titled 'In the Beginning.' Hopefully those hundreds of emails begging me not to leave you hanging any longer will stop.

Sometime during 8th grade two seminal events occurred in my life: first, I discovered that chess wasn't a waste of time and, second, I discovered that people who wrote books were allowed to make things up. It's called 'fiction.' I knew they were allowed to do this with comic books but nobody had ever told me it was legal to put things in actual books that weren't historically accurate. Whoa.

The chess story we'll save for another day; I can only bore you for so long, after all, with all of this reminiscing glop.

I should make it clear that by 8th grade I had long since discovered the greatness of comic books. This was the 60's, remember...when Fantastic Four #1 hit the stands I was actually old enough to have read the title on the cover. (not that Mom would ever have let me buy such nonsense) My best friend, Dan, and I, rode to the drugstore on the corner of Poplar and Mendenhall at least twice a week to check out the new deliveries of comics. (Native Memphians will instantly spot the radical change in the city since those days; nobody in their right mind would let two young boys ride their bikes on Mendenhall these days, much less go anywhere near Poplar. And yet we did it daily. ) This was the store next to what is now the Mr. Pride car wash. On the other corner, near Wild Oats, was a Rexall drugstore that had a real honest-to-goodness soda fountain and banana splits that were made from a recipe sent directly from Heaven. If you were sick they would deliver your prescriptions and whatever other stuff you might need. But they didn't sell comics.

So Dan and I would buy comics and trade comics and talk about comics and, in general, make sure that our parents had no idea how much money we were spending on comics. I preferred Marvel, all the usual suspects. X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Avengers, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commadoes. Dan preferred DC, especially Justice League and Teen Titans. We both devoured Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace. There were no action figures of these guys, we had to actually imagine what it would be like to be a superhero and go around bashing the bad guys. We were so deprived.

Anyway, around the time of 8th grade I discovered fiction. I can't remember what the first novel I read was, all I know is that the earliest novels I remember reading were Conan by Robert E. Howard and The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. How I gravitated to the two best examples of their genres I don't know. Maybe I had a mentor that is now forgotten, maybe I was lucky or maybe it was divine intervention. I like the latter. That way, I can claim that this blog is God-approved and everything in my life was leading up to this.

By 9th grade I had read enough fiction to know that the non-REH Conan stories were inferior, that Elric was a warped but fascinating counter-point to the stoic Cimmerian and that Tolkien only got better with successive readings.