28 June 2006 - I've found a way to conquer stress.
Vacation!! I'm going on vacation in July for a good part of the month.
This will be the first vacation in over 4 years. But until then, I'm
working hard.
It would be hard to individually review the following
three books at the same time. I'd sound like a broken record.
Suffice it to say, they're all great. These are three of my favorite
series going and I read them back to back to back.
Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins.
Charlie Bone And The Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo.
Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve.
I also read Books 3, 4 and 5 of the Pendragon series. Good
reads all.
Burglar on the Prowl by Lawrence Block. My favorite
burgling bookseller.
I've been wondering recently how many more years I'll continue to be a
bookseller. I really can't imagine myself doing anything else, but I
also can't imagine doing this the rest of my life. I do believe this
is called a mid-life crisis though I don't feel any mortal crisis about to
ensue.
8 May 2006 - I'm stressed (just like everyone else).
I used to think my busy time of year was the holiday season. Now, I
think it's the whole year. So many books, so little time. Spring
is the start of book sale season and I feel like I've been to all of them
within 100 mile radius since they started. I've been on the road so
much, I had to trade in my car for something more fuel efficient.
$3.00 gas. Insane!
I've been reading. I'll have to get back to the
reviews at a later date. So many books, so little time. I'm so
stressed, I'm repeating myself.
The Merchant of Death (Pendragon, Book 1) by D. J. MacHale.
The Lost City of Faar (Pendragon, Book 2) by D. J. MacHale.
The Wish List by Eoin Colfer.
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.
The Pickup Artist by Terry Bisson.
22 March 2006 -
Another month, come and gone. I've been reading a lot and buying too many books for my own
good (see
Save A Drowning
Bookseller).
I've become an organizing addict. Not
that my house is ready for Home & Garden or anything, but watching
other people's houses get organized on Clean Sweep, Clean House, neat,
and Organization - a bunch of shows on the Style Network, Discovery
Home, HGTV, and TLC. They're great shows for getting little tips.
Things I already knew, but needed to be reminded about. Like when you
get the mail, automatically stop at the garbage can and pitch the bulk of
it. Not holding on to something because I might need it down
the road. We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. Clutter
and chaos are NOT a good thing. Heck, I needed something else to watch
since Battlestar Galactica is over until October. How dare
they!
Godless by Pete Hautman. Fed up with his parents' boring
old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god, the
town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers (the
Chutengodians) and as their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own.
Jason realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling
it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends
and himself. Most kids question their religion at one time or another,
but that theme seems secondary to the peer pressure (the kids' influence
over one another). Coming of age is never easy.
Hatching Magic by Ann Downer. When a 13th Century wizard
confronts 21st Century Boston while seeking his pet dragon, he is followed
by a rival wizard and a very unhappy demon, but eleven-year-old Theodora
Oglethorpe may hold the secret to setting everything right. A little
cookie cutter, but great for the Pre-Teen crowd.
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust.
Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille serves the best matzoh ball soup in the
Galaxy and hires some of the best musicians you’ll ever hear. It’s a
great place to visit, but it tends to move around—just one step ahead of
whatever mysterious conspiracy is reducing whole worlds to radioactive ash.
Cowboy Feng's may be humanity's last hope for survival. Reminds me of
Spider Robinson's Callahan series. An enjoyable, folky read.
Atlantyx by Chase Dalton. Valerie Russell researches the
addictive properties of computer gaming and finds that 71 gamers who play
the Atlantyx game are missing across the nation, leaving behind masses of
computer gear and mountains of debt. The book was interesting, a
concept we can see happening. I was a bit thrown by the Christian
slant.
20 February 2006 - I'm on a mission to revamp all the pictures uploaded to my host. I'm also deleting pictures of books sold
from my hard drive. Boring, huh? But, in doing so, I also intend
to take a lot more pictures of books on hand. I only have pictures for
about 10% of the 5,000 listings. I can do better than that.
I also downloaded my credit report and FICO score this week. Also
boring. It's just one of those things I do after I've finished filing
the taxes. That's a good thing. *sniff, sniff* I smell a
refund!
A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne-Jones. I love this
author's works. She's written more than 40 books and won several
awards and never ceases to immerse the reader into something or into
somewhere fantastic. When 11-year-old Vivian Smith is evacuated from
London in 1939, she expects to end up in the peaceful British countryside.
Instead she is kidnapped by two youthful time travelers who mistake her for
the "Time Lady'' and whisk her off to Time City, a richly imagined
alternative world which exists in time but not in history.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. Typically, if I'm
going to read Young Adult/Juvenile fiction, it's Sci Fi/Fantasy. This
was definitely a Mystery, but well worth the read. A Vermeer
painting is stolen and Petra and Calder, two bright, quirky sixth-graders,
come together to solve the crime that has the whole world baffled.
I'll agree with others that this is The DaVinci Code for kids.
A delightful read that also includes a pentomino puzzle buried within the
illustrations.
Sabriel by Garth Nix. Sabriel, daughter of the
necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the magical Old Kingdom to rescue
her father from the Land of the Dead. The first book in a trilogy.
I wasn't sure whether I'd like this book thinking it was historical fantasy.
It's not, but it's not exactly modern fantasy either.
Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. Another book I couldn't be
bothered to finish. It had that psychedelic, tree-huggie feel to it -
the same feel I got after reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A.
Heinlein. I may be a product of the 60s, but was too young to grasp
its appeal.
22 January 2006 - The internet is so amazing. Tonight, the
rotating glass plate in my microwave went kaplooey. For now, there's a
Corelle dinner plate in there doing the duty, but within 5 minutes of the
original tray breaking, a new one was ordered by internet and will be on
it's way tomorrow. In my former life, I spent 15 years as a Purchasing
Agent. Most of those years were pre-internet which sometimes meant
spending hours scouring the globe for parts for every doohickey on the
facility. Just like I can't imagine life without a microwave oven,
it's hard to imagine life without the internet.
20 January 2006 - A few days ago, I slightly changed the color
scheme on the website. More peach and tan instead of orange and
yellow. You can still see the old color scheme on this page.
Something to fix ... eventually. [It's later the same day and I fixed
it already. It's sometimes good to just do it instead of
procrastinating.]
In about 1997 or 1998, a friend introduced me into scrapbooking. I
was into it hot and heavy
for a few years, but burnt out in 2000. A few weeks ago, I started
up again. It's a great creative outlet and gets some of those
shoeboxes of photos into albums. I have been VERY lax in my picture
taking the past 5 years.
Seeker by Jack McDevitt. I love Jack McDevitt. My
family and I met him about 5 years ago in Albuquerque at Bubonicon (the best
Sci Fi Con I've ever been to). Me, the family, and some friends were
going to breakfast and ran into Jack. We invited him to join us.
What a delight he is! My husband still emails him from time to time.
Oh, the book. A Sci Fi archaeological mystery. Talk about mixing
up genres, but it makes for a really good read. A group of 5000 board
the Seeker and set out from Earth in the 27th Century never to be heard
from again. Jump 9000 years forward to Chase Kolpath and, her boss,
Alex Benedict, on an expedition to find the ship, the planet they
settled, and survivors. They end up finding more than they'd
bargained for.
6 January 2006- Life is so good! New episodes of
Battlestar Galactica start tonight on the Sci Fi channel. It's my
current favorite show. There are some good shows on network TV, but
the Sci Fi channel has some of the best series going. Stargate
SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Battlestar, and even the repeats of Firefly
beat most shows out there.
Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1) by Angie Sage. One of my
favorite criteria for a great book is one that so engrosses me, I leave this
reality and enter theirs. This is one of those books. Within the
first few chapters, I was transported to this medieval alternate world.
The dank of the castle, the cramped quarters of the commoners, the warmth of
Aunt Zelda Heap's cottage, and the chill of her swamp. Septimus Heap
is the magykal seventh son of the seventh son switched at birth with the
castle's future Queen. Well, not exactly switched. Jenna, the
Queenling, is raised by the Heap family. Septimus is made a soldier in
the Young Army. And Dom Daniel is a bad, bad warlock who uses Darke
Magyk to get what he wants. I look forward to Book 2, Flyte,
due out in March.
29 December 2005- The holiday rush is over both personally and as a
bookseller. I'm contemplating whether to make any resolutions or not
(other than being a better blogger). Probably not, but maybe, but
probably not ... though there's always room for some improvement.
We've still got a few days to decide for sure. One thing I'm sure
about - buy more books in 2006. Buy more, buy better.
Magic By the Book by Nina Bernstein. Interesting
concept - current day children transporting to classic tales of fantasy.
Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered to finish the book. It
doesn't quite hold my attention, but might work better for the 8-12 reader.
Alchemy by Margaret Mahy. A nice Young Adult fantasy
with two teens discovering their magical abilities. Cutesie and kept
me reading, but I didn't feel one way or the other at the end.
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. An awesome Young Adult
fantasy. Liz Hall wakes up dead one morning and the dead live their
lives in reverse until they're sent back to earth to be born again. At
first, she thinks it's all a dream, but then she remembers being hit by a
car. The realization sets in that she'll never fall in love, never get her
driver's license, and never see her family again. She spends her days on the
observation deck where passengers can peek into the lives of their loved
ones still alive. It takes Liz's dead grandmother to show Liz that death is
worth living - even in reverse - and that it's possible to have all the
things she thought she'd lost.
20 December 2005 - I'm making a resolution for the New Year. I
WILL become a better blogger. Based on the whopping 4 entries for 2005
(prior to this one), absolutely nothing must happen in a bookseller's life
other than we buy books, we sell books, we ship books. So for 2006, I
promise to be more forthcoming about my doings. I can't promise a lot
of excitement, but it is interesting. After nearly 7 years at this,
even I still think it's interesting else I'd make up ANOTHER new job for
myself.
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Honestly, I
read somewhere on the web that Emma Watson (Harry Potter's Hermione)
would be playing Kate de Vries and Liam Aiken (the Lemony Snicket boy) would be playing Matt Cruse. I don't know if
that's true, but I had their faces in my head while reading
the book. I figured if the movie studio had locked those two in, the
book had to be great. The main mode of long distance transportation are ruddy, big Zepplin type balloons. Their balloon, the Aurora, is
wrecked on an uncharted island after being attacked by pirates. Most
of the story focuses on getting the balloon airborn again as well as finding
the Cloud Cat, a new mammal first spotted by Kate's grandfather the previous
year. It's a nice bit of alternate history action good for readers 10
and up.
6 September 2005 - When disaster's occur, I think we either hold our
emotions in or have so much going on in our heads, we have to get it out.
I'm feeling like I have to vent. Many of my online friends have been
playing armchair quarterback with what should or shouldn't have been done
for our fellow Americans in Lousiana and Mississippi. Hindsight and
all, sure, it's easy to fix any situation with perfection. So instead
of second guessing those who are trying their best, I called the Red Cross
to take their 2 day training course and be put on the list to go see for
myself.
27 July 2005 - I guess it's blatantly obvious little websites don't
get a lot of traffic. So to up the ante on guessing the movie/TV
posters, the first person to correctly guess all 9 of them will get a free
item priced $20 or less from the website.
9 April 2005 - Taxes are done. Spring is here. Book sales
are in full swings. Life is good. I'm adding a picture of my
work area to show what a Sci Fi geek I really am - and that's not even all
the posters down here. There's also Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter,
2001: A Space Odyssey, and Star Trek (TV and film) on other walls.
There are 9 posters on the wall. Correctly send me an email with the
film title/TV show for all 9 and I'll mail you a free item priced $10 or
less from the website.
19 January 2005 - The new year is here along with freezing
temperatures and snow. I'm trapped until Spring!! Since I'm not
a native New Englander and lived in the Southwest for 21 years prior to
moving here, my blood refuses to thicken. I hunker down like a bear
for winter. I paid the gas bill the other day thinking "this is more
than I paid for rent WITH utilities" 20 years ago. Ugh. Maybe
someone out there has some ideas to brainwash me into actually liking
winter.
2 November
2004 - I voted today. Maybe not for
who you wanted me to, but I did it. I'm a little bummed because we may
not know for eons who actually wins this race. Remember the days when
you knew the SAME day who the next President would be? Seems like
another lifetime ago.
And I finally fixed this page so the picture header up above does what
it's supposed to do.
28 October 2004 - Only 5 days until Election Day. Like
everyone, I'll be glad when it's over so I don't have to see any more local
yocal political ads on TV. They're badly made. They're
obnoxiously brutal. They're NOT flattering. And it's always fun
to find out who's gonna be the next Prom Queen.
By the way, if you like B-rate TV ads, I've listed a slew of B-rate Sci
Fi movies in the Videos Category.
Now, was that a segue or what?
14 October 2004 - Change is a comin'. It's officially Fall and
the leaves are turning here in Connecticut - probably one of the biggest
bonuses to living in this state (because it surely isn't the cost of real
estate or taxes).
1 September 2004 - Tomorrow is the kids' first day of school.
Am I allowed to do a little jig? The past few weeks have included
uploading lots of new books to the website. Most everything bought in
August is out there for sale. Now to get ready for book buying in
September. Labor Day weekend tends to be a big book buying weekend.
I've been reading lots this past few weeks - Cornelia Funke's The Thief
Lord, Jenny Nimmo's Charlie Bone series, and Suzanne Collins'
Gregor the Overlander. Absolutely fabulous books for pre-teens and
beyond. I'm still trying to figure out why I only want to read what is
traditionally called juvenile fiction. Maybe it's because adult fiction
is too real. I think we all live with enough reality every day.
16 August 2004 - Oh my, we have been remiss. The summer, for
me, is about buying books to sell during the winter. I've been working
on that. I'm currently in the overwhelmed phase of book buying trying to
get the books up for sale. And all while the kids are home for summer
vacation. Why don't kids go to school 12 months a year. Adults
have to work 12 months a year. Wouldn't it be prudent to acclimate kids
to their future life by getting them used to a full-time schedule?
Seems an injustice to the kids if you ask me. :-)
13 June 2004 - I finally went and saw Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban today. This week, I reread the book and then
went ahead and reread The Goblet of Fire. I think I'd have also
reread The Order of the Phoenix except I loaned it to my mom in Texas.
I've been so pleased with the movies for 1, 2, and 3. They're so true to
the books and the visuals are mesmerizing at times. Hogwarts - I wanna
go to school there. It seems so comfy, cozy just like Bilbo Baggins'
hobbit house in the Lord of the Rings.
10 June 2004 - I've added lots and lots of pictures to the website
the past few weeks. About 10% of the listings now have a picture.
I've also been adding numerous Science Fiction reference books and Books About
Books mostly from my personal collection. It was time to scale back as I
have a lawyer's bookcase full with not an inch of room for more.
A couple of months ago I joined Netflix - an online video rental system.
During the day, mainly while packing books for shipment, I've been watching
WAY too many movies. Among them, all 6 seasons of Sex in the City,
a show I didn't watch because we don't have HBO. It's like watching a
train wreck! I've been a single working woman and that ain't it.
Well, it wasn't for me anyway. I've never owned a $400 pair of shoes
... EVER ... let alone 100 pairs of $400 shoes. Maybe next I'll rent
something a bit more realistic like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or
Farscape.
22 May 2004 - I've spent the past couple of days expanding the one
General Mystery category into 12 subcategories. I think it will be much
easier for mystery readers to find more specific books. The next few
weeks will entail adding pictures of books to the website. Another
daunting task. I don't envision a picture for every book on the site, but
at least a good chunk of them especially for books with multiples available. The first pictures available will be the Short
Stories, Sports, Large Print, and Children's as most of those pictures are
already on my hard drive. Stay tuned!
18 May 2004 - I'm a bad, bad blogger. How do people do this
routinely everyday? I get caught up in work and home and kids and life.
And a whole lot of the time, I just run out of things to say. Looking up
at this page's header reminds me I went to New York City for the first time a
couple of weeks ago. The sad thing is I live less than 100 miles from
downtown Manhattan, but, to my defense, I've only lived here about 2 years.
Now that I've found it's not so overwhelming/traumatic/scary to go see the
city, I might do it a bit more often than every two years. To my
neighbor's horror, we drove in after they insisted it was easier to take the
train. Since the train was $35/person, we decided driving was worth the
difficulty (considering the cost of gas, the train might not be such a bad
deal). On the weekend, you can find all day parking for only $10 a
couple of blocks from Times Square. What an adventure!
25 April 2004 - It's the 25th for another few minutes at least.
The work week is about to begin and I've already got big plans for it. I
recently bought almost 200 math books - many of them puzzle type books which I
have a soft spot for - along with several VERY nice Asimov books. I'm
hoping to get those all listed this week. I'm an Asimov groupie. I
like all things Asimov, not just the Science Fiction. He was so wordy
having written in every major classification of the Dewey decimal system.
I think he did it just to prove to someone (himself, most likely) that
he could. Not many with an ego his size could get away with it.
He's one that could in my opinion, hence my groupie status. It's a good
thing he's gone to the great beyond else his wife would probably have a
restraining order out on me. :-)
21 April 2004 - I've been reading. It doesn't happen as often
as I'd like so I tend to get engrossed. I just finished Eragon.
Some readers seem to love the book and others hate it. I found it
thoroughly enjoyable ... after about the first 30-40 pages. Kinda
freaked me out on Page 1 that Eragon was the boy's name and not the dragon's
name. And it's supposed to be a trilogy with Book 2 being Eldest
which is good because I'm a series fanatic. If I'm going to spend 3-4
days of my life reading an author's work, the author should at least have the
courtesy to make everything they write a series because if I like their work,
I'm going to want to read more. I think that's pretty much a given for
anybody who reads. Pretty much. So if you're an author, prepare to
make whatever it is you're writing a series, OK?
12 April 2004 - Wow, I am surely losing it. I've heard my tastebuds
will come back now that I've quit smoking and food will taste better. I'm not
sure when this is supposed to happen. A week, a month, a year. Whatever. I do
know I'm eating more.
Anyway, it's an odd night here. Kiddo has gone to bed, the husband has gone
to bed feeling a bit sick, it's raining out, all's quiet in my world. I
decided to make my most-night ritual hot chocolate a bit early. I also decided
to have a piece of pumpkin pie to go along with it. Brought my goodies
downstairs to savor and enjoy. Took a sip of hot chocolate and thought it
tasted odd. Washed it down with a bite of pumpkin pie. :-) So I finished the
pie and had another sip of hot chocolate. Man, this stuff tastes nothing like
I remember.
Now, I started smoking as a teenager and maybe I don't remember
what ANYTHING truly tastes like anymore. I've never enjoyed hot chocolate as
an adult with tastebuds.
So back to the hot chocolate. I give it a stir. Seems a bit lumpy. Sip.
Wierd stuff this is. Stir some more. Still lumpy ......... and then the lump
surfaces. It's a teabag. No wonder I don't remember the taste of this stuff.
In my defense or to my detriment, there was hot
chocolate in the cup too.
8 April 2004 - This is what happens when you quit smoking, you quit
writing. I quit on March 29th and haven't written since.
Psychologically, this has been worse than anything I've ever experienced.
My mind is consumed by wanting a cigarette, reaching for one, reaching for the
lighter. For me, I figured the best way to get through the initial phase
was to sleep through it. :-) I'm awake now ... I hope. I
guess when I ask for something new to dwell or ponder on, I should be more
specific.
28 March 2004 - Very early on a Sunday morning except for the
incessant cat talk. It's the beginning of a new week and I sure hope
it's less demanding than the past week. Many of last week's challenges
and aggravations have been solved so I suppose it's time to find something new
to dwell or ponder on. I'm always open to suggestions. So far this
morning, I've added a
SFF Reference Link. I use these
links on a regular basis and hope they're helpful to others as well.
26 March 2004 - It's almost 70 degrees, the first truly gorgeous day
of the season, and I can hear the outdoors calling me. And with spring
comes spring cleaning. Though I believe I'm in line for the throne of
organizational management, a domestic diva I'm not. Someday, somebody's
gonna figure out that spring cleaning should be done in the winter so when
spring rolls around, we can go out and play. Someday, maybe I'll even
figure that out.
25 March 2004 - Biting off more than I can chew. I've bitten
off so much in the past few weeks, I'm choking. And they say booksellers
are a dole bunch! Besides this new website, I've been working on
converting the existing database to a completely new database, transitioning
uploads from UIEE format to tab delimited, and negotiating with two clients to
purchase their collections. Who said bookselling isn't high-tech?
So which of the tasks did I dread tackling most - today's Parent-Teacher
conference at my son's school. :-)
24 March 2004 - Slacker! That's me. Actually, I've been
working harder than usual taking care of business. And after one week -
a WHOLE week - I wasn't sure what to say.
A few days ago, we acquired a new cat. The first cat is Polly because
she's a polydactyl (6 toes on the front feet instead of 5). We should
have named her Big Foot. The new cat arrived around St. Patrick's day so
she's Molly and has become the bookstore cat. She won't leave the
office/book area and Polly pretty much stays upstairs. Now I have a cat
to greet me at the top of the stairs or the bottom depending on whether I'm
coming or going (and I often don't know which I'm doing).
19 March 2004 - It's easy to figure out when I've gone on a book
buying trip - if new books are going up today, I was buying yesterday.
Today, I've listed Jack Vance's Durdane Trilogy and Mervyn Peak's
Gormenghast Trilogy. Beautiful books! But I'm just as content
to list a box of book clubs or paperbacks. I think most booksellers are
looking for their own unique niche. I've decided that selling at all
ends of the spectrum (aren't there just two ends?) is my niche which probably
means I'm nicheless.
18 March 2004 - A bookstore up the road is having a book sale today.
Guess where I'm heading? This store is one of the classiest in a 100
mile radius. I've found most bookstores are a chore to go through.
This one is actually fun with unusual books all well organized. In my
mind, that's the sign of a bookseller who actually works (instead of sitting
around reading all day).
17 March 2004 - I'm wearing green in
honor of St. Patrick's Day. Ever wonder if bookseller's sit around all
day reading? There are days I wish I could sit around reading, but it
doesn't happen ... often. So what am I reading? I just finished
all Dan Brown's books (The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital
Fortress, and Deception Point). They're all good reads, but
I'd highly recommend the two Robert Langdon character books - The Da Vinci
Code and Angels and Demons. The mix of historical fiction,
mystery, and religion make for some fast page turning. After reading
these, I'm now heading back for a little young adult SFF - Eragon.
And since maybe you've been wondering, the SFF in this bookseller's name
stands for Science Fiction & Fantasy.
16 March 2004- It's days like this being a bookseller is an awesome
job. The forecast is for 5-10" of snow today, but I'm in the basement
and probably won't go back upstairs to see it. This New Mexican desert
rat was transplanted to New England two years ago and still hasn't accepted
snow as a good thing. I'm more apt to hibernate like a bear. So
this morning as I start work, I'm thinking of the movie The Fifth Element
where the Jamaican spaceport worker is yelling out "give me heat mon, we
need heat".
15 March 2004 - Have you ever wondered your place in life? I'm
not talking philosophically, but in actuality. I'm sitting in a
basement. Granted, it's a rather nice basement - half is my office, half
is storage - but I keep looking above my head. I'm sitting directly
below either the dishwasher or the refrigerator. I think I'd choose the
dishwasher if I had my druthers. A dirty dishwater shower is preferable
to being smushed flat like a pancake any day.
14 March 2004 - The website has been up for about 4 days, but try
googling it and you'll never find it. We'll see how long it takes to get
the first order. It does, however, give this girl time to fix all the
little thises and thats and start a few projects that have been churning in
the brain (like this blog). I think the majority of my time has been
spent cataloging so far. Who knew cataloging could be so important and a
pain in the tuchus all at the same time? I mean, I can create catalogs
for Sci Fi & Fantasy ad infinitum, but where do I put Three Essays on
Universal Law : The Laws of Karma, Will and Love or Tangaroa's Gift (Te
Koha a Tangaroa)? Bah humbug! I guess that's why
I never cataloged the database until now. Of the 3600+ books uploaded,
there are still about 1200 catalogless. I just don't feel like creating
little mini-catalogs for 3 music books or 2 cookbooks, but they're out there
if you have the notion to look.
So why a bookseller's blog? Well, because I can and it's no cornier
than whatshername blogging her credit card debt to the Nth degree or Joe-Schmo
blogging his life down to the color of today's underwear.
