{"id":1673,"date":"2015-04-01T17:52:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T17:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=1673"},"modified":"2015-04-01T20:52:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T20:52:24","slug":"sacramento-antiquarian-book-fair-heels-not-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tavbooks.com\/?p=1673","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair: Heels Not Required"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you want to know the great thing about the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair? (I presume you do, seeing as\u00a0you are reading this blog.) The great thing about the Sacramento fair is how really and truly a laid back environment it is. The big fairs are beautiful \u2013 the sheer amount of awe-inspiring items at an ABAA fair is enough to make your eyes pop. Everyone likes to play dress up from time to time (including me, no matter how I complain), and everyone likes to be served wine and nice salads and walk around like we own the place.<\/p>\n

\"Yours<\/a>

Yours truly. Deception alert: it may look like I am working hard, but in reality I was using my phone to take a picture of “The Right<\/strong> Answers to Tennage Boys’ Sex Questions” to text to my brothers – a hilariously great find at the Sacto fair.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

At Sacramento? You wear heels? Then you should be\u00a0automatically labeled an outcast (not that anyone there cares besides me) \u2013 and I, personally, would laugh at you (mainly because I totally tried to wear heels to my first Sacramento fair, of course). It is so casual you could almost swear that half the people there just wandered in from a cornfield or from a local coffee shop simply\u00a0to gawk at some \u201cold books\u201d. It\u2019s amazing. Another great thing about the Sacramento fair is that it is only a day-long! Short, sweet, and to the point. A seller doesn\u2019t even have enough time to begin<\/em> complaining about her lower back pain and constant wooziness from standing up so long before \u2013 Poof!<\/em> \u2013 it\u2019s over! You load out, you go home, and maybe you watch television with your roommate. (Spouse, friend, children\u2026 any of the above, really).<\/p>\n

\"Finished<\/a>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Finished product! Beautiful, no?<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

So I presume that you did not click on this blog to simply hear my thoughts on the dress-code and my old-lady medical problems. You want to hear about the fair itself, right? Load-in, unpacking, and set-up took Vic and me about 2 to 3 hours to complete. That afternoon, fair Promoter Jim Kay offers free pizza and sodas to his hot and sweaty exhibitors, and usually there is a dinner Friday night at Bandera\u2019s that we at Tavistock Books attend with a handful of other Northern California Booksellers (including, this time around, Bookseller Nick Aretakis, Zhenya Dzhavgova of ZH Books, Kim Herrick of The Book Lair, Bookseller Andy Langer, Chris Lowenstein of Book Hunter\u2019s Holiday, and for the first time, special guest Ken Karmiole of Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller in Santa Monica, CA).<\/p>\n

And that brings us to fair day! Thanks to Jim\u2019s promotional efforts, there were a steady stream of customers throughout the day, a friendly and collegial environment between booksellers and customers alike. With 61 exhibitors present, it was easy to stay up-to-date with those we don\u2019t see all that often (and staying-up-to-date for me of course means to get in my quota of sarcasm and cuteness \u2013 a little something for everyone \u2013 before the day is out).<\/p>\n

\"Up-close<\/a>

\u00a0 \u00a0 Up-close and personal view\u00a0of our display case.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In regards to overall sales, we at Tavistock Books can say that we made back our money spent to exhibit at the fair, with even a slim profit besides. However, as Vic will swear to any who ask, he does not exhibit at the Sacramento fair to sell his way out. He does it to \u201cbuy\u201d his way out \u2013 a phrase which in the bookseller world refers to when you pick up something priceless at the fair and are able to turn it around and make your money back after the fact, rather than making money at the fair itself. Really, the beauty of the Sacramento fair is how there is something there for everyone. Of course, if you only have the dedication and determination to rifle through shelves and boxes while standing next to a man who you would more expect to see nursing a Budweiser\u00a0in the local pub and not milling about an antiquarian book fair, who then turns to you and asks what you think about Percy Bysshe Shelley\u2019s poetic work \u201cThe Witch of Atlas\u201d\u2026 well, let\u2019s just say that the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair is a great day filled with lots of surprises! Plan to be in Sacramento September 12th, for that\u2019s the next one!<\/p>\n

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