“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead
Happy New Year to you all. Now the holiday season is over and we all return to normal I would like to wish all our customers and friends a very prosperous,healthy and productive 2012.
Book collecting remains constant ,Bibliophiles and modest collectors share the same goals to own the books they love or need and though a classic penguin paperback will satiate the modest , only the best copy in the world will do for other collectors.I am pleased to say this year we have both ends of the spectrum on our client list.
With the predicted demise of all printed books it is interesting just how many of our customers and friends are happy to
own and use an electronic book but do not find them relaxing. Too much time on electronic screens makes the heart long for a soft quiet place and a real book to soothe the soul and engage the mind. So to all who tell me my beloved books are obsolete , I blow a raspberry , and point out their uses are not just the information they contain , their beauty or their value but they remind us like old friends of the journey we have taken , of our history and of the road ahead.books surround us and comfort us. They challenge us to be better, think differently and teach us about the mistakes or triumphs of history. In this time in history when the world is going through a dramatic rethink maybe education and books and escape are all too important.
This year I applaud the written word in all its glory I am thrilled that authors and students are benefiting from the explosion of e readers and I am delighted that bookshops are reinventing themselves and book collectors are finding new collecting fields.
This year I hope for peace,tolerance , creativity,new thinking ,reinvention and happy book collecting.
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”If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.”
– Marcel Proust
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http://collation.folger.edu/2011/11/watermarks-hidden-collections/
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The Highly Civilized Man. In the mid 1850s.
Sir Richard Burton one of the most remarkable men of his age
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Af-Mcilreavy-Buderim-Rare-Books/126444470795472
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”
– Mary Catherine Bateson
About Mary Catherine Bateson
American anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson is probably best known for her best seller Composing a Life, which examines five women’s lives and what it means to “live life as an improvisational art form.” She was born in New York in 1939. She studied linguistics and the Middle East before shifting to cultural anthropology like her famous parents, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. She splits her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She has one daughter.
The Highly Civilized Man. In the mid 1850s.
Sir Richard Burton one of the most remarkable men of his age
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http://www.facebook.com/pages/Af-Mcilreavy-Buderim-Rare-Books/126444470795472
“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”
– Mary Catherine Bateson
About Mary Catherine Bateson
American anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson is probably best known for her best seller Composing a Life, which examines five women’s lives and what it means to “live life as an improvisational art form.” She was born in New York in 1939. She studied linguistics and the Middle East before shifting to cultural anthropology like her famous parents, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. She splits her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She has one daughter.
WINNERS OF THIS YEAR’S WASHINGTON POST MENSA INVITATIONAL. AND MORE. VERY FUNNY. A LIGHTER TOUCH. ENJOY.
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I have just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
– Diane Ackerman
About Diane Ackerman
American poet and nonfiction author Diane Ackerman has written more than 20 books and is best known for the eloquently written best seller The Natural History of the Senses. She was born in Illinois in 1948. While working toward her Ph.D. at Cornell, she studied both arts and sciences, feeling “the universe wasn’t knowable from only one perspective.” She has a molecule named after her: the dianeacerkone. She lives in upstate New York with her novelist husband.
“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Ronald Searle rediscovered
I showed a young customer this illustration recently and told him that as I become older it becomes more relevant and funnier, though it has always pleased me no end.
He had never seen it and loved it. Now he is looking at a new collection.
I realise that we who have always known Searle illustrations are now in the minority.
So for all those who have never had the pleasure of seeing these wonderful drawings by Ronald Searle,or discovered his wicked and sometimes charming view of the world here are a couple of examples.
I
I was delighted to see the original of “Foxed but still desirable ” in Scotland at the home of two of Scotlands most distinguished booksellers The Grants at a particularly splendid ABA gathering.
http://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html
the Mrs Mole drawingscreated for his wife when she was being treated for breast cancer
The inimitable St Trinians which became a very successful film series.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article7032528.ece
The Illustrated Winespeak
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“Laughter is the closest distance between two people.”
– Victor Borge
About Victor Borge
Danish pianist Victor Borge was affectionately known as the Clown Prince of Denmark. Born as Børge Rosenbaum in 1909 to musician parents, he began playing piano at age three. After a stint as a classical pianist, he began combining music and jokes. His anti-Nazi jokes landed him on Hitler’s enemies list. In 1942, he was named Best New Radio Performer by the American press. His Comedy in Music show on Broadway was the longest running one-man show in the 1950′s. He died in 2000.
“I have always believed that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.”
– Hermann Hesse
About Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse, the Pulitzer Prize–winning German writer, became extremely popular in the 1960′s and 1970′s for his deeply spiritual novels spiked with Eastern philosophy. He is best known for the novels Siddhartha, The Glass Bead Game, andSteppenwolf. He was born in 1877 in Germany and immigrated to Switzerland in 1912. Hesse was exposed to Eastern thought from childhood: His grandfather taught Indian studies, and his mother had been born in India. He won the Noble Prize in Literature in 1946. He died in 1962.
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
– Andy Warhol
About Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol, the American pop artist, is probably best known for his silk screens of Campbell Soup and Marilyn Monroe. He was born as Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh in 1928. His style borrowed from comic books and advertising; he wanted to remove the separation between commercial and fine art. His studio, the Factory, became a hub for the New York art scene. He was also a prolific filmmaker. He was shot three times in the chest in 1968 and narrowly escaped death. He died in 1987.
– Victoria Holt
About Victoria Holt
Victoria Holt was one of prolific British author Eleanor Hibbert’s many pen names. She was born Eleanor Burford in London in 1906. She took odd jobs until she met and married George Hibbert; after that, she had time to write. And write she did, producing over 200 novels. As Victoria Holt she wrote gothic romances, as Jean Plaidy she wrote historical novels about royalty, and as Philippa Carr she wrote family sagas. She also used four other pseudonyms. She died in 1993.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
– Thomas Jefferson
About Thomas Jefferson
President Thomas Jefferson was a true Renaissance figure: politician, inventor, archaeologist, architect, and more. He was born in Virginia in 1743 and later designed his adult home at Monticello. Many consider him the brightest man ever to inhabit the White House. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence; the Library of Congress was founded from his personal collection. He died in 1826.
“When we can begin to take our failures nonseriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.”
– Katherine Mansfield
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
– Aristotle
About Aristotle
Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher who is considered one of the most influential thinkers in history, wrote a number of books about science, poetry, and ethics. He was born in 384 B.C. in Macedonia. He studied with Plato in Athens and later tutored Alexander the Great. His death in 322 B.C. was rumored to be caused by hemlock poisoning.
“Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.”
– Dag Hammarskjöld
“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else’s life forever.”
– Margaret Cho
“Rate the task above the prize; will not the mind be raised? Fight thine own faults, not the faults of others; will not evil be mended?”
– Confucius
About Confucius
The ancient Chinese social philosopher Confucius founded the ethically based philosophical system which became known as Confucianism. Legend says that he was born in 551 B.C. to a 70-year-old father and a 15-year-old mother. At age 50, frustrated with politics, he left his job as Justice Minister and began a 12-year journey around China. Returning home, he taught a growing number of disciples “The Way” and wrote a set of books called the Five Classics. He died in 479 B.C.
The GST Question in online bookselling.
This morning I was watching the news and once again the question of GST and online selling raised its ugly head.
“Online bookshops do not pay GST”
I would like it known.
We pay GST on all books sold in Australia and tax …and all that on secondhand books.
I am desperately sorry for new booksellers in Australia who are being driven into the ground by extremely cheap books being offered online at prices they cannot buy books for and supermarkets and large stores selling books beside the carrots at impossibly reduced prices.
Books are a very successful online product and have been so since the beginning of online trading.Mix that with the rise of e-readers and the bricks & mortar shops are having a tough time.This is all old news to the Antiquarian community this happened to our trade from 2000 on.We are a trade that has been reinvented and I have noticed in recent times reinvigorated.
We had the same problems the internet opened the doors to every Tom Dick and Harry who wanted to set themselves up as “Antiquarian Booksellers” Ebay ,ABE ,Alibris all allowed the would be bookseller to access customers directly and they didn’t muck about either making us all cut prices and send books post free and and and….Good secondhand dealers went into free fall.We had no choice but to reinvent ,worry talk and cross our fingers.
Nerves of steel were required and some of us saw no other way of life.
It is different we hold a very large stock of books that might take 10 or more years to sell we have one or two copies of a book and noone to order further copies from.
Its a different trade but we share books
We moved our business home some 8 years ago after nearly 30 years in bricks and mortar shops. Even at the earliest we realised that bookshops had to be an experience ,an interaction of ideas and a community meeting place.That was hard to replicate and we missed the face to face interaction of collector and bookseller ,for my part sorely missed it.
These days customers are much more comfortable with the internet & direct telephone ordering,conversation and banter is not as unusual as it was in the early days.Now customers are enjoying the online and telephone interaction its better for booksellers too.Plus booksellers are talking to each other through forums and bookfairs.
I would say that many antiquarian and secondhand bookshops are now reestablishing bricks and mortar shops in areas all over the world.Beautiful quirky boutique businesses.
I love to visit a bookshop new or secondhand The new booksellers introduce me to new authors ,I predict those bookshops that can afford the rents, wages and rates will survive because independent booksellers are in it because they love it, how do you discover new authors or have word of mouth reviews passed on by people you trust otherwise.Like the Antiquarians they will fight back and reinvent themselves and continue to introduce us to books on the high street .People love bookshops and its time for us to stand up and blame the publishers and distributors for the unfair prices of books,not the independents stuck in the middle and copping all the flack.
Everyone loves a bargain,but sometimes we have to fight against the giants and buy from the corner store .
Wonderful independent new booksellers are worth their weight in gold.Support them.
But remember we online secondhand booksellers pay our taxes too.
“Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald
About F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, who wrote as F. Scott Fitzgerald, is best known for his novel The Great Gatsby. He was born in St. Paul in 1896. Fear of mortality spurred him to write the novel This Side of Paradise while in the Army. It was rejected twice by Scribner’s before they finally published it. His wife Zelda’s schizophrenia was the basis for his novel Tender Is the Night. After they separated, he moved to Los Angeles and wrote screenplays for studio films. He died in 1940.
“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
About Friedrich Nietzsche
Controversial German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is best known for his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Born in 1844 near Leipzig, he renounced Prussian citizenship in 1869, remaining stateless the rest of his life. In his work, he argued against the concept of an omnipotent deity, believing in a “will to power,” a drive toward creativity that could explain everything from natural phenomena to human behavior. He suffered from insanity, possibly syphilis-induced, for his last ten years. He died in 1900.
“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.”
– Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
About Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
French author Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr is remembered primarily for his epigram “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” He is also known for his autobiographical romances, including the popular Genevieve. He was born in 1808 in Paris. As editor of Le Figaro and, later, Les Guepes, he became widely quoted for his sharp witticisms. An avid horticulturist, he named more than one new flower, and when he retired to Nice, he popularized the tradition of selling cut flowers. He died in 1890.
“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”
– Aleksei Peshkov
About Aleksei Peshkov
Russian social realist author Aleksei Peshkov, known as Maxim Gorky, was so esteemed that his birthplace, Nizhny Novgorod, was renamed Gorky in his honor. He was born in 1868. His parents died when he was young, and he left his home at age 12. He was arrested in the late 1880′s as a revolutionary. His writing, including his best-known novel, The Mother, portrayed a decadent society and immense poverty. He became disillusioned after the Russian Revolution, feeling Lenin’s Communism was little better. He died in 1936.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – St. Francis of Assisi
Packing and other dilemmas
This week I have “met” some really interesting customers over the internet and telephone and books have been ordered after discussion and negotiation,you would think over money, but no the main concern was packing .”Please pack this properly” was the unifying theme.
I would like to assure all my customers that we pack our books well.A bit like a pass the parcel game and according to their age and binding.
We have many customers thank us for our packing and the care we take but we want our books to arrive looking the way they left us.
Layers are used always a plastic bag protection somewhere as years ago a book sent to us was saved in the post from severe red wine staining from a broken bottle in the post,by a layer of plastic. It is now a rule with us too.bubble or another layer and then cardboard.then an outer layer of paper (Parcel or bag if sent by sachel)
I hate to think of the horror stories poor packaging produces its not going to
happen with us.
B
1.book ,invoice and credit card receipt.
2.Book & invoice wrapped in plastic
in the case of a leather or fragile book another layer of tissue paper & then the plastic,
3.the book is wrapped in bubble plastic or other layer.
4. a plastic bag 5. wrapped in cardboard
6. final wrapping is the sachel (within Australia) or paper outer wrapping for overseas.A set or number of books would be packed in a strong cardboard box.
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“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.” – Samuel Butler
About Samuel Butler
British author Samuel Butler is best known as the author of The Way of All Flesh, a semiautobiographical novel V. S. Pritchett called one of the time bombs of literature because of its incendiary critique of Victorian society and because Butler delayed publication until after his death. He was born in 1835 near Bingham. Rather than enter the clergy as many of his family members had, he became a sheep farmer in New Zealand for four years. He first gained fame with the satirical novel Erewhon. He died in 1902.
glorious Andreas Nobmann From BOOKWORM KALENDAR http://www.teneues.com/shop-us/keywords/bookmarks
“We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.” – Iris Murdoch
About Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch, the acclaimed Anglo-Irish author who won a Booker Prize for her novel The Sea, The Sea, about jealousy, love, and loss, was equal parts novelist and philosopher. She was born in 1919 in Dublin. She taught moral philosophy at Oxford for 15 years and wrote the influential book The Sovereignty of Good. Her fiction often used gothic elements to tell stories with a philosophical theme. She died of Alzheimer’s in 1999. Her life was the subject of the movie Iris, starring Judi Dench.
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Holiday Monday and the sun is shining and the glorious climate that comes with Autumn & Winter encourages us to cat like find a place to read in the warm sunshine. glorious Andreas Nobmann From BOOKWORM KALENDAR http://www.teneues.com/shop-us/keywords/bookmarks I have two large piles of latest acquisitions to deal with catalogue sell or dispose of. I love books and always feel there is someone to match to anything unusual .In the pile are a mixture of things .There are even a few I want to read . Every book has to be collated ,cleaned ,and have dust jacket covers put on as required. Leather bindings need polished and then they are catalogued and shelved or boxed.I also thought it looked interesting.but then I love books in all forms even piles screaming to be shelved.We often have a pile of books at the moment there is a mountain. 
I have just watched the Royal Wedding.I had no intention of doing so but got caught up in it.The trees, the dress the pomp and pageantry and the way the British behave on mass.It was an object lesson in how to throw an enormous wedding. Makes me wonder how many brides will want the whole kit and caboodle repeated. There were some really silly hats . We used to have a bookshop in St Andrews and left the year William came to the University glad it all peaked like this. Not the proper start to a book blog but having just read Shepperds book email I forward these. UK: Christie’s Auction – Vintage Film Posters, 15 June 
This June, Christie’s will offer a treat for movie lovers and cinema-goers of all ages, with a sale ofVintage Film Posters spanning the last nine decades of film-making. Comprising over 300 lots of original promotional material, for some of the greatest movies ever made, collectors and fans are sure to be tempted by both the affordability and broad range of vintage film posters on offer, with estimates starting at only £300. Leading the sale is the rare original concept artwork for the poster campaign of the 1971 Eon/United Artists production Diamonds Are Forever (estimate: £18,000-24,000) illustrated above left; detail centre. Hand-painted with expert precision, along with a meticulous eye for detail by artist Robert McGinnis, this is a unique prototype and a rare chance to own a truly exceptional piece of James Bond memorabilia. For fans with a smaller budget, the sale features further posters from a large selection of films from the James Bond franchise – from Dr. No through to Never Say Never Again. Highlights include a rare advance British quad for Thunderball, 1965 (estimate: £6,000-9,000), original concept artwork for View to A Kill, 1985 (estimate: £4,000-6,000), as well as the final poster design used for Diamonds are Forever (estimate: £300-500) illustrated above right, which is clearly similar to the concept artwork but varies slightly from the initial creative idea. Viewing: Saturday 11 June: 11.00am – 5.00pm, Sunday 12 June: 11.00am – 5.00pm, Monday 13 June: 9.00am – 7.30pm, Tuesday 14 June: 9.00am – 5.00pm Auction: Wednesday, 15 June 2011 at 11.00am E-catalogue: Available online from May 2011 at www.christies.com/calenda Wales: Bookshop in Swansea gives books away! The Dylan Thomas Centre, currently a bookshop and café, is to close, but there is still a remote chance of a deal with the University of Wales and plans for the space have yet to be finalised – raising the possibility that a bookshop might be re-instated. Dylan Thomas expert Jeff Towns, who runs another shop in King Edwards Road, has supplied thousands of second-hand books to the venue since it opened in 1995. He has been told to clear his stock of around ten thousand second hand books from the shelves, and the antiquarian book dealer says he intends to go out in style – by making the books available for free. At least that is what appeared in the South Wales press this week. But Jeff told SC today, ‘The ‘Royal Wedding Book Give-away’ attracted many old and new customers who made off with the remaining 2000 books left in the Bookstore Cafe but about 8,000 went up to The Cinema in Hay.’ He confirmed that his involvement with the Centre is now over but he will continue to trade from his address at 23 King Edwards Road. As the sign in his window states – Open ‘by chance or by appointment’. He will also be exhibiting at book fairs around Wales, in London and North America – still specializing in Wales and Dylan Thomas. Good luck Jeff