RARE BOOK CAFE LIVE: Watch the replay right here!

You can watch the latest edition of Rare Book Cafe live streaming at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, November 4 right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog. Michael Slicker, owner of Lighthouse Books, ABAA, and chairman of the book fair, will be a guest on the show. If you are unable to see the show live, don't worry. It'll be recorded and you can watch it right here.

This is a relatively new development for Blab, the live streaming platform where Rare Book Cafe occurs. The feature was added last week and our first embedded session was on Saturday. This makes it really convenient to see these programs.

The Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It features antiquarian book dealers from around the world who share stories, information, and a look at some of the books, maps, prints, and ephemera in their collections. It's a wonderful opportunity for book lovers everywhere. For anyone who would like to embed Rare Book Cafe on your own blog or web site, just send us an email to floridabookfair2@gmail.com.

Rare Book Cafe: A visit with Michael Slicker

We had an interesting experience on Saturday at Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading, an annual event that features authors from all over the country discussing their new books and reading from them. We broadcast live on the Rare Book Cafe during the regularly scheduled Saturday afternoon program.

The festival takes place on the campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. One of the elements of the festival is a tented area reserved for small publishers, self-published authors, and assorted other interests related to the love of books. This year, Michael Slicker of Lighthouse Books, ABAA, was asked to be present for the festival to evaluate books brought by festival goers. Although no festival goers brought books to be evaluated, the day did afford Mike the time to pore over some recent acquisitions picked up in a recent buying trip to South Florida. We visited with Mike and he shared some of his interesting finds. Technical glitches crept in to cut some of the presentation short but Mike did show some of his volumes.

You can see an embedded recording of that Rare Book Cafe program above. If it doesn't show up as a video player, just click on the black box and you will be taken to Blab where you can watch the program. Blab is still in beta so glitches are the norm.

As is always the case, Steven Eisenstein and Thorne Donnelley continued the rest of the show with a series of interesting items of their own. The Rare Book Cafe is broadcast every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET and every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on blab.im. Sign into Blab and then search for Rare Book Cafe.

We also had the opportunity to interview historian Jim Clark, a former newspaper colleague from the Orlando Sentinel. Jim was attending the festival to discuss his new book, A Concise History of Florida, which is designed for Florida newcomers to give them a fundamental understanding of Florida's history. Jim's interview was captured on katch.im and can be viewed below.

Rare Book Cafe: How Thorne became a book dealer

Here's the latest episode of Rare Book Cafe, the world's first and only Blab TV show about antiquarian books. It was broadcast live today on blab.im at 2:30 p.m. EDT. In it, bookseller Thorne Donnelley, who owns Liberty Books in West Palm Beach and is an exhibitor at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, tells about his beginnings in the antiquarian book business.

This show has several new features, including a short segment with Edie Eisenstein, who loves miniature books and talks lovingly about them in this episode. Look for Edie to return as a regular feature in future episodes. Host Steven Eisenstein also introduced another new feature, Hidden Treasures, in which guests will be asked to discuss special volumes from their collections. Steve asks himself and others questions in another new feature called The Third Degree, an homage to the classic technique cops used to interrogate bad guys in old detective novels. Several visitors dropped in to ask questions about their own collections.

The Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair and appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Check the Scheduled list in blab.com for times and dates. Subscribe to the program so you won't miss anything.

You can watch the replay of Rare Book Cafe above, or on blab.im if you want to see the comments from the audience shown in text on the side.

If you have thoughts or comments about Rare Book Cafe, please send an email. We'd love to hear from you.

Rare Book Cafe: Auto books for the grand prix?

Interesting discussion the other day on Rare Book Cafe. Everybody knows the Firestone Grand Prix will be two weeks earlier next year, coinciding with the weekend of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. That, of course, will make securing hotel rooms a challenge. (Best to book your rooms early.)

But Thorne Donnelley, who by now is a regular guest on Rare Book Cafe, had another take on the race car event. The town will be full of automobile enthusiasts. Why not capitalize on that, was Thorne's reasoning. Booksellers ought to make sure they plenty of such books in their inventory.

We think that's a great idea, and we encourage booksellers to put automotive books, particularly those great big pretty coffee table books with gorgeous photography that will have you drooling over Lamborghinis and Ferraris, near the top of their priority list if they can.

Florida Book Fair started 30 years ago

30 years of Book Fairs: Like a family reunion

The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair celebrates its 30th anniversary in March. Vivian Moore was one of a small cadre of booksellers who put together the first book fair at the University of Tampa. She shared some of her recollections.

By Vivian Moore

The first show was somewhat stressful and tiring. And yet, it was very exciting and lots of fun! We did not have a show manager for the first span of years as we were trying to minimize our expenses so that the show would be economically viable.

Vivian Moore operated Hyde Park Book Shop

Therefore, Mike Slicker (owner of Lighthouse Books, ABAA), who I believe was the creator of the FABA and the book fair, took the bull by the horns and became our show manager, a position he held for many years.

The responsibility of putting together the show in those days fell on just a few dealers: Mike, myself and my ex, Jim Shelton. That first year we did everything ourselves including the rental and assembling of the tables, chairs, tablecloths and the laying out of the booths.

I can remember we ordered and picked up 20 to 30 unassembled bookcases (2 feet by 6 feet) as one was included in the price of each booth.  We started to put them together early in the morning at one of the ballrooms at the University of Tampa, where the show was held those early years. It was going smoothly until we started finding that some of the bookcases had flaws. They would not fit together properly. Oh no, small panic. So, we now had to employ a saw and other tools to make these adjustments to get the bookcases to fit together.

During this time, our small group of “managers” acted as porters, assisting the dealers in moving their inventory into their booths. We also passed out materials such as bags & tag sealers for them, etc. Helping the dealers haul their books to their booths, I was always impressed with how many boxes dealers could pack in a vehicle. If any of the dealers needed anything extra for their booth or had any problems, we would assist them as well. Now, remember, our core group members were also exhibitors at the fair, which meant that we were also trying to get our own booths setup before the show began.

 Of course, everything always takes you longer than you planned.  Opening time was quickly approaching and there were still things to do. We barely got the last bookcase built for the exhibitors before the doors opened.  As the show commenced, our booth still wasn't totally unpacked or arranged. And, we had not yet changed out of our work clothes. I'm sure there were a few small things that were overlooked by the dealers but they really liked the show and our hospitality, and it was a success!

I think we had about 24 to 30 dealers with most of them from Florida and a few from out of state. After the show, we had to lug those built bookcases to our shop for either storage, use, and/or sell. I believe we used those type of bookcases for a few years, then we went into the fold-up kind that were smaller and lighter in weight with no assembly. Later on, we discontinued those and now offer rental display showcases direct through a company. 

After about 15-plus years without a show manager, it’s nice to have one now, and I’m sure Mike will agree, though I know he’s always worked closely with the manager especially more so early on. And, of course, now all we have to do is set up our booth, which is great since each year we are getting older.

The book fair has grown over the years from the original 25 to 30 to around 115-plus dealers from all over the country. We have always had a long list of dealers waiting to get a booth for the show as our exhibitors are a hardcore group as many return year after year.

I believe that what draws the dealers to the show is the Florida sunshine, the old Coliseum in St. Petersburg, which makes a perfect setting and our warm southern hospitality. The shows are like a family reunion of dealers and customers who have become old and lifelong friends.

I’m glad to have taken part in all 30 years of this show. It has been a worthwhile part of my life and I have many memories of great times. I hope it will continue into the future as far as we can see.

The 30th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair runs from Friday, March 11 through Sunday, March 13.

Where the Book Fair lives