Another Reason to be Sad about Missing Book Expo--Inability to Scout the Floor for Promotional Decks of Playing Cards for Arsen

One of the things I most missed about Book Expo was being able to walk the floor with Boulder Bookstore's Arsen Kashkashian. On one hand, it's great that he has a wonderful blog where you can get the scoop on the show from a very smart and witty perspective.

On the other hand, isn't this why the show itself may no longer be paying dividends to publishers? Do I need to go to the show when I can read his comments regularly? Book info is everywhere. There are so many more ways to spread buzz for the new books of fall. I'm bummed about the whole thing, and while I'm trying to figure out how to attend next year, I'm wondering exactly what I would be attending.

All well and good, but I'm much more interested in Arsen's interest in promotional card decks (publishers, it's not too late to take advantage of this idea). I love collections, and have a number. You may have noticed the two glass cases in the shop that we haven't removed. They need their locks replaced, but I'm not going to fill them with rare books (or at least not always). My idea is to have a rotating series of collections (mine and others), for visual interest. The concept is sort of side-showish, but I think the collecting thing has always been at the heart of a decent portion of the book business.

It turns out I only have one promotional deck, for Andy Bellin's Poker Nation. Worse than that, I've been very remiss in hoarding other book promotion items. I am thrilled, however, that I thought to cut out my Penguin catalogs from 1992 and cheaply frame them (if you've been in books forever, you may remember them--they were maps of Penguin-land). They make a great addition to Boswell.

And yes, it's come to this. My only mention of a book in this post is for one that's out of print.