Humoring the Book Gods

I had planned to post yesterday, but it didn’t happen thanks to eleven large obstructions on my family room floor. Perhaps you will recall my comment that the book gods were highly amused that I’d used an e-reader ad to make a card for the gift basket I’m taking to the Akron Antiquarian Book Fair next month. I also said that I was expecting a big pay-off for having provided them with so much frivolity. Well – GUESS WHAT? I got my pay-off and it was almost immediate. I posted the comments on Saturday and Sunday night Eric called from Michigan to tell me he’d just bought eleven large wooden crates of books from a dealer at the show who was liquidating his inventory due to health issues. The squeals of delight from Ohio could be heard in Siberia.

Even the four figure price tag didn’t faze me because of where they came from. The show’s focus was history and antique firearms, so I knew the topics would all be guns, fur trade and Rev War – and that’s exactly what they are. I especially love gun books – not guns, gun BOOKS. I’ve sold so many of them over the years they’re like old friends when they turn up. Immediately I spotted Hutslar’s Gunsmiths of Ohio: 18th and 19th Centuries, Winant’s book on Pepperboxes, and several of Wilson’s Colt books. The thing with gun books is after awhile you can gauge their value by sight even if you’ve never seen them before. So I immediately got excited over A Treatise on Ammunition and Scottish Arms Makers. Had there been any floor space left I’d have been whirling, twirling and throwing confetti.

The downside was I had to wait a whole agonizing day to finally see them. Normally Eric would have been home Monday morning, but he stopped in Sylvania to help our younger daughter paint the upstairs of her house so they can sell it, as they’re moving to DC in June. All day I felt like a Mexican jumping bean, so when he finally got here I actually followed him in and out of the house like a puppy eleven times! Of course when you get that many books at once the temptation is to cherry pick the very best off the top. But if I’ve learned anything in all these years it’s that cherry-picking is the biggest mistake you can make. What happens is you pull off the good stuff and the middling books become chopped liver by comparison and the low end ones never get dealt with at all. So I refrained. It wasn’t MY fault that a few good ones “jumped the gun” (ha-ha) and landed in my hand.

Monday night we just generally looked them over, but by yesterday it became evident that they had to be dealt with ASAP unless we wanted to pick our way to the furniture, Eric’s office and the back doors indefinitely. So first thing in the morning I got to work and sorted everything into three fluid categories – online, antiques mall, and store. I say fluid because checking online prices even for familiar items meant that the piles shape-shifted and not always in expected formations. It took all day, but I finally can walk through the room again. Eric hauled the store stuff out this morning and I have the antiques mall stuff stashed in the closet and the online stuff up in my office. We won’t discuss the intricate maze this created in said office, but I did list and shelve ten books yesterday. They were easy though because they’re already in my database. All I had to do was change the price and/or description where needed and reactivate them.

I can’t wait to get over to the antiques mall with the new goodies, but will exercise some self-control and deal with the leaning tower at my left elbow first. Besides, I hear thunder and – ohmygod-- the warning siren as I write this. But the book gods did great and deserve a shout-out for their efforts. In fact, I’m wondering if maybe I should perfect a stand-up routine to keep them laughing all the time. Ellen DeGeneres, move over.