Books Do Furnish A Room

Homebase and Atypical Descriptions

2006-05-24T09:19:37-05:00

During our Homebase database crisis I did download our listings from ABE. It was a revelation.Have you ever wondered how book descriptions come to be Unknown/Unknown?Not long after starting to sell used books online I stopped using standard terms like...

Damaged Homebase Database

2006-05-24T08:44:16-05:00

The power went out one night. We leave Homebase open and the computer crash - I guess it took the UPS past the battery's limit - put some microscope dent in the Homebase data file.I don't have a copy of...

Dematerialization of the Book

2005-12-13T19:24:47-05:00

I remember back when I was a Wired reader (a very long time ago) waiting for the dematerialization of the book. It hasn't happened yet. (And who would trade scholarly reference books for Wikipedia entries?) But: U.S. publisher HarperCollins said...

Scooter Libby's Collectible Novel

2005-11-08T16:30:36-05:00

Another transitory “collector's item.” Remember when Lynne Cheney's softly lesbian Sisters was hotly sought after? An inscribed copy of The Apprentice: A Novel, which Libby wrote in 1996 when he was a relative unknown outside Washington, was on sale on...

Good Riddance to Summer

2005-09-07T15:58:22-05:00

This was an unprecedentedly bad summer for Books Do Furnish A Room. I'm not sure it was actually unusually hot here in Durham, NC but everyone - my partner aside - seemed to think it was.Given that all three of...

The strange fetish for first editions

2004-10-08T06:47:53-05:00

A look at the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers congress in Melbourne. How can any old book be worth nearly half-a-million dollars when the same thing brand spanking new is sitting on the paperback classics shelf for less than $30?...

Customers who aren't customers

2004-09-29T14:26:49-05:00

Tales of a Bitchy Used Bookshop OwnerLast Sunday was forlorn. There were so few visitors you might've thought The Rapture had arrived and a bunch of sinners had been grabbed in error along with the saved.And mostly visitors they were,...

21st Anniversary

2004-09-04T16:34:25-05:00

Having eight weblogs means that at least one will inevitably be neglected from time to time. Today's the shop's 21st birthday. The date never registers until somebody reminds me that the Labor Day weekend is upon us. In the era...

Reading for pleasure, what an odd notion

2004-08-15T17:08:42-05:00

This afternoon a girl, I could say a young woman but trivial hypocrisies do mischief, came in the shop looking for a copy of Lolita. Too my eye she looked sixteen at most but was in conspicuous health and had...

No textbooks, never!

2004-08-10T16:43:30-05:00

Summer and mysteriously the weeks just before Christmas are the times people are most apt to call about selling us their unwanted books. Summer is the heaviest buying season. Also the worst selling season. More people offer books but our...

Who underlines in a James Bond novel?

2004-07-18T08:08:30-05:00

From my business partner: Here's a couple of items that might be worth sharing with the readers of your bookselling blog. #1- Prejudice. I'm guilty of a certain kind of profiling. When some young women say they have books they...

Honest people

2004-07-08T15:18:55-05:00

We have a small bookcase on the porch where we stuff the books we don't think are worth trying to sell. Commonplace worthwhile books that are too heavily marked up and books whose merit ended when the publisher sent the...

Some books go in the trash

2004-06-28T17:48:02-05:00

I was standing on the porch smoking a cigarette when Yance, our clerk, asked me where I'd put the Rush Limbaugh books. “In the trash!” was my reply. I didn't know that a customer I couldn't see had asked. Not...

Present this card at time of purchase

2004-05-31T16:25:20-05:00

In the early days we started collecting customer addresses from checks to build a mailing list. Later we created a sign-up sheet that sits on our counter. Mostly we sent out announcements of our seasonal sales. During sluggish springs we...

Describing used books

2004-05-27T15:34:36-05:00

My first job in a used bookshop consisted mostly of quoting books against want lists. Within three months of starting to sell online I dropped “F/F” or even “Fine/Fine.” We don't have that many rare titles and I got tired...

S l o w . . . .

2004-05-10T15:08:26-05:00

Business has been dismal for us of late. Online and walk-in. Some of the latter is readily explained. Most Duke students are getting ready to go home for the summer. Always slow week or two there. I've come to take...

A used bookdealer's weblog

2004-03-26T16:25:09-05:00

After the generous mention of this weblog on BookFinder I posted something like this, then junked it. Not sure why.Anirvan's pointer has rippled out into blogspace and I find lots of folks have kindly added this weblog to their blogrolls...

Nigerian wholesale book order scam

2004-03-02T09:18:57-05:00

Classic example of Nigerian bookdealer scam email. The best thing about it was the message purported to be from one Cream Beyonce, surely a name better reserved for an adult film star.GOODDAY i would be placian order for Title: Textbook...

Of customers and bags

2004-02-01T17:53:38-05:00

I used to enjoy watching one customer tug his comics a couple of inches away from me after I totaled them. At first I was puzzled, eventually I realized that he didn't want me to put them in a paper...

My book is too tall

2004-01-03T17:05:52-05:00

A not unheard of question from someone browsing our stock online. The following inquiry was provided by this customer: This might seem like a crazy question, but I'm wondering how tall this book is. I have a hardcover edition which...

Xmas slump

2003-12-16T17:50:24-05:00

It hasn't been a merry xmas for us to date. Usually we get a thin ripple of extra browsers. Some looking for gifts others visiting only because they are out and about. Little of that this year. And I made...

So you like British authors?

2003-12-11T16:05:47-05:00

Some English fiction either never makes it to the US or only after a considerable delay. That is true of some belle lettres and other literary prose but it happens less often and fewer people care.I regularly come across UK...

Young man among his books

2003-12-01T07:55:15-05:00

This young man was originally Edifying Spectacle's logo (back when it was excitingly named “Richard Evans Lee's website”). I looked at hundreds of images of people reading books. Many were funny and we've used them for ads and bookmarks....

Among the travel, nature, cartoon, sports books

2003-11-30T06:53:19-05:00

On and off I'll be posting photos of the inside of the shop....

Holiday shopping

2003-11-27T18:35:56-05:00

I hate November. Or October. Mostly November. Sales suddenly vanish a couple of times a year. Ever since we opened February has been the worst month for walk-in sales (which used to be the only kind we once had). When...

Is that really what your bookshop looks like?

2003-11-27T17:37:06-05:00

I'd hoped to have made time for a couple of more substantive posts but instead I give you a glimpse of Books Do Furnish A Room's glamorous exterior....

Libraries and new book sales

2003-11-16T14:45:14-05:00

I keep meaning to write how I think the Internet will affect our used bookshop (aside having boosted our income for the last five years. For now I'll just post a link to a Japanese story that would make me...

Garfield (of all the damned things)

2003-11-09T14:10:01-05:00

Jim Davis’ products leave me cold. I’ve never made an effort to keep Garfield books in stock; they are cheap and common. Too often I find a customer asking for a book that I’ve stopped buying because I assume we...

Shoplifters

2003-11-03T17:23:20-05:00

Damn those shoplifters! I used to have friends who shoplifted. Never criticized them so I'm not going to be smug and huffy about the thieves that hit us. But they make days in the shop more complicated.It has been over...

Finding ISBNs

2003-09-20T16:43:50-05:00

I've been startled by the number of books that have incorrect ISBN's. Some don't even validate as checksums (mostly true of small, hobbyist publishers). Other times the IBSN is for the wrong book. When the cover ISBN is incorrect the...

Goodbye Clancy

2003-09-15T15:31:14-05:00

It was a trivial but satisfying act. I’m buying a modest collection of Sherlockiana. Our mystery section’s shelves are tight. So I grabbed all obese Tom Clancy hardbacks that have been taking up shelf space for too long, got my...

Buying odd old books is a gamble

2003-08-31T16:28:12-05:00

I'm buying books from a fellow who's cleaning out a couple of storage buildings. Clearly he's been buying odd lots at flea markets and yard sales. The books run from 40s juvenile series books (mostly the ones that aren't sought...

On being remembered by old customers

2003-07-14T16:06:49-05:00

Sometimes there are customers you like. They like you and remember you.Saturday, Gary Weisel dropped by. He was making his annual summer visit to Durham. He went to Duke, made friends here in Durham and comes back from Pennsylvania to...

Being curt

2003-07-14T14:53:15-05:00

”Do you know if you have any Sergio Mendes?” the customer innocently asked. “No I don’t” was my curt response.I must’ve been dead tired. Or upset because Edifying Spectacle was offline for several days because someone sucked up all of...

Agreeable urbanity

2003-06-12T12:55:09-05:00

My attention is so focused on online bookselling that at times I forget that I have a 2400 sq. ft. store for people to walk into (likewise I get so caught up with my personal weblog I forget about this...

Rather be a janitor?

2003-05-30T16:48:28-05:00

I wrote to my partner, Gordon: Silly as it may sound it always cheers me when I come in > and there are some interesting books to work on.His reply: I don't see anything silly about it. If we made...

Site of the week

2003-05-20T12:14:53-05:00

From this morning’s Technorati report I was surprised to find that this weblog is Aortal’s site of the week. This weblog was originally a category of my personal journal. Then I established it as a separate weblog. When I found...

Buying remainders & promotional books

2003-05-19T16:29:26-05:00

Before we started selling used books online we used to carry remainders. Books Do Furnish A Room is too small to devote space to remainder tables so they were shelved with the other books. Mostly I bought only books that...

Some people give us books

2003-05-18T11:02:58-05:00

Most people who sell us books are happy enough with our offer. A handful will get bitchy about how little I'm willing to pay for some books, particularly recent fiction. Nowadays if you even look like you might not be...

Seuss-isms for Success

2003-04-13T11:12:20-05:00

Recently I've seen books containing Kermit the Frog's advice on life and living and Winnie-the-Pooh repackaged as a self-help guru. This morning's surprise was Seuss-isms for Success : Insider Tips on Economic Health from the Good Doctor (Life Favors Series)....

Matches the ISBN exactly!

2003-03-22T16:47:00-05:00

Charles is away trying to reduce his Zoloft dosage. Last night I was home alone. As is commonly the case I wasn’t able to sleep and arrived at the shop a bit frazzled. I wrote 50¢ in books for the...

Gregson St. to Markham Ave.

2003-03-20T10:18:09-05:00

Written a couple of years ago. I may take a real stab at writing more about the history of Books Do Furnish A Room.After three years our little shop in Gregson Street was packed tight in all three dimensions. I...

My used bookshop: comics & vinyl

2003-03-18T13:21:12-05:00

I wrote about the beginnings of Books Do Furnish A Room sometime back.* We'd expanded the store, Siobhan left me and we'd added new comic books.Many more people bought comics back then. The day the new comics were released was...

Books/Records/Comics

2003-03-17T17:36:15-05:00

Books/Records/Comics began as a small space in a shabby building on September 3, 1983. Aside from myself there was my best friend Gordon and the woman that I'd been living with for almost five years. She was shortly to depart...

Walter Koenig 's Warped Factors

2003-03-13T17:07:19-05:00

This afternoon Gordon emailed me from the shop to say that the buyer of one of the Big Shot comics we’d sold on eBay was named Walter Koenig and lived in Hollywood.Gordon also emailed the guy to ask if he...

The man who wanted books

2003-03-13T12:04:35-05:00

This happened a couple of years ago.We have a bunch of books out on the porch for 50 cents each. Few good marks that have underlining, marginalia, highlighting, damaged bindings. Much of it is unsellable old mass market fiction and...

Nigerian Bible Scam

2003-03-13T08:11:30-05:00

Nigerian attempts to defaud used bookdealers continue:Good day, We intend to make and essential and perhaps urgent requied material which are stated bellow: King James Version (KJV), burgundy bonded leather with snap flap ISBN: 0529075229 and franklin electronic Bible kjv...

Used Book Weblog Revived

2003-03-13T07:26:21-05:00

I found that I stopped posting entries about my used bookshop when I killed the separate weblog and just made it a category in my personal journal. Today I'm reviving it in hopes that I will prove a more faithful...

The state of n/a

2003-01-27T09:33:20-05:00

I'm getting a book ready to go out. The customer has listed his state as "n/a." An odd place to live. Thanks to Google I easily discover that he's in Maryland. Maybe he isn't happy there. Later when Yance got...

Rock and Roll & "Rebellion"

2003-01-14T10:54:29-05:00

Rock and Roll Rebellion : Why People of Faith Abandoned Rock Music and Why They're Coming BackThat I sell awful books like this one is a proof that I'll sell anything. The book tells the stories of poor morons who've...

The dark side of the used book trade

2003-01-06T10:35:24-05:00

I read the headline “D.J. Enright Dies” so I go through and freshen our listing of his books. Bookselling is heartless. I always wanted to take more pleasure in his prose than I ever managed to....

Selling your used books

2002-12-23T11:03:32-05:00

A typical happening in a used bookshop: a man brought in several grocery bags of books he hoped to sell. The books were mostly mass market trash, Oprah�s Book Club selections; I found a half dozen I hoped I could...

Pricing Old SF Series Books

2002-12-15T12:57:24-05:00

Every so often I check prices on an odd old science fiction book or two to see if they are worth cataloging, i.e., I can reasonably ask $3.00. My luck is always spotty. Yesterday I check a volume at random...

Nigerian Bookdealer Scam

2002-12-08T22:28:56-05:00

An odd little Nigerian scam that is hitting online book dealers:Goodday, I will like to inform you that i will want you to make an order for me. 15 pieces of franklin electronic bibles:King James Version (KJV) ISBN No: 1567125336,...

The Secret Teachings of the Masonic Lodge

2002-12-01T15:18:48-05:00

I'm an atheist. I think the few Christians, faithful of any stripe, in the world the better the world will be. But I'll happily by the most ignorant and childish Christian books. The Secret Teachings of the Masonic Lodge by...

Doctor Who Books

2002-12-01T12:17:08-05:00

I didn't suspect I'd neglect this blog so much. When at the store I'm so distracted I never think to type anything in. When I get home the store is mostly out of my mind. Charles and I are cataloging...

A very short story

2002-09-23T15:00:35-05:00

Chapter 1 We were flying at 4424 feet when the thunderstorm hit, immediately we rose to 0100 feet then plummeted again down to 3362 feet the altimeter went crazy. Qnims are like that. Chapter 2 Finally we levelled out at...

Kind people and raccoons

2002-08-20T16:30:41-05:00
A hint of greed will sometimes stop me from buying someone's books. They'll bring in a box of recent hardcover fiction and assure me they are all First Editions. Hell, many books are overprinted in their initial pressruns and the...

Book Collecting

2002-08-19T15:13:32-05:00
(A comment on someone else's journal.) Some do it because they think have an early edition makes them closer to the author in some odd way. The original reason for preferring Firsts was that later editions were usually more corrupt,...

Not Prudential Kindness, Honestly

2002-08-18T13:01:18-05:00
A regular customer brought three old LPs to the counter this afternoon. I told him he could have them and handed him $25.00. I bought a big stack of books from him a couple of months ago. They proved to...

Going Postal

2002-05-02T06:54:54-05:00
Our domestic shipping rates are $3.00 for media mail and $5.00 for priority mail. Last week someone interpreted that as meaning that we charge $8.00 shipping per book....

Book of Dog Names : Heroic Hounds, Literary Lapdogs, Faithful Fidos, Courageous Canines & Precious Pooches

2002-04-04T09:31:50-05:00
Since I mocked the cat name book I guess I should mention this one. Suggested names range from Mr. Dog and Dash to [Washington] Irving and [Jawaharla] Nehru. The list reads like a byproduct of the hypothetical group of monkeys...

Wife for a Day

2002-04-04T08:34:38-05:00
Just noticed this trashy paperback we have sitting in our quarter book bin on the porch. What caught my eye was "Captivating, Heartwarming." - Romantic Times printed on the spine. Can't remember if I've seen a book's spine used for...

More Advice to the fellow who wants to sell used books

2002-03-30T05:48:53-05:00
Go to www.bookfinder.com and see all the online bookselling sites listed there. Bookfinder (using classic search) is a great way to price books. We sell the most through Amazon's Marketplace. The marketplace and zShops let you list used books on...

Opening a used bookshop

2002-03-28T19:47:42-05:00
Posted as a comment to a guy's Live Journal. >Hrm... what kind of used bookshop. I guess these are the things >people like me never think too hard about. I know every bookshop >has it's own character, each one is...

The Whole World Sings : The Fans Behind Barry Manilow

2002-03-28T10:08:43-05:00
Over 200 pages of sugary 'heart pounding ' gush about fans whose lives were magically made better by Manilow's music. The pornography of pop culture? I've just sold the third of the four copies I bought. Just call me a...

The Best-Ever Book of Dog and Cat Names

2002-03-26T09:04:09-05:00
Just sold this to a woman in SF who needs it sent out priority mail. I wouldn't want to leave my pet unamed. I called my first dog Dodo. Can't guess why my very young self named her after an...

Have Books, Will Profit

2002-03-22T11:32:29-05:00
Got the estimate for the shop's new door. $725. A bit more than I'd anticipated but probably not unreasonable. The guy has to adapt a 40" doorway to a 36" door. Gordon, being the landlord, has final say. Maybe we'll...