Books!
June 8, 2008

You’d have less effect if you waved a red flag in front of an angry bull than if you said to me, “There are plenty of free ARCs in the back of the room. Please help yourself.” Someone did. They were the words that became my downfall.

I arrived home on Sunday evening, June 1, after four full days at Book Expo America (BEA), the annual trade show for the publishing industry. I was—or more accurately, the car was—so loaded down with books it’s a wonder its rear end wasn’t dragging. And I had sworn I would bring home no books and no catalogs! 

The books came from the publishers who populate BEA, attempting, among other things, to engender excitement among attendees for their new releases. To that end, they offer catalogs, author signings and lots of free books, mostly ARCs or Advance Reader Copies. (ARCs resemble trade paperbacks, but are not finished books; they are still in the editing process and may have errors that are still being weeded out. They are used primarily for reviewers, both trade and public, to write about a book in advance of its publication date.)

BEA rotates around the country. This year it was in Los Angeles at the stunning Convention Center downtown. I was so excited at its return to the west coast, the first time in four years, that I made my hotel reservations as soon as I could do so, fifty weeks in advance, nearly to the minute. And it paid off. I could smile smugly, though I tried not to do so, as others scrambled for last minute reservations miles away.

It’s an amazing show. Representatives of all sectors of the industry are present—publishers of all sizes and types, distributors, wholesalers, bookstore buyers, librarians, authors, literary agents, reviewers. The vendor areas are open to attendees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But there are seminars that begin on Thursday, and the best one I attended was that day. “Social Cataloging and Social Networking” was put on by Tim Spalding, founder of LibraryThing. (See “This Week . . .” for details on LT.)

On Thursday night, a friend and I attended PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Awards dinner and ceremony. (Publishers Marketing Association also announced its new name—the Independent Book Publishers Association—and showed off its new logo.) As I’ve mentioned before, I am a design judge for them. This year I had been assigned to the Coffee Table/Large Format category, and it had been a grueling assignment. Every book was, at a minimum, excellent and an astonishing number should have been ranked number one. Thankfully, I am only one of several judges so my vote was not the deciding factor.

The Convention Center is a massive glass and metal structure that is stunning—two huge halls are connected by a long concourse with multiple meeting rooms, and there are several food courts with edible if not exciting offerings and lots of bathrooms with plenty of stalls for women. When the show officially opened on Friday, I was there along with many thousands of others. It wasn’t all work, though. I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of top New York literary agents including Janet Reid, wonderful, funny, smart, lovely. (“Hi Janet!”) But mostly, I took my plan and spent two days walking the aisles of the main hall, shaped like a football and probably as long as three football fields and as wide as two, talking to publishers, marketing directors and assistants, and authors. I handed out information about BiblioBuffet, gathered books, checked catalogs, signed up to win a complete set of the Oxford English Dictionary (which, I am sorry to say, I did not win), and talked, talked, talked. I met Henry Carrigan, senior editor of Northwestern University Press, and BiblioBuffet columnist. (“Hi Henry!”) After a full day, I dragged into the hotel at night, nursed my swollen feet as I checked my e-mail, showered and went out again. Neither my roommate, Lynn Price, or I got any more than five hours of sleep a night.

But the best part for you, BiblioBuffet’s readers, are the free books I picked up for you. All you have to do is e-mail me, tell me what books you want and give me your mailing address. I promise you will not be added to any mailing list or be contacted again unless you ask. Note, however, that many, though not all, of these books are ARCs. Others are finished books, and a few of those are hardcovers. Which one you get depends on the book(s) you choose.  Hurry, first come, first served.

Children/Young Adult
Danger in the Desert by T.S. Fields

History
The Day of the Panzer: A Story of American Heroism and Sacrifice in Southern France by Jeff Danby

Memoir/Biography/Autobiography
Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg
Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life by Kathleen Norris

Mystery / Thriller
Old School Bones by Randall Peffer
The Deceived by Brett Battles
Genius Squad by Catherine Jinks
Head Games by Craig McDonald
The Con Artist of Catalina Island by Jennifer Colt
Paper Towns by John Green
Bleak Water by Danuta Reah
In a City Full of Victims It’s Hard to Find Just One by Alafair Burke
Lost Daughters by J.M. Redmann
Ultimate Weapon by Chris Ryan
Payment Deferred by Joyce Holms
Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart
The Clinch Knot by John Galligan
Outside the White Lines by Chris Simms
Material Evidence by Bill Kirton
Mouths of Babes by Stella Duffy
Precious Cargo by Clyde Ford
Red Sky, Red Dragonfly by John Galligan
Handbags & Homicide by Dorothy Howell
Provincetown Follies, Bangkok Blues by Randall Peffer
Lost Souls by Lisa Jackson

Nonfiction
The Words of Peace: Selections from the Speeches of the Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize
Quest for Kaitiakitanga by Richard Bangs
Adventures with Purpose by Richard Bangs
Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People by Dana Nelson
The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina by Ken Wells.

Novels
Driftless by David Rhodes
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Keep It Real by Bill Bryan
Changing Tides by Michael Thomas Ford
House & Home by Kathleen McCleary
Red Audrey and the Roping by Jill Malone
Miss McGhee by Bett Norris
King of Nod by Scott Fad
Diary of a Chav by Grace Dent
Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun
Final Judgment by Eliot Asinof
Coyota by Martha Egan
The Marriage of True Minds by Stephen Evans
Peripheral Vision by Patricia Ferguson
The Common Bond by Donigan Merritt
Sweetsmoke by David Fuller (Note: 3 copies)
Rock Island Line by David Rhodes
American Savior: A Novel of Divine Politics by Roland Merullo
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Pets
Purr More, Hiss Less: Heavenly Lessons I Learned From My Cat by Allia Zobel Nolan
The Ultimate Dog Lover by Marty Becker, D.V.M.

SFF/Fantasy
Rune Warriors by James Jennewein & Tom S. Parker

Not all the books I brought home were good, but I tried to weed out the bad ones (one example being a thriller set in the late nineteenth century that had the heroine saying to an annoying admirer, “Put a cork in it.”) I rolled my eyes at that twentieth-century line in the third paragraph of the first page and tossed it in the recycling bin. I hope that’s the only one of such dubious quality.

This week . . . 
LibraryThing is an online service you can use to catalog your books. And it’s far better than any software I have tried. But it is really much more than that. The founder calls it a “social cataloging and social networking” place, and I believe that a better description.

I’m a member, but when Tim Spalding spoke at a BEA panel of how and why he started it, how many members there are (400,000) and how many tags these readers have created for their books—37 million—I was amazed. It is far bigger and more complex than I had perceived. One of the funniest ways to use their statistics is to discover not only new books you might like but books you are sure to hate (“If you liked xxx, you will not like xxx and xxx.”). You can also check out bookstores in a vacation spot or your hometown, and do many other things. And these are mostly supplied by LT’s members. This site is truly a labor of love, not just by Tim but by its caring, devoted members.

One of the most interesting parts are the tags. Tags are similar to categories used by libraries and bookstores, but being the Internet where physical limitations don’t apply and being the actual readers who bring their own perspectives to it. For example, Half of a Yellow Sun is classified by my local library as Nigeria: History: Civil war, 1967-1970 Fiction or Nigeria: History: 1960 Fiction. Their genre categories are Historical fiction and Political Fiction. Powell’s Books lists it as Literary or History or Nigeria. On LT, readers have attached around 450 tags among which are 1960s, literature, Orange Prize, Africa, African fiction, African novelists, African revolutions, African women writers, African-American, Biafra, Civil War, collonialism (sic), contemporary literature, history, Nigerian fiction, political history, political idealism, starvation, war, even off-beat labels like “borrowed” or “read, not owned” or “signed” or “unread.”

It is a brilliantly designed and wonderful site. My only qualm is that if you share your library, and most do, that anyone can come on and see what books you have. Remember that many librarians, disturbed by the limitless powers of the so-called Patriot Act, decided to delete any records of books their patrons borrowed to preserve privacy. Here, you are giving it away to anyone who signs up. Just something to remember.

The cost is minor—$10 for one year, $25 for a lifetime, which allows you to upload as many books as you want. You may find yourself as addicted to this system and its chat forums very soon. And you may find your bookshelves becoming dangerously overloaded as you begin to mark books you want to add.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren

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