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It's Friday, so here is something fun.

Sheppard's Confidential, a really great newsletter for booksellers out of the UK, has taken suggestions for a new collective noun for book dealers. (working off the same concept as a murder of crows or troop of gorillas).  They came up with the following:

A whinge of bookdealers (contributed by someone who wishes to remain anonymous!)
A quire of booksellers (C.S. Griffin, DoolinDinghy Books)
A ream of booksellers (C.S. Griffin, DoolinDinghy Books)
A case of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A ring of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A commission of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A mildew of used booksellers? (Ken Brinnick, New Gloucester, ME USA)
A doze of booksellers (John Underwood - judging by the number fall asleep at fairs!)
A shuffle of bookdealers, (Joanne, Proseworthy Collectable Books, Cape Town)
A chapter of bookdealers, (Joanne, Proseworthy Collectable Books, Cape Town)
An eccentricity of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A madness of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)
A reduction of bookdealers (Pierce Roche, Dunphail, Moray, Scotland)

At first I was thinking it should be "a shelf of bookdealers" but after reading this "chapter" is definatly the way to go... "a chapter of bookdealers".

It’s June, season of commencements — the start of summer, the start of sunshine, and, if you are graduating from college, the start of the rest of your life. I remember when I completed my English degree, way back in the 20^th century. Toward the end of the school year, employment recruiters came on campus. Many of my business major and engineering major friends knew where they would commence with their post-college careers even before graduation was at hand.

We English majors, though, we were not usually so definitive in our career plans. Editing the literary magazine or writing for the school paper was not likely to make an employer think you could be the next designer of yet another, smaller computer chip in furtherance of Moore’s Law. While an English major might do well with creative writing, he probably didn’t understand a thing about creative accounting. With a good working knowledge of Medieval Literature and fairly decent writing and analytical skills, we English majors were not really of use in the business world beyond writing advertising copy or technical manuals. No one recruited us.

Well, English majors, I’m here to tell you that although you probably won’t see us coming to recruit you at your local college campus: Antiquarian booksellers want you!

That’s right. There are simply not enough antiquarian booksellers, and antiquarian booksellers under age 40 are about as rare as Gutenberg Bible. That’s because, if you’re like me, you love books, but you simply may not know about the world of antiquarian books. Yes, I was an English major. I worked for a book store, a book publisher, and my university’s library during college, yet I was completely unaware of the existence of antiquarian books, which, let’s face it, are not often on display in publicly accessible places. If you don’t see them, you might not know they exist; or, if you know they exist but you don’t see them, you might not understand what’s so great about old books.

When you get involved with antiquarian books, you get involved with much more than a book. You learn about history, bibliography, and the importance of preserving primary sources. If you’ve seen movies like National Treasure, then you’ll already know that the occasional car chase and explosion will be a part of your career, too.

When I discovered the world of book collecting and antiquarian bookselling some years after college, I wondered why I had never known that antiquarian bookselling existed as a career.

Is antiquarian bookselling right for you? As the bibliophile John Hill Burton once said of antiquarian booksellers, “It is, as you will observe, the general ambition of the class to find value where there seems to be none, and this develops a skill and subtlety, enabling the operator, in the midst of a heap of rubbish, to put his finger on those things which have in them the latent capacity to become valuable and curios.” That description pretty much sums it up.

If you think antiquarian bookselling might be right for you, here are a few questions you might ask yourself: Do you like books? Are you especially in love with the physical beauty of old books? Do you revel in the arcane information to be found in some old tomes? Do you possess at least a few rudimentary business skills? Do you love to learn? Do you love to sell? Do you believe in yourself enough to build your own business even if no corporate recruiters came knocking at your door? Do you prefer autonomous self-direction over instructions handed down from a boss? Can you work alone, content with your books and yourself? Can you deal with the public, your customers? Can you withstand the physical injury of the occasional collapsing bookcase and numerous paper cuts without the benefit of a good workers’ comp program?

Does this describe you? If so, put down your Kindle and check out the world of antiquarian books.

Chris Lowenstein
Book Hunter’s Holiday
3182 Campus Drive #205
San Mateo, CA 94403
(415) 307-1046

[email protected]
http://www.bookhuntersholiday.com
Blog at: http://bookhuntersholiday.wordpress.com

Okay...I promised an update on my best friend's trip to South Africa,
so without further adieu...here's Diana sticking her toe in the Indian Ocean! (pretty impressive, huh?)


Molweni!

Well, I feel just like a celebrity. You know: Where in the world's Matt Lauer and Diana Black!

Mary's so right. The trip to South Africa was life-altering. For example, I didn't have a sinus infection when I left, but I do now...

No, wait. Maybe there is something a bit more profound to glean from the experience.

Like how courageous and resourceful people can be after hearing a life-altering diagnosis or forcibly removed from their homes, their neighborhoods and required to live in "houses" pieced together with metal scraps and discarded window frames.

How people can rise above wrongful imprisonment and continue to struggle against injustices to humankind.

How strong women are, and how much we are alike regardless of cultural differences.

And how everyone loves to laugh. I believe it was Victor Borge who said, "The shortest distance between two people is a smile."

The opportunity to make this trip and share it with Mary's blogger buddies sure makes me smile.

Okay, I think this is where I'm supposed to say how wonderful she is (right, Mary?), and how without her, I would be nothing. That she has made me everything I am, the woman among women I model myself after as should every other woman in the universe. (Did I forget anything? Oh, yeah...) And she's beautiful and a wonderful writer and my bestest bud. (Those last comments? Right from my heart.)

So thanks, Mary, and all of you who expressed an interest in my little jaunt. May each of you succeed with your own individual "trip of a lifetime." Be it that trek to the mailbox with your first manuscript or to a foreign corner of your imagination and/or the earth.

Hamba kakuhle (Xhosa for "go well"),
Diana

Want more pictures? Here's the link to Diana's amazing blog. You'll see amazing pictures of scenery, Diana's "sista sojourners," lions, native birds, and you'll even (almost) see a picture of a giraffe!

South African Sojourn