New York, New York...

Another nice thing about our new digs at Foggygates- we're a good hour and a half closer to New York than we were before! So FB and I went down to The City Friday morning to spend a few days. I had to go, because I had my last two meetings as a BOGGY (Board of Guv'ners member) of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, and of course there's the ABAA books fair at the same time- reason enough for a trip. Actually, the best reason for the trip was to visit with FB's aunt and uncle who live there and who took us to dinner Friday night at a great Turkish restaurant. They also told us about a wonderful little Irish pub called Emerald Inn at 205 Columbus which features the best burgers in New York (quite literally- it won a New York Times "Best Neighborhood Pubs" award, or summat like that). But aside from awards, it's a small, narrow, dark pub with a friendly bartender, good beers on draft, and real Irish barmaids. And great burgers. We spent quite a bit of time there Saturday afternoon...

Where was I? Oh yeah, books. The Fair appears to have gone well for many dealers, which is a good sign, and reports indicate that visiting dealers were buying heavily, another good sign for the trade. It's always nice to start the Book Fair Season, as the NYBF does, with good reports (I heard some really good reports privately, with quite astounding numbers mentioned, but that's another story).

Saturday night was the annual ABAA Dinner Meeting, this year held at the Grolier Club, which they do about every 5 years and is always fun. This year's meeting was to honor Past Presidents, of which almost all were there. FB and I sat at a table with 2- Rob Rulon-Miller and Tom Congalton, among my favorite booksellers anyway, even if they were not so damned influential...

And as of today they swore the new Board in and I am free to resume non-BOGGY life, and I can concentrate full-time on bookselling again. Being a BOGGY was an eye-opening experience, because most of what they do, the work they put in, and the fires they put out, is not apparent to the rest of the bookselling world. The time spent by some volunteers on committees is daunting. God knows I did little enough, but there are many who do spend a lot of time on it, and for very little, if any reward, except the personal satisfaction of a 'job well done'.

Of course I was in it for the glory, the booze, and the hot bookie babes who flock to all the book fairs and follow the booksellers around as if we were rock stars or something. Bono, eat your heart out!