Watch Rare Book Cafe Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. EDT

Welcome to the book lovers' rendezvous. Join in the conversation about rare and collectible books and related subjects every Saturday on the Rare Book Cafe page on Facebook. Plan to attend the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2021. We look forward to seeing you there. 

🔴 RARE BOOK CAFE 5.0 (S5 E41) Roses are red. Prose is purple. Rhymes come and go, to and fro, as the case may be, you see. Next Tuesday is Bad Poetry Day, and so, we throw caution to the winds, commit poetic sins as we slake your thirst for just the worst.

Rare Book Cafe LIVE on Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. EDT

🔴 RARE BOOK CAFE 5.0 (S5 E32) Our guests are Rachelle Markley of the Rose City Virtual Book Fair in Portland, Oregon, and Gigi Best-Richardson of the Best Richardson African Diaspora Literature Museum in Tampa, Florida. Plus, help for new book collectors. To participate in the conversation, please use this link. The LIVE program begins at 2:30 p.m. EDT

Rare Book Cafe LIVE on Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

🔴 RARE BOOK CAFE 5.0 (S5 E25) How are you adding to your collection in this time of isolation? Are you spending more time reading? Are you ordering your books online? Our guests are Texas bookseller Bryan Young and Meredith Myers, the Stand-up Librarian. Rare Book Cafe, a world leader in social distancing since 2015. This program is on Facebook. To participate in the conversation, please use this link. The LIVE program begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Rare Book Cafe LIVE. Join the conversation on Facebook

🔴 RARE BOOK CAFE 5.0 (S5 E24) Book restoration expert Sophia Bogle shares the questions to ask before you get your book repaired. Plus, tiny books expertise, a visit from Felix O’Neill and more. Rare Book Cafe, a world leader in social distancing since 2015. This program is on Facebook. To participate in the conversation, please use this link. The LIVE program begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

We'll see you in 2021. Thank you for your support.

Dear friends,

We have bad news and good news. The 2020 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair has been cancelled. That’s the bad news (which is actually good news because our highest priority in this COVID-19 pandemic is the health and safety of our book fair patrons and our booksellers, and their families.)

The other good news is that the 2021 book fair is scheduled for April 23-25, 2021, when we will once again gather for the largest and oldest antiquarian book fair in the Southeast.

As you may know, on Thursday, March 26, Pinellas County officials issued an ordinance that requires “places of public and private assembly” to close. This includes The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg, our venue for the book fair.

Pinellas County’s Safer at Home order is designed to keep people safe and healthy by reducing the chances they will contact and spread this deadly virus. That’s a goal we can all appreciate.

So, while we won’t see you at the book fair for 2020 we have a favor to ask. Patronize our booksellers anyway. Just contact them by email, by phone or visit their websites.

They’ll be thrilled to hear from you. Tell them you miss seeing them at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair (and, of course, that you’ll see them in person again at the 2021 book fair). If you find something wonderful on their websites, go ahead and buy it, just as you would have in person.

To make it easier, here's a link to the list of booksellers who were to exhibit at the book fair and all the information you need to contact them. Thank you for supporting our booksellers. They make the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair possible.

And you do, too. Thank you for your support over the years. We look forward to seeing you at the 2021 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

What's coming up for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair? You can get a glimpse in this ongoing live streamed TV program

Here's a glimpse of some of what to expect at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in April. This is Rare Book Cafe, the world's only regularly scheduled live streamed TV program devoted to rare and collectible books. You can watch it in real time each Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the Rare Book Cafe page on Facebook. For the next few weeks, you'll meet booksellers who will be exhibiting at the book fair. Tickets for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair can be ordered online. In the right column on this blog page you'll find a BUY TICKETS NOW link where you can have them delivered to your email instantly.