News & Opinions

Our writers have been around books for a long time and are never shy to share their opinions…

Missed Opportunities

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Harleian Miscellany is an extraordinary compilation. It purports itself to be a “collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts as well in manuscript as in print found in the late Earl of Oxford’s library interspersed with historical, political, and critical notes”. It was first published at the end of the 18 th century. I have a set from 1794 – 8 large leather bound volumes full of curios lore. I first saw the Harleian Miscellany over 30 years ago. I always wanted a set and about 2 years ago I finally acquired one. The contents and the set are subjects for some future story.

What is of interest to me today is something connected with this particular set. Inside the front cover of each of the books is a bookplate from one Thomas Savney L. L. D. Of Richard’s Castle Salop.
Richard’s Castle exists to this day. It is one of the few castles that survive that is thought to have been build before the Norman Conquest. Salop still exits. I am hoping to find the time to determine if the Salney family survives and to find out something about Thomas Salney, but his memory persists in this bookplate. Across more than two centuries it says, “Hello – I was here”. To which I say” Wow”.

The Harleian Miscellany is very collectible and somewhat “rare”, but it is not in the class of books that I would consider to be truly rare.

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Chick Lit Of The Sea

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By Jas Faulkner 

For a long time, popular wisdom dictated that genre fiction for girls consisted of dainty prose about the vagaries of friendships and horses that no one else could tame.   There were exceptions:  the intrepid sleuths and a few other heroes who occasionally saw print. There were even a few girls in R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series who didn’t mind  taking on whatever was growling at the foot of the basement stairs or becoming monsters themselves.  Love it or hate it, this would change in 2005 when the first of a series of novels by Stephanie Meyer dominated nearly every sales indicator.  In spite of tepid to unabashedly negative critical response, in 2005, seventeen million people, mostly mothers and daughters, bought copies of Twilight.

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Amazon Warehouse, Up Close

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Warehouse in Lower Macungie Township in PA–the hot as hell warehouse inspected by OSHA.

Reading the interesting post of John Pollard, my memory kicked in, and reminded me of my up close and almost personal view of a real live Amazon warehouse, full of books to be pulled, and boxed and shipped to the various customers around the world. I happened upon it, as my husband and I often do, accidentally, while exploring a route to a giant something or other. Could have been a Catsup bottle or milk can or whatever, but after we found it, clicked enough pictures for posterity, I turned around, and low and behold a sign with the familiar word I’ve always associated with oversized super women, Amazon, appeared.  I had the husband adjust our direction to enter the parking lot of a long ugly warehouse with no visible humans, no openings, no windows, unless in the office part, and no activity. For around a minute I thought perhaps it was abandoned. But rounding the end of the warehouse we found a more congenial area, if congenial means one opening, with a couple of people handing out boxes, and, an area with one dinky picnic table, a couple of attached benches, and a lone individual eating. Oh, and did I mention, the spot was entirely caged with open fencing–up to the top–completely enclosed. By golly, no slimy picker person will abscond with the latest paperback, not from this joint!

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The Book That Can’t Wait

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by Jas Faulkner 

Anyone with a tall “to be read” stack will get chills at the thought of  “El Libro que No Puede Esperar”  (translation: “The Book That Can’t Wait”).  Eterna Cadencia, a publisher and bookseller in Argentina, has reportedly published a collection of stories by up and coming Latin American writers featuring a gimmick that garnered the imprint a lot of attention outside of its usual market. In the interest of creating a sense of urgency that these authors should be read, and read soon, a promotional video reports they have printed the books using an ink that begins to degrade as soon as the book is exposed to air and  light.  Break the seal and you have two months to read the book. The fading process starts immediately.

The promotional video about the book that has gone viral (en Inglés, gracias a Dios!). Mainstream outlets such as Wired and Huffington Post have already reported the story as gospel.

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Adventures in the Life of a Bookseller

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“Life is what happens when you’re busy planning on doing something else” , or so I have heard. Today seemed to prove the veracity of this statement to me.

I know it’s not just because I am a book seller and am around books all the time, but I have always enjoyed reading books of “famous quotations” . I would often rather read a book of famous quotations than read the latest New York Times best seller.

At any rate – life arises.

Sometimes as book sellers we have no idea of the effect our actions as booksellers have on the world at large. Causality and synchronicity have played a great part in my life as a Johnny Come Lately to the world of book selling.

I was going to make this post mostly about a poem that just floated into my head like a warm summer breeze and expound on my love of poetry, but reality got in the way.

I will give the poem it’s due!

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The 30,000

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 by Jas Faulkner  

In those odd moments when there can be plenty to do and yet the mind wants to wander through Binkley’s anxiety closet,  it is easy to come up with hypothetical catastrophes that put us through a Green Beret-level obstacle course.  We see the thin veneer of civilisation stripped away as a mob mentality nudges thousands of people off the side of a cliff in a carb-fueled rage, all neatly battered, fried, and served on a biscuit with a side of fear and loathing of The Other.

Those of us who are caretakers of libraries, whether they’re large public archives of wisdom passed down through the centuries or linen closets that have been converted into repositories of books we have known and loved; we have all wondered what we would do if we only had a small, undisclosed time to save what we could.  What would we grab first?  Who could we trust to protect what we hold dear?  As a bit of woolgathering, it’s scary but there is the comfort that, at least for now, the chances of seeing our libraries destroyed is  fairly remote.

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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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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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