Daily Thoughts 6/10/2009

The Harper Brothers founders of Harper & Publishers and Harpers magazine.

Daily Thoughts 6/10/2009

I went to Roger's Time Machine today which is on 207 West 14th Street in Manhattan on the second floor. It is one of those places that exists because of word of mouth. I went there to get a magazine box to store some of my older graphic novels.

I also bought a few comics to read. He always offers very fair prices. I have been going there for many years. I bought a few copies of The Escapist, a six part mini-series based on a character from the book, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay written by Michael Chabon. It is a self reflective series about writing comics in addition to a story about a superhero.

In addition, I bought the first three issues in the comic, Keith Laumer's Retief printed in 1987 by Mad Dog Graphics. This is also based on the science fiction novels of Keith Laumer. I enjoy reading comics that are based on books. It creates a different view of what a story looks like. If you wanted to read a graphic novel with a little more literary bent, you might try Remembrance of Things Past, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 based on Marcel Proust's novels done by Stephanie Heuet and Stanislas Brezet.

I sat and read my comics at the Donut Pub downstairs while sipping coffee and having a cherry muffin. It was a pleasant thing to do on my last day of vacation.

Right now, I am reading The Thriving Library Successful Strategies for Challenging Times by Marylaine Block. It has many innovative ideas about libraries.

Daily Thoughts 5/15/2009

I like the idea that it cost 25 cents for the World Almanac in 1903.

Daily Thoughts 5/15/2009

Today is one of those oddly memorable days. The Friends of the Library are having a book sale. Every single time I go in to the book sale, I run into a book dealer I recognize. I am hoping that one of them will be able to help me get me the contact information on someone I lost track of. I used to spend time pricing science fiction titles at a now defunct bookstore.

Before I got married, I used to go out to the flea markets on the weekends to look for old comic books, science fiction books, and collectible paperbacks. I would buy them and trade them in for comic books. A lot of this kind of thing is dead in Manhattan now. I still stop by Rogers Time Tunnel sometimes to look at their collection. It is a very old fashioned comic book store. http://www.yelp.com/biz/rogers-time-machine-new-york . It is one of those hidden gems in New York if you know where to look.

It feels like a long tail end to the death of many of the smaller independent bookstores. Unless a bookstore becomes very focused and trains their staff very well, they cease to exist. It has gotten to the point where many of them are training their staff better at selecting material and customer service than the big chain bookstores in order to survive. I heard that some of the dealers would come in three times today to see what was being put out for sale at different points in the day, in the morning, at noon, and at the end of the day.

There is no generalist bookstore in the city where I work. There is a small christian bookstore. The library is effectively the local source for books. I think this is increasingly becoming true in many cities across the United States. You either travel to a large mall or superstore, buy through the internet, or go to your local library.

The cooperative system was putting in new computers in our computer center today. They are also expanding the wireless access points by September to handle up to 25 people. A lot more people are using Iphones in addition to laptops in the library. Once again, this is an indicator I should probably get an Iphone or a smart phone. It is a matter of spending money to do it. I don't like spending money.

I spent some time also distributing phone books to the staff. A lot of people have stopped using phone books and now use the online yellow pages. I know I do, but some patrons still ask for local phone books in paper. The providers of yellow pages have gotten much tighter about what they will give out. It costs money for us to get phone books outside of the county. Verizon now has a special subsidiary, Idearc to handle the marketing of telephone books. We also have an extra supply of local phone books which we leave out for patrons to take.

I did my usual small tasks, reading the New York Times Book Review, filing law looseleafs, checking the displays to see that they were in order, and took some time to look at the slat walls. We are almost done ordering accessories for the slat walls. They look very nice. A whole set of new books are being processed to go out.

The large print standing order is being gone over by our representative. I reminded them to look at the Essence bestseller list for African American titles to see what was available in large print.

I read some of Emotional Eating A Practical Guide to Taking Control by Edward Abramson. I don't like the idea of dieting. My doctor told me I must lose weight and eat less sugar if I want to maintain my health. I initially tried to change the way I am eating, I have cut out most sweets, soda, and extremely fatty food. I am also trying food substitution, eating low fat foods like low fat milk, low fat cottage cheese, and low fat mayonnaise as well as eating more fruits and vegetables. I am also exercising. Quite frankly, I don't like moving quickly. I am doing floor exercises and walking but don't want to run or swim. I am trying to find ways around the cardiovascular exercise by trying a pedometer to see how I can move during the day.

The next obvious step is trying to find out why I eat too much emotionally. I have always thought diets were useless, but I have to lose weight. This means I have to change my habits and how I think about food.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (A Trip to the City)

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (A Trip to the City)

I read the Ten Roads to Riches on the way into the city on the subway. Then I finally got to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. There was a five dollar fee to enter. I found out the comics library was still in upstate New York in storage. Still, it was really interesting looking around the exhibit of Kim Deitch's works. There was original art work from Gothic Blimp Works, an underground tabloid comic done in 1965. Later that day when I visited Roger's Time Tunnel, a comic book store, Roger told me that the last time he had seen a copy of Gothic Blimp Works was seven years ago. He showed me a few listed on ebay with a $120 starting bid.

There were also pages from Boulevard of Broken Dreams, a graphic novel which we have at our library. One of Deitch's characters that is very interesting is Waldo, a kind of psychedelic version of Felix the cat. There were also a variety of other works throughout the room, including color pages from Fontaines Fables. It was a very interesting exhibit.

This is a short video from Youtube interviewing Kim Deitch at the MOCCA opening reception. His frenetic energy also shows in his art work.

After I went to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, I went to Housing Works Used Book Cafe and looked around for a bit. They had an interesting young adult paperback which I bought. Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. It is c2007 by Scholastic for half cover price $3.50. I just couldn't hlep myself. It is a perfectly wicked title. It is worth having just for the cover.

I had a chance to walk through the village. I stopped in the Strand Bookstore and used the bathroom. It is often hard to find decent bathrooms when you are walking around New York. I was going to stop in Forbidden Planet, but when I went inside, it was so packed that I could not walk three feet without bumping into a person.

I then walked down to Roger's Time Machine. I have to give them a plug. Roger always gives me a very nice deal when I buy comics from him. Today, I bought Andromeda #6 Alan Dean Foster Special issue c1979, Star Reach #7 c1977, Myth Adventures #2, 3, 4, and 6 by Warp Graphics based on the novels by Robert Asprin and drawn by Phil Foglio for $19 total which is a very good price. The store had a lot of people coming in right before thanksgiving.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rogers-time-machine-new-york

Morning Thoughts

Morning Thoughts

I am hoping to get a chance to travel into Manhattan today. I would like to visit the Strand Bookstore. Not far from the Strand Bookstore is Forbidden Planet, so I should be able to get a chance to go to both a bookstore and a comic book shop today.

I will be heading through Grand Central station. They have Posman books there. It is one of the best organized and cleanest bookstores I have ever seen. Everything always seems to be in its place there. I occassionally pick up a paperback science fiction book from there. They don't have the hugest selection, but a lot of what they do select for the customer is well chosen.

I took the train into grand central after doing some morning chores. It was pleasant going into Manhattan. I just sat this time and didn't read. Sometimes it is soothing listening to the clicking of the wheels.

I got to the village and got off the fourteenth street stop. First I went to Forbidden Planet. It has a very different feel than it used to have. They now have an open upstairs where they sell games and manga. It was fun going upstairs because it was kind of nostalgic looking at all the different dice and games.

I looked around downstairs as well. They had quite a few different comic books with a very large alternative comic books. I noticed that the large format collected graphic novels for DC are called Showcase Presents. I also took a look at the science fiction paperbacks. They have an awful lot of series paperbacks like Star Trek, Star Wars, Iron Man, and quite a few superhero novels.

They even had a superhero mass market paperback called The Judge Dredd Omnibus. I used to love reading Judge Dredd before Sylvester Stallone took the role of the main character for the movie and and nearly wrecked the franchise completely with his terrible acting.

After I went to Forbidden Planet, I went to the Strand Bookstore. The Strand Bookstore has changed and improved itself. It bought the second story of the building it was in and expanded the art books to the second floor as well as the childrens books. There is also a nice new elevator to all four floors in the bookstore. I remember when they had a tiny little unisex bathroom that was always filled with graffiti. They put in two new clean bathrooms.

I was not impressed with the selection of science fiction books. It did not have that good of a selection. However, they had a very nice selection of graphic novels, focusing mainly on comics literature and alternative comics. I bought a copy of a graphic novel, In Odd We Trust written by Queenie Chan and Dean Koontz, illustrations by Queenie Chan. It looks interesting, it was also very affordable, $5.50, half the cover price of $11.00. Their graphic novel section seems to not compete that much with Forbidden Planet because it does not have the same focus.

I also looked through the fantasy art section of the Strand and bought a large oversized book called Fantasy of the 20th Century, An Illustrated History, By Randy Broecker for $11.95, the price on the cover is $19.95. They seem to be able to sell many of their books at a deep discount. At one time, they even sold reviewers copies mass market paperbacks at half cover price. I noticed that they stopped doing this, except for in specific sections. Now, they sell trade paperback and hardcover reviewers copies at half price. This is quite a good deal.

If you look around the store, you can find interesting bargains. I bought two copies of journals with Cat In The Hat covers for $3.95 each. I also bought a copy of Best Loved Tales of Beatrix Potter for $7.95 which contains four Beatrix Potter books. It seems like I went on a brief spending spree.

When I walked down the block to see if the Astor Place Barnes and Nobles was still there, I noticed that it had closed its doors. I asked someone when this had happened. They told me "about three months ago."

After going into the newly renovated Strand, I can see why other local bookstores could not compete with it. I also noticed that they had renovated the bag check area so it was easier to take and give back bags as well as added a whole new set of merchandies with the store logo. Their website is pretty well done as well. http://www.strandbooks.com/

After I was done going to the Strand, I walked down to 7th Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan. I wanted to go to Rogerst Time Tunnel. If you look up on the second floor on 7th Avenue there is an awning which says Rogers Time Tunnel, Nostalgia. I hadn't been there for two years. When I went inside, it looked as if nothing had changed.

It was like stepping back in time two years. Roger, the owner of the store, asked me if I still new about the store in New Utrecht which had old magazines for sale. I said I didn't. It really didn't matter. It was pure nostalgia for me. He also said, except for my taking care of the paperbacks to make sure they were priced and in order, nothing had changed. I used to pick up collectible paperbacks for trade for him as well as old magazines. I haven't done this for a very long time.

I took a few minutes to go through the ground level comic books. I picked out four copies of Andromeda which is a science fiction comic book from the 1980's. No. 1 features James Tiptree's The Man Who Walked Home, No. 2 features A. E. Van Vogt's Process, No. 3 features Arthur C. Clarke's Exile of the Aeons, and No. 4 features Jack Vance's Narrow Land. Narrow Land was my favorite story of all four of these. It tells the story of conflict between different groups of amphibious egg laying bipeds with different head crests. I read these on the train coming home.

There was also a free sample comic preview of The Stand by Stephen King which is coming out in comic book form soon. I enjoyed my brief visit to Manhattan.

Right next to Roger's is a small donut cafe called The Donut Pub. It has been at its location since 1964. The donuts and coffee really are quite good. The clientele is a bit shabby, but I still like to sit and read comic books there sometimes and sip coffee. I got a blueberry crumb cruller and a cup of coffee and sat and read the sample comic preview of The Stand.

Thoughts for the Day, Blog Promotion (Entrecard, Fuelmyblog, Blogcatalog)

Today, I walked down to my local library in my neighborhood. It is nice being in a neighborhood, living in a house, not a giant an apartment building. Houses are much more livable than giant apartment buildings. Like many neighborhoods, my home neighborhood has a library, but not a bookstore. I am not sure if there ever was a neighborhood bookstore. If there was, it was here long before my time. If you want to go to a bookstore, you have to get in your car or take a bus a decent distance to the local mall. There is a Barnes & Noble there but no independent bookstore.

I have to go into Manhattan to go to the big bookstores. I rather like going to the Strand. I also like going to Housing Works Used Book Cafe. The store is very beautiful with tall ceilings and a wooden balustrade. All of the proceeds go to help keep homeless people with AIDS off the streets. Some of the local publishing houses donate their review copies to be sold there. Their selection is very good. http://www.housingworks.org/usedbookcafe/

If I am going to the Strand in Manhattan, I will also stop off at Forbidden Planet to look at the science fiction, fantasy, and comic art books. I haven't been in a while. If I have time after that, I might wander down to Roger's Time Tunnel, a very old school comic book shop. I like looking at the movie stills in Roger's shop, not just the old paperbacks and old comic books.

I could also go online and order a book from Amazon or Powell's but it still wouldn't be my local bookstore. I miss the small neighborhood bookstores. There are still small neighborhood libraries which I am glad exist. Some people claim that the neighborhood library is not necessary, but if there are no longer neighborhood bookstores in many small American communities where are community members going to go to read or get books if there is neither a library or a bookstore. Are they going to go online and order a book from one of the giant commodity bookstores?

Anyways, I first went in the morning, the library was closed before one o'clock so I dropped my books in the book slot and peered through the window. Sometimes if the book cart is positioned wrong, the books slide off the cart onto the floor. Most of the time this doesn't happen. My books were on top of the cart.

Later in the day, I came back and went inside. I looked around and asked for the seven books on the Mythopoeic awards list. They did not have a single one of them. It was a slight disappointment. I'll get some of them tomorrow.

Everything these days is merchandised in todays library. They break portions of the collection into little shelving units, humor, biography, graphic novels, new books, new travel books, and many different categories. The main advantage of this is that it becomes easier for patrons to find categories of books they want. The disadvantage is the people shelving the books have a dozen different places to put the books and it is much easier to misshelve items.

I had today off because of Martin Luther King's Birthday, I usually get Monday off when I work on Saturdays, but Monday we were closed so I got Tuesday off as well. This is one of the benefits of being a government worker. I know Wall Street was open on Martin Luther King's birthday. In a way, it would be better if it was a national holiday for everyone because of what it represents, but the United States still holds to a certain views that don't match with how many people are acting.

On Wednesday of last week, someone asked for the speech, "I Have A Dream," by Martin Luther King on tape or video. We had the audiocasette of the speech, but it was part of a nine hour long collection of audiotapes, none of the tapes were labelled with what was on each tape. So, searching for a one and a half minute speech would not have been practical. It was rather odd.

A lot of audiocasette and cd companies that make nonfiction audios don't label what is on each individual tape. Imagine if you would, that you were listening to the unabridge bible on audiocasette, there were 66 tapes, and you wanted to find a specific passage or book of the bible. It would be incredibly hard. I imagine with nonfiction MP3s, it would be much easier, because you can check each track of the MP3.

We pulled the speech off of Youtube. The teacher was going to play the audio of the "I Have A Dream" speech over the loudspeakers at the local schools in the morning.

There really wasn't anything which I wanted to pick up to read at my local library today. I am pretty picky about what I want to read. This is why I place so many books on reserve and wait for things.

I still am taking some time to read selections from Rumi. I have been flipping back and forth in the book, reading a poem or two every day.

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I focus on three sites for blog promotion, Entrecard, Blogcatalog, and Fuelmyblog. I am going to make a few suggestions and thoughts about each one.

Entrecard is basically a business card network, where you display a small picture on your blog for advertising purposes. I try and focus on specific categories in entrecard. This means, I focus on relevant categories in the ad network for my blog; books. writing and literature, and the environment mostly.

My Entrecard page: http://entrecard.com/user/922/

With entrecard, one of the first things I do is make sure my ads are going to be running. I cancel any advertisers who don't choose to run my ad within three days. This keeps my ad list clean. I also check each blog which is going to advertise on my blog for objectionable content. I feel it is best to click each day on the blogs which are going to advertise on my blog, as well as the blogs who have visited my blog. I generally advertise in the Books Category and Writing and Literature Categories first. I spend all of my points on these two categories.

My page on blog catalog: http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/wehireu

With blogcatalog, I join groups focused on my interests, I am a member of 10 groups, Writers and Writing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Popular Science, Book Readers, English Literature, Eco Friends, Dialogue Raises Consciousness, Comics and Graphic Novels, Anime and Manga, and Entrecard Group. These are not general groups, they are groups focused on what my blog is writing about. They are not generic groups designed to ask for reviews.

Every day I check to see who is reading my blog. I don't just randomly add websites to my friends list. I also checked the directory in my categories, Art & Entertainment-- Books, Art & Entertainment-- Comics, and Writing. I added many of the blogs which were the top blogs in their categories to my friends list. If I find a blog which I like in the directory, I will look to see who is friends on their blog and add the blogs which I like from their list.

Fuelmyblog:

I don't get as much traffic from fuelmyblog. But, one of the first thing I do everyday is check to see who has recommended my blog, then give them a positive recommendation in turn. This has let me build up a recommendation list of 31 blogs. It has also put me in the top category position. Once again, I focus on checking three categories, Books/Writers, Entertainment, Art/Design. I try to look through a blog category each day and make a recommendation for one blog. This adds up quickly.