*booksellering* ... I'm also coining new words.
I was apparently enthusiastic enough about this 10+ year old book that the publisher lowered the price -- why the largest book retailer in the world is selling it for $100 online is a mystery.
Oles's argument is pretty straightforward, & I think profound: what would an ethical wall look like and do? I was intrigued not least because even though the premise itself *feels* wrong, the enduring reality of walls into even prehistory gives the question weight.
It's perhaps an unhealthy thing, but I like to present myself with booksellering challenges. Currently, mine is to sell an undetermined (but not extravagant) number of copies of Thomas Oles's WALLS.
ebbooksellers.com/item/1TXKFZJ...
Absolute ghouls.
Chemical warfare....
We recently got our first tariff bill … for *squints at the bill* “leashes & muzzles.”
“I need this,” said the customer.
“You will still need it when it’s out sometime next month,” I replied.
I have this habit of handselling books we don’t currently have. It’s a terminal condition, but what isn’t, ultimately.
Yesterday’s version of this was pitching Alice Butler’s book on the diaries and letters of Cookie Mueller & Kathy Acker.
ebbooksellers.com/item/ZqRHd6W...
Love it when old friends make a trip to see our new digs.
Nationwide sale figures show that the bulk of what we hang our hat on is less popular than it was … or has been in a while. Naturally, our response is to find yet more hats to hang on these same pegs.
A new addition to the store website.
See the whole thread.
To be fair, I’m counting “I’ve heard about you!” as both meeting that criteria and a positive thing.
Not gonna lie, it was nice that even just a few more people at this weeks bookselling conference knew us for something other than a total-loss conflagration.
One of us is definitely a hit at parties.
At this week's bookselling conference in Pittsburgh did at least one of us talk to multiple people on multiple days about multiple university press books, detailing w/ a dilettante's enthusiasm, our current fascination w/ the environmental & social history of photography? Friends, you know we did.
An EBB truism: if you give us a live microphone at a bookselling conference, we will rant about distribution.
Inspired by Alysa Liu, we’ll be shouting “That’s what I’m fucking talking about!” at the close of every session of this week’s bookselling national conference (“Winter Institute”).
The insider bookseller industry term for this kind of purchase is "a helluva haul!"
A friend from out of state visited today (Hi, Caroline!), and reported, “This place looks bigger than the pictures
online."
You heard it here: East Bay Booksellers, we're bigger than we look online.
It doesn't happen every day, but there are some when a customer decides they need to learn what the fuss is all about re: Chateaubriand. & you smile.
2/26 join us at Local Economy for a reading from 2 new translations of Kim Hyesoon’s poetry. Cindy Juyoung Ok & @daybreakjung.bsky.social will read their translations, followed by a conversation with @rokwon.bsky.social. Book sales by @ebbooksellers.bsky.social. Register at buff.ly/BT7bzGn
Waiting for Emerald Fennell’s “Moby-Dick.”
It goes without saying -- we think -- we hope -- that these these are but a tiny array of what's actually coming -- chosen, not wholly at random, but surely with a fair does of caprice.
FINALLY updated the Coming Soon feature on our website. Made it more prominent, too, n hopes that this compels us to update it regularly!
ebbooksellers.com
East Bay Booksellers is for lovers, certainly. A few haters, probably. The nonplussed, often. The horny; the tired; the wired; the maybe just a little excitable; and even the coolest of cucumbers.
So, Happy Valentine’s Day, to all who do! Enjoy your weekend, to most! Good day, to all!
I say — out loud(!!) — to no one in particular (if at all) — “Dang, we have some interesting stuff!” — to a degree that is possibly unseemly.
But who wants a seemly bookstore, after all?
