Author: Benjamin L. Clark

So, you understand I wasn’t just sitting around all winter waiting for the blog to unfreeze, I was up to a few things, and now I can finally share.

I started using Tumblr for things that don’t quite fit the format here.  The first is like the Exile Bibliophile blog but on tumblr, just like the blog only less wordy: http://exilebibliophile.tumblr.com/. Also, I should note completely different content than the blog.  Tumblr also makes it easy to run audio content, which is something I’ve wanted to do with Exile Bibliophile for a while — a podcast.  I know it’s very 2007 of me, but I can’t help it.  If I ever get one “in the can” as they say in the “biz”, I’ll be the first to tell you so.

I also started a Tumblr dedicated to library ink stamps —  http://libraryinkstamps.tumblr.com/, which has been surprisingly popular and features daily posts.   I’ve also started another dedicated entirely to errata slips http://fixedinprint.tumblr.com/ — this one is a little slower going, but is picking up steam.  The errata slip tumblr was created in response to a conversation on twitter and then it got out of hand.  You know how it is.

Of course, you can find me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BLClark

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After battling Google over a snafu with 2-step verification, I’m back!  Egads.  I’ll have a few old posts that never went up because of the lock-out, and updates too.

I have several updates in the hopper, but I’m hitting the road tomorrow for what will be a great time in Great Falls, Montana to be one of the speakers for their Festival of the Book series.  So, briefly, if you can catch me, please do at the Great Falls Public Library this Saturday at 2 pm.  They’ve also got some other good stuff lined up on other Saturdays, so check it all out.  More to follow.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on book trade labels, but believe me, they are never far from my heart.  Over Thanksgiving, the Mrs. and I took a pleasant trip to visit friends and our old stomping grounds in Oklahoma.  Luckily for me I was able to  include nearly all the surviving used and indie bookshops in Oklahoma City– and a new one!

I made quite a haul home in my suitcase, and had to ship a goodly sized box back to Montana as well.

One of the books I bought on an impulse was Barbara Hodgson‘s The Tattooed Map.  What initially caught my eye on the Clearance shelf at the new Half-Price Books in Edmond, Oklahoma was the Chronicle Books colophon on the spine– these folks put out wonderful books.  Always worth a flip through at the very least.

What a surprise when I did. It was a constant flow of beautiful ephemera reproduced throughout.  Then, closer to the back, bookseller labels started popping up.  I include here only three of the six.  They came out a little blurry.  I think my scanner is just too much for my rickety desk and that’s what’s causing that.  They really are beautifully reproduced in the book.  I found myself running my fingers over things and surprised it wasn’t pasted in.

Maps, books, and ephemera play an important role throughout the story, although it really isn’t about that.  Newspaper clippings, receipts, business cards, fold-out maps, are complimented with exact details (like library stamps on the backs of maps) and handwritten lists and notes throughout.

As a story, it didn’t blow me away, but it’s gotten better in my mind with a few days of perspective.  Hodgson has produced a few other books described as Illustrated Novels along similar principles, but this was my first.  Hodgson’s more recent book, Trading In Memories, about being an ephemera hunter sounds great!

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

I’ve started an Exile Bibliophile tumblr edition, in hopes to lay groundwork for a podcast.  So, I’ll have fewer of the posts like the previous here, but even more bibliophilic content in general.  You can find it here: http://exilebibliophile.tumblr.com/.  The tumblr will NOT replace or likely displace any posts here.  It’ll be business as usual on the blog, but even more goodies here: http://exilebibliophile.tumblr.com/.  So, check it out already!

It sounds like this is the final week for Borders stores to be open. I happened to find this tiny label last week amongst some books for another project I’ll talk about more soon. It was used to cover the printed price on the back of a trade paperback– I imagine they were used inside dust jackets as well at that time– my book was from 1992 (iirc). Really a tasteful solution to keep people from price clipping dustjackets or gouging off prices off the rear cover of a paperback. Now in my collection of book trade labels, though a little different. I like it. Anyone ever seen different varieties? Anyone seen a price-cover-up sticker/ label from another bookshop?

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I’m excited. I got my letter today from Humanities Montana officially inviting me to participate in the Montana Festival of the Book in October. It seems they’ve never had much from collectors, the people who celebrate books as objects, but more on texts, from the writer’s and reader’s perspectives. They’ve requested a Book Collecting 101 session/ workshop. More details to follow as we get a little closer to the conference and they figure out if I’m fish or foul. I wasn’t able to attend last year since I had another event at the same time and it’s on the other side of the state, and well, Montana’s big. From where I live in northeast Montana to Missoula (site of the MT Festival of the book) is something like 600 miles. One way. About the same distance as driving to Minneapolis. But, it’ll be worth it.

From Harry Basford Miller, How to advertise printing (1915)

www.archive.org/details/howtoadvertisepr00basfuoft

I found this series via LibraryThing, the best readers’ site on the web. Period. I managed to find all the books of the series via BookMooch or *very* cheap online. I read them all over about 2 weeks this fall, so it’s a little murky now.

The series basically boils down so:
Alex Plumtree inherits the multi-generation London-based book publishing company that allows a pretty comfy lifestyle. He’s close to his Father’s business partner and his old college roommate’s widow. Bad things ensue of varying bibliophilic endeavors.

The first one was pretty uneven. The second was not very good, but better than the first (as I recall). I accidentally picked up the fifth installment instead of #3 for one last go— and it was pretty good! Kaewert‘s writing improves and the story is better paced. There are a couple plot holes that are left open and one with a bonus character whose involvement with the villain is never explained.

The main romance element that runs through the series is ridiculous and feels forced in every book, but in #5 it gets an over the top explanation that works in context. Almost. Also in #5 Ed Maggs is a main character! I enjoyed it and went back to #3 with much less dread, and happily finished the series.

For me, one of the most important element to a bibliomystery is the biblio-element. It can’t simply be the McGuffin. It’s gotta be *real*. This is where Kaewert did a good job. The biblioness is deep and very real. And each book deals with a different element of the bibliosphere– fine printing, fine binding, collecting, incunabula, book collector societies, publishing, Bloomsbury, mysterious authorship, Pepys, etc. Julie Kaewert is a fellow bibliophile and I can certainly gloss over the few rough patches in the series to spend some time in this fun world where typography is a matter of life and death.

So all-in-all, the stories were good, and pretty enjoyable. This isn’t complicated stuff, but it was fun bed time reading for this bibliophile. Kaewert’s website reports a potential Plumtree prequel and perhaps even a new series. I’ll certainly watch for them.

I think I get it. I know, I’m probably the last blogger of the biblioblogosphere to talk about e-readers, but I think I just got it.

Obviously, I love books as things. The physical artifact. Paper, ink, boards, cloth, leather, all of it. I have not really understood the fascination with e-books. Until now. They seem pretty unsatisfactory, by and large, but are improving. I’ll also admit I have an ereader app or few on my iphone. I use Stanza for books from Project Gutenberg (30K+ titles for free!) and MegaReader for access to books from Archive.org (Over a million, all free!).

I’ve used it to read in line at the Post Office, etc., and occasionally for reading in bed when I’ve not planned well and my TBR pile has shrunk too low to suit whatever reading mood I’m in. I do not use it for my primary reading source, nor do I ever expect it to.

Enter a fantastic book I read this past week: A Book For a Sixpence by David Kaser. Kaser examines the history of subscription libraries in the US. This was part of the Beta Phi Mu chapbook series, which is a must-have for students of the history of the book. This is not exhaustive, nor does he make any claims of it being so. There were many places in Kaser’s study that prompted me to ask questions that no one has yet found answers to (I think). There is also a very good bibliography, index and a couple appendices listing known American circulating libraries before 1900. After a very cursory search through my limited records, I only found a few not listed in this 30 year old work, but I imagine records for such would be elusive at best, but searchability will improve as more institutional collections migrate online.

Reading this book made the light come on. E-readers are the new circulating libraries! Sure, you get to keep the “book” longer, but you don’t own it. Your subscription fee is the price of the hardware reader, then you pay for access to the text, not for the book itself.

You never own the text on an e-reader. Except when they’re free, then no one seems to really care. But you still don’t own it.

In this context, e-readers make more sense. When I try to equate buying an “e-book” (an ugly chimera of a word!) with buying a book — it doesn’t come together in my mind. It doesn’t add up. I “buy” an “e-book” and I have no or very limited lending rights, right of first sale is out the window, etc. However, when I consider using an e-reader as a 21st Century subscription library that merely grants access to works, it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

I know most of you have not struggled with this, nor have you sought any kind of justification for buying an e-reader or using one. I think however, I’ve finally found mine.

kindle, ipad, i-pad, nook, sony, comparison, history, amazon, subscription library, private library, rental library, membership library,