Daily Thoughts 5/22/2009

Society of Illustrators Poster, 1913

Daily Thoughts 5/22/2009

I have been reading reviews from the internet. I took some time to look at Powell's bookstore and The Strand Bookstore online. The Strand was showing Burn This Book Pen Writers Speak Out On The Power of the Word, Edited by Toni Morrison. The book looks very interesting. style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">

I also spent some time going over the patron request sheet for new titles and wrote down some suggested titles for ordering.

Today was another quiet day. I filed some law looseleafs, made a few business calls, and entered some orders into Baker and Taylor. I also reviewed the process of ordering phone books for the library with a part-time librarian. Phone books are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. I usually use Worldpages online to look up phone numbers. Also many of the directories like the Thomas Register of manufacturers have moved online http://www.thomasnet.com/ and are easier to use in the online form.

I have been keeping a diary for the week on what I am eating on the recommendation of the book Emotional Eating. Something I noticed was that I was spending too much time near the snack machine. I started bringing my own snacks to work to replace eating peanuts and chips from the vending machine. I'll have finished tracking my diet for a week by tomorrow. I tend to eat when I get bored or worried.

Morning Thoughts

19th Century Phrenology Chart. Nothing like a little pseudoscience.

Morning Thoughts

I have been looking at Baker & Taylor online for a little bit. They have a section of selection lists for libraries. I have been looking at their starred reviews lists of books as well as some of their specialized e-lists on different subjects. Some of them are useful for selecting items. Baker & Taylor is a very large book distributor. We buy most of our books through Baker & Taylor. So do a lot of the public libraries in the United States. We do our own technical processing.

I spent some time looking through the Strand Books website http://www.strandbooks.com/ . They are arranged very differently than Amazon or Barnes and Nobles. The Strand has a number of categories for books which are interesting like substance abuse and social work which are worth looking at. We have a fairly high demand for items in these categories.

I also took a few minutes and looked at the different categories at Powell's bookstores. Powell's is another megabookstore like the Strand. I find Powell's categories to be much more refined than Barnes and Nobles or Amazon. http://www.powells.com/psection/psection.html

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez has come in for me to read. I didn't realize until I picked up the book that the author also wrote Gil's All Fright Diner, a humourous horror novel about preventing the end of the world.

I am also thinking about what I am going to do for my Open Microphone Poetry Reading on Thursday. We moved the time down to 5:00-6:00 p.m., it really should be later, but there is no one who can fill in for the time slot.

Ending Powells List

I have decided to end my Powell's Affiliate List. After four months nobody bought a single book from the affiliate list. I thought that people would choose from both the affiliate list and the embedded amazon images. It turns out that nobody bought anything from the Powell's list. People have bought a few books from the embedded Amazon images. I am going to keep the Powell's search box in case someone wants to buy anything from there.

It was an interesting experiment. I thought that if I put up a sidebar with an alphabetical list of titles, then wrote about each title with an embedded image it would draw sales from both places. I have learned a bit about how people put together blogs to sell various things.

The thing which seems to work best for me is advertising; adsense and project wonderful (I am up to 44 cents with Project Wonderful halfway to a can of soda.) Maybe if I found something more expensive to advertise I would be better off selling a few items. However, I don't think camera equipment and laptops would match with my blog. I'll think about it some more.

I have to ponder some more on what it means to have a blog site with advertising on it. It does not seem to be that effective of a medium for sales. I may try to sell some book and information related gadgets.

I am off today because I am working this Saturday. I was off yesterday because of Presidents Day. This is the benefit of a government job.

I changed my sitecounter to sitemeter from statcounter. Statcounter starts charging for statistics once your site reaches a certain amount of visitors. I am not into paying for things.

Slow Day And The Independent Giant Bookstore.

Today will be a slow day. Both Steven Erikson's Bonehunters and George R.R. Martin's A Feast For Crows are giant books and will take quite a while to read. Now I understand why there are not as many reviews of these books. They are very long.

Barnes and Noble Booksellers used to have a used book annex in Manhattan, New York. It went out of business. I remember it as being mediocre compared to the Strand, the biggest bookstore in New York, which has become like a giant warehouse. Strand even sells used books by the foot as backdrops for movie, television, and plays. http://www.strandbookstore.com/. It is not uncommon to see people walking around Soho with Strand bookbags. It is a sign of literacy.

I go there sometimes to the basement to buy half price reviewers copies in hardcover. I used to go there before booksignings to pick up my half price copies to get signed.

They have an incredible variety of books. Almost anything you could want if you are a bibliofile. The shop is a tightly run union shop. Many of the people who work there, have worked there for years and have lots of experience in selecting books.

They have even opened an annex in the financial district and a downtown Manhattan kiosk.

I wish I had a chance to visit Powells books in Oregon. They are supposed to be the largest used bookstore in the world.

The other used bookstore I am going to mention which is massive is Logos books in Santa Cruz. For a while after the building was destroyed in the Santa Cruz earthquake, it was in a giant inflatable warehouse. It was actually kind of interesting to walk around in. I haven't seen the new store yet.

The common theme for these places is size and experience. They are putting many of the smaller independents in their areas out of business. The chains cannot complete with them in the used book business. Barnes and Noble really are focused on new books where a formula works.

It takes a certain amount of skill to sort through older books, identifying the collectible and rare books, the regular used books, the bargain books, and the unsalable garbage, then pricing and grading them appropriately.

If you are ever in Manhattan and feel nostalgic, I am going to recommend Roger's Time Tunnel, a very old school comic book shop. 207 W 14TH St Ste 2New York, NY 10011-7105Phone: (212) 691-0380 .

Ring the doorbell. They are on the second floor and will buzz you in. They don't have a website, but if you are looking for a place to find the very old, odd, or unusual comic book, it is a good place to go. They also have movie stills, magazines, paperbacks, pulps, posters, and a variety of other things. If you feel nostalgic and are into this kind of thing and like a fanboy atmosphere, it is a great place to visit. Their pricing and willingness to buy and sell is very good.

When there was still an outdoor flea market in New York around 20th avenue, I used to pick (search for bargains) at the flea markets and bring in comic books and other items for trade there.

Anyways, I added my first widget, http://www.fuelmyblog.com/ . They were nice enough to ask about my site.

I am looking for other widgets or links that aren't too complicated right now. I just added a fish tank. A lot of bookstores have a cat. So Book Calendar now has a fish tank...