Our First Book Fair

Eric and I have been online booksellers for thirteen years, but the 2010 NOBS (Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society) book fair in Akron marked the first time we packed up the treasures and put them on exhibit. Each year we were asked whether we would set up a booth, but always I demurred, mumbling something about it being “too hard on the books.” The truth was much blunter -- I flat-out wasn’t ready.

I had devoured enough books about bookselling in the grand old tradition to know that even being a voracious reader does not bestow qualification. The bookseller’s path is long and arduous with few markers along the way to measure enlightenment. Even now I haven’t a clue whether or not I know enough, primarily because I still can’t define “enough.” All I know is that this year when the application arrived I felt like maybe it was okay to show up and hang a shingle.

Whenever I try to describe the show itself it’s easy to veer toward the histrionic, so I’m going to make a big effort to contain myself here. Let’s just say that, for me, the fair was a giant coming of age party. From the moment I stood back and admired our books all shined up and ready for perusal I was zapped with an endorphin jolt that lasted the entire two days. Think Christmas when you’re six, falling in love, the arrival of your children, skyrockets on the Fourth of July -- and then put a party hat on the whole shebang and pop a champagne cork. Better yet, just imagine yourself in orbit!

From the first sale of the show, School Architecture; Or Contributions to the Improvement of Schoolhouses in the United States, to the last, a first edition Mark Twain, we engaged in conversations that ranged from my crush on Elbert Hubbard to the Lost Generation with a leisurely segue into Salvador Dali’s cookbook and the beauty of machining catalogs from the 1920’s. What exquisite pleasure it was to turn off the internet for awhile and connect in person with readers, among whom I discovered two online customers, one from Georgia, and the other from right next door in Wadsworth.

In several ways the fair reminds me of that famous line attributed to Goethe, “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” In today’s electronic world it is supremely bold to offer three-dimensional books for sale in their time-honored state, yet powerful too, as we quietly assert the need to hold the wisdom of the human continuum in the palms of our hands. As for magic, the books themselves are magical to those who love them. Books inform, entertain, comfort, embolden and inspire us. But I must admit that I did notice one other sneaky little magical aspect that is a bit less lofty. Books that are packed up to go to the fair, no matter how long they’ve hung around, are imbued with immense desirability for online customers once inside a packing crate. Ditto on the return of the unsold ones. But transfer those same books from the packing crates to their former shelves and –poof! – no more fairy dust until next year.