balaam's blog

It's not often that I actually have a book that is on someone's summer reading list for school, but one parent today was ecstatic that I had a copy of Mary Higgins Clark's "A Stranger Is Watching." Small stuff like that makes it all worthwhile.

The website has been up less than one year and I've cataloged over 8,000 books now. That may not sound like a lot of titles but considering that I had to scan and size each cover myself, it was a huge amount of work, and I'm not done yet.

"Fan To Pro: Unlocking Career Insights With Your Hobbies" by Steven Savage
http://www.stevensavage.com

Just a brief break from Barbarism and Brutality to share a recommendation. Located about 20 minutes from my home is SEEK BOOKS, which is a virtual Wheel Of Pain for me to decide what to spend my limited allocation of BrutalBucks on. Now, there are lots of bookstores online, but being around these books is something I enjoy as much as reading them. Every spine glance reveals a surprise and I have a long "short list" I'll be working on. On Father's Day I picked up the THONGOR series and can't wait to get back and hit the bricks n' mortar again when I can.

Here's an e-mail I got, with an order that put a hefty dent in the Vance titles on the shelves.

This is part of what makes it all worthwhile.

"Just checked your site out this morning, and saw all the Jack Vance books. Both my dad and I loved Jack Vance's work... and my dad had quite a collection of them. Unfortunately my Wicked Stepmother kept everything of his after he died, so I never got his books. The universe has *totally* owed me a Jack Vance collection ever since, and this is a pretty good chunk of everything I've been looking for, lol!"

I took Asimov home for the first time, thinking that he could stay there Sunday night through Wednesday morning, and the Store from Wed a.m. to Sunday night. Wrong move. He hardly shuts up when he's awake and he likes to be up at night. It was short lived, believe me. He was transported back about 4 a.m. Tuesday morning!!!!

On another note. He loves the laser beam, and will chase it endlessley. Of course I can't do nothing but play laser tag. He is funny when I turn it off. I swear he says "huh???!!!" The head and facial expressions are priceless.

Come on by and talk to him.

O.K. I've listed the authors A-Z that I currently have on the shelves in the Catalog. If you don't see something you're looking for, please ask, as I have lots more that are not listed as yet.

What a Sisyphian task this was, but I expected it would take me a few months longer than it did.

You still need to see the store in person though.

I had a great time going to Cleveland to both see a couple of Red Sox games (which the Sox won) and also to catch the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Book buying was of course on the schedule and I visited a number of books stores. Mac's, Loganberry's and the Scriptorium are the main ones that I found.

Mac's had a great sci-fi section, not as good as mine of course, but I did find quite a few authors that I did not have: Morris Hershman, Astron Del Martia, L.P. Davies, Quinne Reade and Con Sellers to name a few.