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The Independent has just posted a list of the 10 "Best Bookshops in the World. There is a brief description of each (all not, not antiquarian). It is quite a list and I must admit to having only set foot in two. All are now added to my "future places to travel" list.

We are killing two long hours at JFK before the flight to Seattle. I'm
pretending to do some db cleanup and recoding some of the site. We
shall see.

I used to fly a lot. I used to really quite enjoy it. Now I am
reasonably certain I would rather pull all my fingernails out with
pliers.

Saturday morning was the ABAA breakfast and annual meeting at The Morgan Library. I somehow managed to get my wires crossed as to the start time, as I thought the breakfast was at 8 and the meeting at 9...when it was 9 and 10. Luckily, I was not the only one to make this mistake...strangely comforting. They kindly let us in early and it was, in the end, just extra time to enjoy the Morgan and the exhibit in the hall we were eating in...not a bad thing.

Breakfast and the meeting were nice. I had a very nice chat with one of the curators there and was able to catch up with several people and meet several new (to me) dealers. There appears to be some consensus that the ABAA needs to focus on both young dealers and young collectors...two things I could not agree with more strongly. I look forward to see where this focus leads and hope I can be involved...we shall see.

Bob & Lynne Veatch kindly offered me a ride back to the Armory/Hunter College after the meeting. Little did I know it was to provide extra padding... We were having a nice, if stilted, chat...stilted as the cab ride was slightly more "exciting" than is typical. Every now and then you get a cabbie whose sense of place on the road (and that of other movable and immovable objects) seems slightly...er...off. We were chatting, but all the while trying to anticipate where the hit was going to come from so we could brace appropriate. As it turned out, it was from the right hand side as our cabbie chose to ignore the massive Muni bus that was clearly pulling out into the lane. He hit (ok, rubbed) us from about my door (passenger side) down the rear quarter panel. He waved out the window, I assume the bus driver waved back...and we all went on our merry way. Mind you, the three of us in the back were a bit taken aback. This is why Muni bus bumpers and cab panels are mostly made out of plastic...they rub, they slide, they don't actually crumple.

Apropos of nothing, it was a nice "full circle" event. When I did my very first "real" show, the Radison shadow show to the Boston ABAA event, Lynne Veatch came into my booth and spent a bit of time looking around and then gave me two very nice complements. First, she told me that my booth and books were lovely and then she gave me a very serious look and said, "you will join the ABAA when you are eligible, won't you?" (or words to that effect). I told her that I was planning to do so as soon as I was able and she was pleased. Our wee run-in with the bus notwithstanding, it was very nice to ride back from my first ABAA meeting with the Veatchs,
four years later.

Rented the car and ran about as needed. Rental pickup was interesting...there was one woman at the counter with a line of 8ish people, all looking reasonably annoyed and giving off “we have been here too long” vibes. I noticed, however, that there was a small “self serve” kiosk at one end that was unused and, given my pleasure of using the JetBlue kiosks, I thought I’d give it a try. Several touch screens and no more than 3 minutes later, I had a receipt and Slot Number where I could find my car. The agent was still taking to the same woman.

As I have mentioned before, having a good GPS is an amazing thing. I’d have never bought one myself, but have trouble thinking about functioning without it at this point. I did not spend one moment looking at maps or trying to figure out where I was going. I just dropped the address into the GPS and let it lead me.

The flight back was one of the more painful I’ve suffered in recent years. The seat and legroom was lovely (exit row, 36 channels of Sat TV...though it was the redeye and about 3am “my time” when I left...so sleeping was a higher priority). The plane was totally full. I was at the window next to this early middle aged couple giving off “first flight ever” vibes. He was trying to be pretty cool about it, but she was a twitching bag of neves...seriously. For the fivish hour plan ride, I do not think she ever stopped moving, She fidgeted right, She fidgeted left. She shuffled her feet around, She adjusted her coat over her (each time partly over me). She put her hand on my thigh...not once, not twice...on the order of 5 times or so. I honestly think that she thought it was her leg as she always seemed a bit confused that she could not feel it… All the while, her SO/husband was on the aisle, trying to be mellow and cool… He served her drinks...that is, when they gave us our drinks, he gave her a glass and would pour about 3-4 sips into her glass and refill it.

It went on like this for hours...fidgit, fidget, touch, shuffle, fidget, touch, shuffle, fidget, fidget, touch. AARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! Also, there were two wildly cute 2ish year old twin girls. Wildly cute in the airport. Wildly cute for the first two hours in the air...less so later. They spent the last 2-3 hours wailing….steadily...the cool thing in being twins is, of course, if you are tired of wailing, your sister can spot you for a few minutes. Also, you can try to pair your wailing...so that it remains steady, with no noticeable breaks...for hours. Mind you, I have these really nice noise suppression ear buds (they fit inside the ear cannel and fill it). They are outstanding on planes...especially ones with wailing small humans. Not so good in cars or when walking…as you really can’t hear anything else.

The final straw was, and I am not making this up, that as we approached the gate we were told to stay in our seats as security would be boarding the plane to resolve “an issue”. So they open the door, TSA and some other patched human come on board, walk to my row and asks fidget lady and her husband for their IDs...and then escorts them off the plane. Don’t ask. I have no idea. It was, however, a perfect end to a horrid flight. [N.B. JetBlue and its minions were great, as always…]

In the end, the day is shaping up well. I was able to the AirTrain (the logo is a plane with track coming out the rear) all the way to the Jamaica Station. Then I got to take the E train all the way to 53rd and Lexington...then up the wildly deep escalator to the 6 train one stop to Grand Central Station. Then I took the Track 32 train up the Hudson to the Tarrytown Station. FOUR TRAINS. I should mention that I am really fond of trains in all their flavors. I know, I know, if you use the subway/comm. rail daily, it’s no big deal...but I only get to ride trains of any flavor when I go to big cities...what fun.

I am now in my room at the Tarrytown Marriot. As I have said before, it is just a great hotel and very convenient for easy in and out from the city and the GM is a book guy...oh, and it has the best mattresses of any hotel I’ve been in quite a while. Admittedly, having spent about 12ish hours on planes in the last 36 hours, my opinion may be skewed. Suzanne is driving down with the van and the books (on her birthday...I have to think of something suitably doting to make amends) and should be here in a few hours. Into the city tomorrow for set-up and the show starts Friday (8am to 8pm *shudder*) and I have a breakfast to attend and the big show and any number of other things. It should be a great weekend. I’ll try to keep you posted... Read the rest of this post

What a horrible and great day...and how often can you say something like that. We drove down on Thursday to Tarry Town to our current favorite "just out of the city with free parking and a pool" hotel (the Marriot). The drive down was fast and uneventful. I have my youngest assistant with me (pictures tomorrow). My son (6) Eli was great fun on the drive and has a strange obsession with hotels. He has asked several times if we can live here forever.

The drive into the city was exciting...in that "oh my god, I hope we don't die". I deliberately waited a bit to start in, in hopes that they would clear all the rush-hour accidents off the road. This turned out to be the right call. It was a long, slow drive (about an hour and fifteen minutes to do what should have been about an half hour drive). We passed several accidents and watched an SUV do a very exciting series of 360s down the middle of 287 (but did not hit anything). It was one of those "I know I can drive in this safely, but all these other whack-jobs are seriously unknown quantities". In the end, we made it in safe and sound, found the school in the Village where the show is being held.

I managed to hurt my lower back the day before I left for the fair and had promised my wife that I would, for the first time, hire porters to carry in my boxes. My shipping boxes came back from San Francisco and I did not repack things...I just threw them into the van with some additional material and hit the road. The net result of this is that I had 8 boxes in the 65 to 75 pound range plus my other stuff. They do not have "porters" at this fair, they have "stevedores" (mind you, a stevedore is "a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port"...but that is hair splitting.). That is, you hear "stevedore" and you picture big muscular guys who wrestle shipping crates for a living.

The first two pictures are the stevedores I was assigned. As you can see, burly dock workers able to move anything not bolted down *laughing*. They were wonderful. I convinced them to take a handle each (yet another reason Pelican cases rock) and they handled everything with aplomb. I did not let them schlep the plate display case...I just couldn't. I recommended them resoundingly to all others as people traipsed in...I hope they had a good day (this fair is, as I understand it, a fund-raiser for the school).

I managed to get in around 11:30am or so...the show started this evening at 6pm...that is, I had about 6.5 hours to set up. Anyone who knows me, knows I can set up a booth in no less than 5 hours...don't ask, I'm just that pathetic. That is, generally, with a real assistant (wife, mother or some other long-suffering supporter). Here I had my six year old son, Eli. In the end, not only was I able to get set up...and reasonably well, at that...but we were able to get it done *with* time to go down and enjoy the wonderful dinner the school provided for attendees (great salads, hummus, sushi, chicken and drinks). Ok, admittedly, only just barely...but it really was "ready" by 6pm.

Eli was reasonably helpful and especially helpful re all things I loath doing (crawling about on the floor running extension cords and the like). Once the fair started, he sat in our chair and played game boy and responded in very cute fashion to the myriad of people who asked him questions. I am hoping he tries to hand-sell his book tomorrow (he has an inscribed copy of "The Book that Jack Wrote" by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Dan Adel). He helped research and write the description and is pretty excited about it. He was truly on his very best behavior. He might have received a Sky-High Sunday when he got back to the hotel.

Lots of people, good stickiness and some good sales. A great start to a show. However, a wildly long day and I need sleep. Show starts tomorrow at 12 noon and runs to 5pm. Come and visit...better yet, buy a book.

So we woke at 2ish am and drove to the bus station where we loaded up and were off promptly at 3:15am. Two hours, some nice orange juice and rewatching The Queen (in which, Helen Mirren does not “get her kit off” (one of my all time favorite actress quotations)) later and we were at Logan.

There were at least two other dealers on theWe arrived around 5am and got our bags check and were through security in short order - next time everything gets shipped except our carry-ons and clothing. Then came the sitting while trying not to drift off (and miss the flight). flight this morn. The flight was...er...long...and torturous…

Not all that long ago, I flew frequently. I flew frequently for long distances. It never bothered me. That is not the case any longer. I am, I guess, older, bigger, grumpier and/or the airlines have shrunk, you know, everything… The only saving grace was that the gentleman ahead of me did not opt to tilt his seat back…

We arrived at about 11:15am (reflecting the wonderful loss of 3 hours on the way out that are, wickedly, returned to us on the way back). From there, the day radically improved.

We check into the Petite Auberge on Bush St. We have a lovely little room overlooking the private courtyard. I am typing this in the common room downstairs, nibbling on a very nice roasted mushroom spread on fresh french bread and sipping sherry. All hotels should have hors d’overes and wine/sherry in the afternoons. I can’t wait until breakfast in the morning (we are staying here because it is one of my parent’s favorite hotels, 26 rooms and just wonderful). We had a lovely time chatting with a family from Australia here for the weekend.

After checking in, we wandered over to Chinatown. Tomorrow is Chinese New Year and it was very festive and fun to poke about the shops. We had dim sum for lunch at House of Nan King and that was great. Unusual dim sum, no carts, you just say you want it and the chef sends out plate after plate of wonderful things until you realize you have grossly overeaten. Yum.

Serendipity Books and others tomorrow. I’m going to go slip into a coma.