Mellow in Medina

Here it is Thursday already and almost time for the weekend acquisition parade. There are very few books available at the estates this week, so my anticipation is sub-zero. As it turns out, we didn’t go to Cincinnati after all . Eric had been keen on it originally and I less so, then he talked me into it, then I talked myself out of it, and then last Friday’s terrible estate sale first made me feel desperate to go and later deepened my suspicions that it was a bad idea. Finally, on Monday, Eric changed his mind too. We decided that if a formerly stupendous sale like Case Western Reserve University’s experienced a sharp decline in donations this year, a township library system probably isn’t staggering under the weight of collectibles either. It would have cost upwards of $300 to go, which we could easily call entertainment ,at least in part, but in the end it really wasn’t worth it.

So I keep listing and the books keep disappearing. What’s very interesting to me is that my secret site, which does not normally outperform the book sites, is steamrolling ahead of alibris ten to one which makes me begin to think that it might be time to ditch alibris and put more muscle behind the victor. I think what’s happened here is that the more I move toward antiquarian and collectible books and ephemera the smaller my share of the alibris customer base becomes. I’m okay with it really because it’s just one less place to worry about. So far this month I have sold them ONE book so it’s not like I’m in danger of losing a small fortune. I’ve been with ABE since 1997 and with alibris  since 1999, but to tell you the truth I could walk away happily from the latter which of course I  may l be doing if things don’t pick up. ABE meanwhile has been good and Biblio better than normal (though never brisk) with several three figure sales.

The one thing I’ve learned in these fifteen years in the book biz is that change is inevitable and to stay alive you have to keep reinventing yourself. I remember thinking when I first started that the whole thing was pretty darn easy and I’d do it forever just exactly as I was doing it then. It’s laughable I know, but I did think it. Since then of course I’ve experienced  so many tweaks and turns that the only  thing I know for sure  is that I’ll be tweaking and turning until the final chapter ends. And so will everybody else.

On the bright side I’m feeling kind of mellow today. It’s high summer here – a little hotter than I’d like, but pretty glorious. It has me thinking Shakespeare (“Can I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate ...") and showers of golden sonnets set against  the lush backdrop of a rip-roaring BBC production with rolling green hills, blue skies, and endless fields of wildflowers

Last night we embarked on Part One of our 42^nd wedding anniversary celebration by packing a picnic – pasta salad on a bed of fresh baby spinach, a bakery baguette, fresh fruit salad, and a bottle of a Spanish wine that we’d gotten as a gift (I don’t recommend the latter – too fruity, too bitter, too something)  and heading to Blossom Music Center in Akron which is also home to the Porthouse Theatre. We chose the theatre and had tickets for Damn Yankees which is a sillier than usual play of the musical theatre genre, but still great fun. What’s not to love about a wickedly funny devil, a gaggle of cute little kids from the area, dancing baseball players, and that old song You Gotta Have Heart?

Part Two of our celebration will be Friday. Eric is taking the whole day off so we can shop for the things needed for our upcoming house renovation project followed by a dress-up dinner in the evening. I’m not sure where we’re headed, but there’s one requirement - - it absolutely, positively must have salmon on the menu.

So. There’s what’s happening here. I was a little disappointed that more of you didn’t chime in about the state of acquisition on my last post, but I really didn’t think you would. Maybe it’s all been said before. Maybe you aren’t experiencing it. I don’t know.  Here in northeastern Ohio it’s a huge problem, but for now just call me Scarlett.

I’ll think about it tomorrow.

No, I won’t either.

Maybe Saturday.