Topeka Sale, Lloyd Zimmer Books and Maps, and K-State Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

This past weekend, before attending the library booksale in Topeka, I had a chance to visit Lloyd Zimmer's shop in Topeka (117 SW 6th Ave). It was the first time I had the chance to meet Lloyd in person, after several short phone conversations, and I immediately felt welcomed at the store. After introducing myself as a fellow bookseller, he led me into the back room and cleared a spot for me on his comfortable leather chair. We compared a few anecdotes of selling on the Internet, and he shared some of his experiences with other area booksellers and running an open storefront.

Lloyd has the type of store I would be proud to call home one day. It is a real bibliophile's den, complete with a large selection of maps and prints that line the walls, it is covered wall to wall with shelving and quality titles, the most prized of which are closest to Lloyd's office. I have run across his listings on Abebooks many times, and have always noticed them for their professional and straightforward descriptions. Lloyd is one of the foremost experts on Kansas History, and his inventory reflects that. You can view his catalogues via Abe or his website, which is located here: http://www.ksbiblio.com/ He also runs several Ebay auctions under the username "ksbiblio", and is currently auctioning an original wet plate photograph of Wild Bill Hickock.

After conversing with Lloyd for almost an hour, and browsing the shop for at least another (Americana, Medicine, Psychology, and anything related to Kansas are the specialties) I realized I was running out of time before the sale, and scrambled to make a purchase. I ended up buying 3 bibliographies, which should prove to be invaluable over time in my own pursuits of dealing with Kansas History and Authors. The books I bought (and have already perused with a tremendous amount of book-nerd enthusiasm) are:

1. Dary, David. Kanzana 1854-1900. A Selected Bibliography of Books, Pamphlets and Ephemera of Kansas. Lawrence, KS: Allen Books, 1986. First Edition. 8vo. Cloth - Hard Cover. Signed by Author. Near Fine/No Jacket. ISBN: 0935868259. Number 38 of a limited edition of 250 copies numbered and signed by the author; 294 pages; Very small circular residue where a sticker has been removed from blank front end page.

2. Adams, Ramon F. The Rampaging Herd: A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Men and Events in the Cattle Industry. 1982. John T. Zubal of Cleveland.

3. Socolofsky, Homer E. and Virgil W. Dean. Kansas History: An Annotated Bibliography. 1992. Greenwood Press.

Visit the shop if you are in Topeka, or the website if you cannot, you are sure to find something of interest and you will not be disappointed with the professionalism and service of Lloyd Zimmer, bookseller and gentleman.


I did end up making it to the Topeka Library sale just in time, and purchased several choice books which I have already listed:

http://search.stores.ebay.com/Lowest-Cost-Books__W0QQfclZ4QQfrppZ30QQfrtsZ0QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ2QQsaselZ48539879QQsofpZ0

The rest of the weekend was spent at an ultimate frisbee tournament in Manhattan, Kansas, home of Kansas State University. The Wichita State University WUShux team finished in 3rd place out of 10 teams, and had our friend Tom not waited until the last minute on Sunday to show up, who knows what kind of damage we could have done. We played most of our games with 8 players (you need 7 to field a team) and put on an impressive showing, going 4-0 the first day and 2-1 the second, with victories over McPherson, K-State White, Northern Colorado, K-State Salina and Nebraska. Our only loss was a heartbreaking 12-11 defeat to K-State Brown in the semifinals. Everyone on the team made a significant contribution, including 3 players who were playing their first tournament with us: Ben #1 (our French ladies' man, working at Spirit Aerosystems and originally from Toulouse), Ben #2 (also known as Beyonce, or brother of the fiance), and Beth (who joined our team as a last minute and invaluable addition, outplaying most of the guys she was matched up against).

Here is our team photo from Sunday afternoon:



I'm already getting ready for my next weekend journey to Lawrence for another booksale and the River City Reading Festival. Thankfully there is no frisbee tournament this time, as I am still sore from last weekend.

3 Recommended Albums- Bringing Back the 1980's

Here are 3 of my favorite albums of the year, all of which feel like they could have been recorded in the mid 1980's, but benefit from the flashy production techniques of this century. I wouldn't be surprised if they all made the Top 28 for 2008. Listed in ascending order of rating:


Neon Neon "Stainless Style"
Could be the soundtrack for a Bret Easton Ellis novel. There are odes to cars, The Cars, Raquel Welch and Michael Douglas. The standout tracks are "I Told Her on Alderaan", "Steel Your Girl", "Dream Cars" and "I Lust You" featuring Cate Le Bon. The album seems to fluctuate between dance-pop (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals influenced) and hip-hop (Boom Bip influenced), and the rap tracks don't work quite as well, although most of them are at least fun to listen to the first time through. "Sweat Shop" becomes downright annoying after a few listens though. I would hope that the next project from these guys focuses more on the Gruff material, and less on the hip-hop side of things. The cover art seems appropriate as well, and should give you an idea of what to expect.
KristianStrom.Com Official Album Rating: 3.75/5.0


Cut Copy "In Ghost Colours"
For fans of Depeche Mode, New Order, Human League, My Bloody Valentine and "late period ELO". New-wave revival from Melbourne, Australia seamlessly blends electronic, pop and rock elements into a complete and accomplished album. Can be used for Halloween season house parties in an emergency. Three solid electronic opening tracks, followed by an ambient break, three fairly solid rock tracks, followed by an ambient break, and then we have "Hearts on Fire" and "Far Away", both of which are instant, 80's, current, 2008, no, wait I'm confused- classics. And then another instrumental break and the gorgeous and airy "Strangers in the Wind". Remains in heavy rotation after several months.
KristianStrom.Com Official Album Rating: 4.5/5.0


M83 "Saturdays=Youth"
Please listen to me and ignore http://www.metacritic.com/ on this one. If you search the three M83 albums it lists to date, this one ranks at the bottom with a composite score of 69. I have been following France's Anthony Gonzalez aka M83 for some time now, and I can definitely say that Saturdays=Youth is his finest album to date, and also one of the best of 2008. While his first two albums are both refreshing and disturbing sonic landscapes (I could appreciate them both, but neither was a particular favorite of mine), this latest album is an actual record that you can listen to while you're not doing anything else.

There is something undescribable about this album that taps into my subconscious and somehow reminds me of what it was like to be a kid who grew up in the 80's. Apparently, Gonzalez is 26 (I am 27, born in 1980), so we must have seen some of the same flicks and listened to the same Top 40 countdowns. As usual, http://www.pitchfork.com/ explains it best:

"The album has the same nostalgic sparkle as Hughes' (John Hughes of Pretty in Pink/Breakfast Club/Ferris Bueller/Better of Dead fame) films, a soft-focused mythology of eternal summers and young love. In the liner notes, Gonzalez dedicates it to "all the friends, music, movies, joints, and crazy teachers that made my teenage years so great!" At 26, Gonzalez is just the right age to look back on this era with rose-tinted glasses, forgetting the alienation and anxiety, remembering only the sweetness. Whenever the darker side of teenhood rears its head, it's heroically battled back: On the shoegaze-thick "Dark Moves of Love", "everything is wrecked and grey," but the song ends on a poignant note: "I will fight the time and bring you back!" On the album's cover, heartbreakingly radiant youths (one of them a dead ringer for Molly Ringwald) strike poses in a gold and russet pasture-- the same kind of beautiful misfits that Hughes arranged in after-school detention. In lyrics filled with lusty eruptions ("They are Gods! They are lightning!"), archetypal teens invent themselves with innocent fervor: A love-struck young couple in "Kim & Jessie"; a goth with a crown of black roses and a heart of bubblegum in "Graveyard Girl".

Does "Couleurs" remind anyone else of an Orbital track?

Check out the wonderful low-budget videos for "Kim and Jessie" and "Graveyard Girl" at Youtube.
KristianStrom.Com Official Album Rating: 4.75/5.0

New Postal Service Album In Stores Now!

Ok, so I lied. There is no Postal Service album due out soon, or even in the works for all I know. Wikipedia has told me not to expect any new material from Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello in 2008, but I'm holding out for 2009 (Give Up was released in 2003).

If you need something to hold you over for the time being, check out the Cassettes Won't Listen Small Time Machine EP. It's not quite as infectious as Give Up (more like the rainy day substitute), and only about half as long, but it should be enough to tide you over for the rest of the year. Listen to Track #5, The Broadcast, and see if your ears can spot another Transatlantic influence.


KristianStrom.Com Official Album (EP) Rating: 3.0/5.0

There are a few new releases on the horizon which I am excited about. Look for them soon.

Ethan Canin Book Signing at Watermark Books

One of my favorite authors of novels and short stories, Ethan Canin, will be conducting an evening reading and signing right here in Wichita, this Thursday, September 11th at 7pm. I was introduced to Canin's work by Mr. Jeff White, who read aloud the short story "We Are Nighttime Travellers" to our first period Creative Writing Class. I have followed his work ever since, including the adaptation of a story from The Palace Thief into "The Emperor's Club" movie, starring Kevin Kline (it turned out kind of like a second-rate Dead Poet's Society).

Canin is on tour to support the release of his highly recommended latest novel, America, America, a coming of age tale of a working class boy who goes to work and comes up through the ranks for a well-connected and established Northeastern family, and winds up at the center of a potential political scandal. You can read Sarah Bagby's (Watermark Books) more in-detail review here:

http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0608-020.html

Unfortunately, I will be travelling out of town that afternoon, but will be racing back to Douglas and Oliver to try and be in attendance. In addition to having the pleasure of hearing him read aloud, I would love to have Mr. Canin sign several Advance Reading Copies of mine, as well as my 1st Printing of his new novel.

Anyone who is interested in a monthly writing group that will be gathering after the meeting, please contact me for more details.

Lou Gorman- High and Inside: My Life in the Front Offices of Baseball

On a recent book buying excursion to Boston, I uncovered several boxes of brand new books, all of the same title. 76 copies of Lou Gorman's High and Inside, a 44 year account of a life in professional baseball. "Gorman is best known for having assembled the great but star-crossed Red Sox team of 1986. Few, perhaps, know that he also laid the foundation for the Mets club that clawed past them. Or that he is the only baseball executive involved in the start-up of two teams (the expansion Mariners and Royal), that he won a World Series with the Orioles, or that he has drafted Roger Clemens, signed George Brett, developed Jim Palmer, and traded away Jeff Bagwell. In all, Gorman has spent parts of five decades in the front offices of five major league franchises, directly involved in the development of clubs that won three World Series, five pennants, and eight division titles. The stories behind those teams and Gorman's dealings with players, managers, and other of baseball's higher-ups are shared here for the first time." (from the back cover)

So what is a bookseller to do with 76 copies of the same book? List them for sale on the good old World Wide Web and see what happens. I have priced them competitively on all of the major websites, and may ship several copies to Amazon's new FBA order fulfillment center to see who can sell them quicker. I have thought about spending some money on a Google AdWords campaign, but my experience with this in the past has been a waste of money (most likely due to my lack of expertise in choosing keywords and setting one up). Instead, I am experimenting with this blog, by creating a shameless plug for the book on a static web page, I am curious to see how long it takes before this entry is one of the top search results for Mr. Gorman, and how much site traffic and business it generates.

Anyone who has come to this page looking for a copy, or 12, of Lou Gorman's book can find it here:

http://www.lowestcostbooks.net/si/0019935.html