Month: August 2012

The Best 100 Mysteries of All Time

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I’m finally half way through the reviews of each mystery on my Best 100 Mysteries of All Time list! I’ve become less worried about the worthiness of each title after talking with an expert book collector and reader. Each individual’s taste is so different, that no matter what titles I include, someone will believe I’ve left off the best ones, and others will think my list is the crappiest of all time, lol. So, there you go. I am still going to play with the titles on the list, if I find some thing I’ve read is stunningly great and better than another title on the list. But even though a title may fall off, it remains up here, as a runner up.

PAST thoughts:

I don’t think I’ve worried and thought about and scrutinized any decisions, the way I have this never ending list! LOL. I’m almost thinking it a mistake to re-read those I can’t precisely put my finger on why they were so great. Because practically none of them measure up to the initial wow factor I remember them having when first read. So, because of this and the agonies I am suffering in dread of making the wrong choices, this list will be a living one–meaning–if I re-read something, and don’t think it’s as fabtastic as originally thought, I will relegate it as a RUNNER UP. Below the official list. And in the missing slot will be a title I read and had forgotten how splendiferous it was, or a brand new unbelievably good book,  etc etc–you get the picture. This way, I won’t feel I made myself the scorn of the crime fiction community for choosing a title that’s downright bad.

I’ll still only have them in alphabetical order until completely filled in, then I will number them.

Older explanation:

I can’t seem to pin the best down–honestly. Each time I write up a new book, I find I’ve left something out, or shouldn’t have put a book in a particular slot, or rethink–No. 100 should be in a better position than last, or number whatever should be next to last–y0u see my dilemma? I should have begun with the entire 100 out in the open–but I was trying for sustained interest–which clearly didn’t happen, I couldn’t keep my own interest going, so why would someone else’s be engaged? And partially the problem was I’d read so many of the titles eons ago–and although KNOW they were fantastic, can’t remember why. At first, I was just going to list, give a teeny synopsis, at best, and call it a day. I started delving into each title deeper and deeper, and was finding in order to do each book justice, I’d need to dig up every single one.

Well, I’m OK with that–but I decided I’m going to put up the 100 titles, now–not in order. I’ll list them alphabetically.

I hope this works better for readers, and for me.

So. Eek. Here are 100 mysteries that are the very very best, according to me in alphabetical order.

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Opening A Bookstore, Relocating Bookstock

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I am writing this from Lynnfield, Mass., where I am preparing for my father’s funeral. He passed away last week, in the middle of my hectic transfer of the contents of one bookstore to another. His death was no surprise; he had been declining for months and barely alive for the last 10 days. Still, I’d have to say that business seems awfully trivial under such circumstances. Operations are on hold back home, but I can report the following about my big move.

Soon to be Circle City Books

Twenty-thousand books, packed tightly, might fit in 500 boxes. But where does one find 500 boxes? For me, buying them is a most disagreeable option; and even if I wanted to pay U-Haul $1.50 each, they don’t have 500 on hand. Your local grocery store, if you get there at the right time, before they crush and bale their boxes, might have 15 or 20. Then there is the liquor store and the drug store. In the end, the best place is the recycling center where every few hours a new supply gets dropped off, cut down flat and left for scavengers to reclaim. Over the course of three days, I assembled an army of 150 boxes, far too few. Perhaps if I had more time I could have collected enough, but I did the best I could.

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A Personal Best as a Bookseller-Or How I Sold The Carter Burden Collection

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One of the books sold that night–I think. If not, it was another very rare in dust jacket Stout.

There were days when I sold well over a hundred hardcovers. Mostly hand selling, some via The First Editions Club I managed. My enthusiasm for a certain title, and the collectibility would combine to convince an already interested party to buy the book I was praising. If I had read the book, naturally, my sales pitch would be more informed and rooted in personal pleasure. If I’d not yet read the book, or it wasn’t something I was likely to read, I still sold it well based on fellow booksellers’ thoughts, Publisher’s Weekly, The NY Times Book Review, and again, collectibility. I became obsessed with making sure a book was in pristine condition when selling it as an ‘investment’. Not a visible wrinkle, tear, spot on the dust jacket was permitted. The book must have no bumped corners.  (bumped is when the tips at top and bottom of the book’s boards have been squashed via falling, or bad packaging) No damage to the interior pages was acceptable either, nor was any kind of scratch or stain on the boards beneath the jacket.  I was looked at askance by fellow employees and the boss, at one place of employment. Which was slightly ironic, since I was hired for the express purpose of selling hypermodern mysteries to collectors.

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Crash, Burn, and Learn

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by Jas Faulkner 

“I love my rejection slips.  They show me I try.”

                                                        -Sylvia Plath

One of the hard truths of the pursuit of writing is also its most delicious irony.  There are few if any artists, writers, creators, innovators and iconoclasts (principled and otherwise) who experienced a smooth, straightforward path  that is innocent of rejection.  You crash and burn and then you learn.

And you keeping moving until you get it right.

So many people tell me my work is easy.  For the record, I know I  have it good and I am very aware that it came about by dint of equal measures of stupid good luck and talent.  It also entails a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, and dealing with people who don’t understand or respect what I do.   Fun?  Yes.  Easy?  Uh, no.

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Spoiler Alert–Book Covers Give Away Too Much Info

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What kills interest is revelations on the book cover before you read them.

You read the phrase ‘spoiler alert’ all the time online. Someone is writing about a film, a TV show, a book. And they so very desperately want to give away the ending. Why? Well, sometimes a title cannot be throughly explored unless the ending is scrutinized. Other that than one reason, I can’t think of any for destroying other reader’s pleasure. But, that’s why the polite, socially acceptable thing to do, is state up front and out in the open, that you are going to detail the specifics of a book most have not yet read. And that takes care of the spoiler’s responsibilities to readers of his words.

But what about those pesky dust jacket synopses’? So many times I’ve mistakenly read all the way down the front DJ flat, and even onto the trailing end on the back DJ flap. And an equal amount of times, I kick myself, and put the book back down, because it’s clear they’ve given too much away in their delight in the manuscript. I’ve made a habit of checking out the first couple paragraphs and if interested, stop reading. So those who are writing the blurbs better make the story compelling fast, or you’ve lost me.

I’m not certain how much this applies to straight literature. No doubt there are plot points that arrive far into the book, that the jacket spills before the reader gets to them, but they aren’t usually as damaging as declaring a murder victim right there, when the book doesn’t reveal who the body is until half way through. That, my publishing friends, is a spoiler. There has to be a way to entice readers to your titles, without killing off the victim before the murderer does.

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Readercon and Sexual Harassment In Many Forms

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Book by Genevieve Valentine who bravely lodged a complaint with Readercon

I’d never heard of  Readercon. Obviously because I’m not a fan of fantasy writing, and am unfamiliar with authors or conventions within that community. While I was away on a road trip, an incident at the 2011 Readercon and its subsequent handling, caused internet outcry and anger. I didn’t catch wind of it until today. A female convention goer was repeatedly harassed by another participant during the convention. The man in question would not go away. Luckily for the woman, her friends were aware and kept a close circle around her. Not all women at these things have her kind of back up. Genevieve Valentine is a writer with several published stories and a highly praised novel to her credit so far in her career. The harasser is a fan, apparently a well known one and apparently liked by the board of Readercon, because despite having a 100 per cent no tolerance on harassment, they sent a statement essentially saying the policy was too strict, and anyway, Rene Walling said he was sorry, so, let’s cut him a break and ban him for 2 years rather than banish him completely which should be the outcome of documented, undisputed sexual harassment. Too augment the board’s terrible behavior, they had in their possession another woman’s statement  about being accosted by Rene Walling, but seemed to disregard it, not pausing to consider the implications of 2 woman complaining. For some atrocious reason, they felt there should be room for ‘reform‘ on Rene Walling’s part, despite his complete acknowledgement of inappropriate behavior.

Ms. Valentine wrote a marvelous blog post about the incidents with these rules for men who think they can behave in a harassing manner.

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The Birth of a Used Bookshop

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This is the first of what I hope will be a series of reports on the birth of a book store. From where I sit today, 21 days after the idea was first conceived, the future looks like a maze of unanswered questions. As I go along, I’ll describe how I figure things out, and then share the results. First, though some background.

Some thirty years ago, for several years, I helped run a used book and record store in Carrboro, N.C. The rent was $200 a month and we sold many books for a dollar and most records for two dollars. We kept the money in a shoe box, didn’t take credit cards and we never had a telephone.  We had lots of websites – and the spiders who built them.

All that makes me an experienced bookseller, but one with practically no useful expertise. Still, the idea of going back into the stacks had been poking around my mind for several years, and last month I noticed an empty storefront in downtown Pittsboro, N.C., near where I live. What appealed to me about the store site was that it’s a corner building with windows on two sides and a long wall facing traffic coming into town on which to place a large sign. And the driveway that runs along the side goes with the building, with space in the back for four cars, giving me control of eight parking places. The building has the look of a small cottage with stuccoed walls that I will paint in a yet to be determined color. Inside, are 1,220 usable square feet, plus a small bathroom. It was once a law office, so there are several walls of built-in bookshelves.

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Dancing About Architecture

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by Jas Faulkner

author’s note: This is very, very late.  Late as in this should have gone live on Friday late.  Next week is the start of a new era at Bookshop Blog.  I won’t go into details.  Let me just say that I think you’re going to like what you see.  One change I can tell you about is that my columns will now appear every Thursday.  What else is happening at BSB?  You’re going to have to come back to find out.  Now, on with this week’s column…

Keith Richards’ “Life” gives a Glimmer Twin’s-eye-view of life as a Rolling Stone.

The date and time stamp thingie on the lower right hand corner of my screen says it’s 2:20 pm and the date is 8/3/2012.

Here is the list of top 20 best selling music biographies as of that moment on Amazon.com:

20. No Regrets by Joe Lyden and Ace Frehly

19. Bruce Sringsteen and the Promise of Rock n’ Roll by Marc Dolan

18. Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good by Corey Taylor (Slipknot)

17. Mercury by Lesley-Ann Jones

16. When I Left Home: My Story by Buddy Guy and David Ritz

Motley Crude: Sixx’s book pulls no punches when it comes to life in a hair metal band.

15. 1d in America parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 Special Edition (Niall’s unofficial diary)  by 1d Fans International

14. It’s So Easy by Duff McKagan (Guns and Roses)

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