🔴 Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK No. 9: Adding to your collection of Civil War ephemera

 

Collecting Civil War ephemera never goes out of style. For some, it is an obsession. For others, an interesting pastime. For our ever-curious co-hosts Ed Markiewicz and Lee Linn, it is the thrill of the discovery. Both have fascinating correspondence originated by participants in the war.

Please SHARE this program with your book loving friends.

 This is another one of the earliest episodes of Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK, our new series offering short programs, usually on a single topic.

Watch for more in our Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK series. Rare Book Cafe is on YouTube and Facebook and YouTube podcast. Please SUBSCRIBE to our show on your favorite platform, share Rare Book Cafe with your book-loving friends, and LIKE us. Join us in the Book Lovers’ Rendezvous. This program is prerecorded.

Co-hosts Ed Markiewicz and Lee Linn are veteran antiquarian booksellers. Ed owns Montgomery Rare Books in Portland, Oregon, and Lee owns The Ridge Books in Calhoun, Georgia.

Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK is made possible by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, the oldest and largest rare, used, and collectible book fair in the southeastern United States. The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair will be presented March 1-3, 2024 at The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg. More information at floridaantiquarianbookfair.com

The program also is made possible by Biblio.com, a website featuring used, rare, and out-of-print books from independent booksellers. Biblio is celebrating 20 years of serving book lovers. It’s better than ever. Biblio spotlights “the core of our business model: the independent booksellers who bring their expertise, enthusiasm, and professionalism to soon the used and rare book trade.”

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Music by Kevin MacLeod Hyperfun Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Rare Book Cafe is a periodic gathering of collectors and lovers of old, rare, and collectible books. It is a virtual cafe, accessible anywhere in the world, where the subjects are priceless and the conversation is free. It is truly the book lovers' rendezvous. Rare Book Cafe is presented periodically on Facebook and YouTube, and will also be available on podcast.

Rare Book Cafe features conversations about antiquarian books, rare books, collectible books, unusual books, vintage photographs, antique maps, rare prints, and a wide variety of ephemera. Guests include antiquarian booksellers, authors, collectors, and anyone else with an interest in and knowledge of these topics. Rare Book Cafe is based in Florida.

 Rare Book Cafe
The Book Lovers' Rendezvous™
YouTube and Facebook
 Also soon as a podcast on fine platforms everywhere.

🔴 Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK No. 6: What are you reading this summer?

 

Co-hosts Ed Markiewicz and  Lee Linn share their summer reading lists, as does their guest, Rare Book Cafe regular Richard Mori, who is known as The Road Warrior. Also, Lee recently had a birthday and, of course, there was cake.

PLEASE SHARE your reading list in the comments. And SHARE our program with your book loving friends.

This is another one of the earliest episodes of Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK, our new series offering short programs, usually on a single topic. Watch for more in our Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK series.

Rare Book Cafe is on YouTube and Facebook and will soon be available on podcast. Please SUBSCRIBE to our show on your favorite platform, share Rare Book Cafe with your book-loving friends, and LIKE us. Join us in the Book Lovers’ Rendezvous. This program is prerecorded.

Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK is made possible by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, the oldest and largest rare, used, and collectible book fair in the southeastern United States. The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair will be presented March 1-3, 2024 at The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg. More information at floridaantiquarianbookfair.com

The program also is made possible by Biblio.com, a website featuring used, rare, and out-of-print books from independent booksellers. Biblio is celebrating 20 years of serving book lovers. It’s better than ever. Biblio spotlights “the core of our business model: the independent booksellers who bring their expertise, enthusiasm, and professionalism to  soon the used and rare book trade.”

**************
Music by Kevin MacLeod Hyperfun Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
**************

Rare Book Cafe is a periodic gathering of collectors and lovers of old, rare, and collectible books. It is a virtual cafe, accessible anywhere in the world, where the subjects are priceless and the conversation is free. It is truly the book lovers' rendezvous.

Rare Book Cafe is presented periodically on Facebook and YouTube, and will also be available on podcast. Rare Book Cafe features conversations about antiquarian books, rare books, collectible books, unusual books, vintage photographs, antique maps, rare prints, and a wide variety of ephemera.

Guests include antiquarian booksellers, authors, collectors, and anyone else with an interest in and knowledge of these topics.

Rare Book Cafe™ is based in Florida.
Rare Book Cafe
The Book Lovers' Rendezvous™

YouTube and Facebook
Also soon as a podcast.

Nothing can keep the Cafe off-air for long! It's time for The Storm Show!

We're back! Granted, held together with chewing hum and duct tape and bailing wire, but Rare Book Cafe will be open Saturday, September 16 at 2.30 pm EDT, and serving double shot espressos as everyone decompresses and talks about their experiences in The Big One.

We are all safe and home (several of the team never left) but in varying stages of disruptedness. Electricity, cable, and wireless are not simultaneously restored. Lives have been upheaved. Check-in calls must be made and answered.

So we'll ad hoc our way through the hour with stories of storms, real and literary, and news of our colleagues in FABA. Join us! We want to hear your tales, too.

And Irma? Last we heard, she was off to Hotlanta, got stuck looping the beltway, and then vanished.

Rare Book Cafe is streamed by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair every Saturday from 2.30 to 3.30 pm EDT. We feature interviews, panel discussion and stuff you can learn about book collecting whether you are a regular at Sotheby’s or just someone who likes books.

The program airs live on Rare Book Cafe’s Facebook page, and remain there after the show.

Hosted by Miami book dealer, appraiser and WDBFRadio.com’s Bucks on the Bookshelf radio show creator Steven Eisenstein, the program features a revolving set of cohosts and regular guests including Thorne Donnelley of Liberty Book Store in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; Lindsay Thompson of Charlotte’s Henry Bemis Books; miniature books expert Edie Eisenstein; ephemera expert Kara Accettola; and program creator/producer T. Allan Smith.

We enjoy the support and encouragement of these booksellers: Little Sages Books in Hollywood, Florida; Liberty Books in Palm Beach Gardens; As Time Goes By, in Marion, Alabama; Quill & Brush in Dickerson, Maryland; Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg; The Ridge Books in Calhoun, Georgia; and Henry Bemis Books in Charlotte.






Rare Book Cafe program encourages viewer participation via its interactive features and video: if you've got an interesting book, join the panel and show it to us! If you’d like to ask the team a question or join us in the virtually live studio audience for the program, write us at rarebookcafe@gmail.com.

This Saturday's Rare Book Cafe: We get out the good coffee mugs for a visit from bookseller and author Libby Ware

A familiar exhibitor at the Florida Book Fair, Atlanta author and book dealer Libby Ware is Rare Book Cafe’s August 6 guest.

There’ll be plenty to talk about: besides writing novels and running a bookstore, Libby Ware is also president of the Georgia Antiquarian Booksellers Association, whose annual Georgia Book and Paper Fair is slated for September 3-4, 2016 in Decatur. 

Toadlily Books is Ware’s business base in Atlanta. She focuses on antiquarian books across the fields of African-American literature; art and photography; books about books; LGBT works; natural history; Southern writing; and travel books.

The store is located at 782 Marion Avenue East, Atlanta GA 30312, tel (678) 592-7031; email toadlilybooks@yahoo.com. You can also follow Toadlily Books on Facebook.

Ware’s first novel, Lum, was published by She Writes Press in October 2015. It debuted to strong reviews, and has already gathered in an American Library Association Stonewall Book Award, the gold medal of the Independent Book Publishers Association, and a 2016 Lambda Literary Awards finalist’s slot.

Rare Books Cafe is a weekly Internet production sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It's live at blab.im every Saturday from 2.30 to 3.30 pm EDT/6.30 to 7.30 GMT.
 
The program encourages viewer participation via its interactive features and video: if you've got an interesting book, join the panel and show it to us!
 
Regular co-hosts include Thorne Donnelley, owner of Liberty Book Store in West Palm Beach; Steven Eisenstein, longtime Miami-area dealer and appraiser and host of the weekly radio program Buck$ on the Bookshelf at wdbfradio.com; and Lindsay Thompson, owner of Henry Bemis Books in Charlotte, North Carolina. T. Allan Smith, cyber consultant for the Florida book fair, is creator and executive producer of Rare Book Cafe.

(To access the show, look up blab.im on your browser. Sign in using your Twitter or Facebook account, and type "Rare Book Cafe" in the search box. You can also subscribe to the show using this link)

Past episodes of the Rare Book Cafe are archived at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair website, and on the Rare Book Cafe Channel at YouTube.

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RARE BOOK CAFE: Madlyn Blom, president of the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association, on new book fair dates

WATCH LIVE: Madlyn Blom, president of the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association, will appear on Rare Book Cafe on Saturday, June 4, at 2:30  p.m.  ET to discuss the date change for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair to April. The change to April is very unusual. Long-time book fair fans know that for the last 35 years the book fair has been in March most years. Join us live to ask questions. A recorded version of this session will be available here after the broadcast.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Carrie Carnes, owner of Old Tampa Book Company, reveals treasures bound for the book fair

WATCH LIVE: Back in September, we scheduled Carrie Carnes, owner of Old Tampa Book Company and an exhibitor at the  Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, but computers wouldn't cooperate and Carrie didn't appear on Rare Book Cafe. Now the technical glitches have been corrected and Carrie is joining us -- Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Carrie Carnes at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair last year.

Carrie will tell about how she became the owner of one of Tampa Bay's favorite book stores a little less than a year ago -- and how things have been going since. She'll also reveal some of what she's bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair next month.

Carrie and her husband Matthew Saxon took over the store last year from David and Ellen Brown, who started the store and owned it for more than 20 years. David and Ellen are beloved book dealers who are well known to longtime book fair goers. The Browns retired and moved from the area to be closer to family but they will always be remembered.

You can watch the program live right here on the blog or you can join us on Blab.im. Either way, you're in for a treat. The program will be recorded and will be available right here on replay after the program is over.

If you're new to Rare Book Cafe and to the Blab platform, here's a suggestion that will make your experience easier. Use a Chrome or Firefox browser. In our experience, Chrome has been the better pf the two but either one will work. As far as we know, none of the other browsers out there will work. However, the platform is in beta and still being developed, so who knows what will happen. Sign into your Twitter account first then open a new window and go to  Blab.im. The Blab platform will pick up your Twitter information and apply it to you new Blab account. It's that easy.

We hope you'll come join the conversation. 

RARE BOOK CAFE: What's your book worth? Get answers

WATCH LIVE: Today we're trying something a little different. We won't have a special guest on. Instead, our co-hosts, Steven Eisenstein and Thorne Donnelley, will take audience questions about the value of their books. This is a great format for doing that because it is visual. Listeners can show the books they are discussing and get answers in real time.

It's almost like being at the book fair, which, of course, is the best what to find out information about your book. Being able to talk to knowledgeable book dealers is a joy. The book fair is coming up, and we certainly suggest that you be there but you can visit Rare Book Cafe on Saturday and get some pretty good advice about your books.

You can view it right here on the book fair blog but you're going to have the best experience if you view it on Blab.im. That way you can type in comments or jump into the program live and ask your question. If you decide to watch it on Blab, log into your Twitter account first and leave it open. Then, in a new window on your Chrome or Firefox browser, go to Blab.im.

If you've never logged in before, you'll be invited to sign in using your Twitter account. Click to allow that and Blab takes care of the rest of the process. If it's your first time, Blab will ask you about your interests. Pick three and then move to the search bar and search for Rare Book Cafe. It'll come up in results below the panel at the top where people are yacking.

When you enter Rare Book Cafe, you'll be greeted by one of the hosts (maybe both). Watch the program, and when you are ready to ask your question, type a slash and the letter Q in the chat space then type your question. That helps the question be highlighted.

Join in the conversation either in the chat or on screen if there is a seat open.

That's it! Easy! Come join the conversation.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Author Larry Baker returns to the show

WATCH LIVE: When we last left author Larry Baker, he was dashing off for another engagement and had to tear himself away from our company. That was last Thursday, and we had a bit of a late night, too, because of a schedule conflict.

 Unfortunately, our edition with Larry Baker was much too short. We barely had time to make introductions and give him The Third Degree. Almost immediately after that, he left. We don't think those two incidents were related. :-)

The good news is that we invited Larry back and he said yes and we won't have to do The Third Degree since we already did it, so we can pick up where we left off, which is fine with us.

So, Larry Baker will join us at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, February 4, right here on the Rare Book Cafe.

You can watch Rare Book Cafe right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog or you can log into Blab.im  using you Twitter account. Search for Rare Book Cafe and join the conversation.

Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, celebrating 34 years in March 2016. Watch for interesting information about the book fair on upcoming episodes of Rare Book Cafe. Subscribe to the broadcast so you won't miss anything. 

RARE BOOK CAFE: Bookseller John Howell rejoins us

WATCH LIVE: On Thursday, we had a brief edition of Rare Book Cafe with Los Angeles bookseller John Howell but time was limited and we didn't get to discuss all we wanted to cover. Fortunately, John will join us again on Saturday. John will have time to go into more detail about his collection of work produced by the legendary Los Angeles printer Richard Hoffman during his six decades as a professional printer.

You can watch Rare Book Cafe on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog or you can log into Blab .im using your Twitter account. Search for Rare Book Cafe and join the conversation.

Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, celebrating 34 years in March 2016. Watch for interesting information about the book fair on upcoming episodes of Rare Book Cafe. Subscribe to the broadcast so you won't miss anything. 

RARE BOOK CAFE: Author Larry Baker, whose book The Flamingo Rising was on the ALA banned book list

WATCH LIVE: We're delighted to have author Larry Baker as the guest Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on Rare Book Cafe. His most well-known book is The Flamingo Rising, which was adapted for television and featured on the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was also included on the American Library Association's Banned Book List.

The Flamingo Rising is set in St. Augustine (where Larry lived for several years) and deals with feuding families who run a drive-in movie theater and a next-door funeral home. It draws on his experience running drive-ins in Oklahoma and Texas. And we have it on good authority that the scene where the dead woman was found on the toilet really happened. And Larry had to carry her to her car.

Larry draws from his life in most his books. He was elected twice to the Iowa City City Council and wrote a novel, Athens/America (2005), based on the experience. Right after the book came out, Larry ran for a third term but finished fifth. Apparently too many people recognized themselves in the book.

His most recent book, The Education of Nancy Adams (2014), is set in the St. Augustine and is about a young widow who returns to her old high school to teach. He lives in Iowa City and teaches history at a community college in Cedar Rapids. He's very old school when it comes to electronics. He has banned laptops and computers from his classroom because research shows handwritten notes are retained better.

You can watch Larry Baker LIVE right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog or you can tune in to Blab.im and participate in the conversation. It's easy to get on Blab.im. Here's how: Open your Twitter account then open a new window on our browser and navigate to Blab.im. Log in using your Twitter account. Choose the subjects that interest you so Blab can make recommendations. (You can ignore the recommendations.) In the SEARCH field, type Rare Book Cafe. Scroll down a little way and you should see the icon for the program. Subscribe to it and you will receive a notice when it goes on the air.

You can watch the replays for any Rare Book Cafe on Blab and you can see selected ones right here on the book fair blog. Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Cartoonist Rob Smith Jr. shares stories of Florida history and his extensive Florida book collection

WATCH LIVE: Cartoonist and caricaturist Rob Smith Jr., creator of the Swampy's Florida cartoon series, will be special guest on Rare Book Cafe. A native Floridian, Rob has an abiding interest in Florida history. His lively history lectures/cartoon sessions have delighted audiences for decades. Rob is a regular feature at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, drawing caricatures of fair-goers free of charge. Rob Smith Jr. also is an avid book collector and will share some stories about his collection during Rare Book Cafe. You can watch Rob live right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog or you can tune in on Blab.im (search for Rare Book Cafe). The program will be available on replay here as well.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Sarah Smith, manager of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, on 35 years of the Florida book fair

WATCH LIVE: Sarah Smith, manager of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, will be the guest on Rare Book Cafe Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The program will be broadcast live and you can watch it right here. This is the 35 year for the antiquarian book fair. It was started before Sarah was born but she has been a part of the book fair from the time she was a toddler. Sarah will share some of her memories of the book fair over the years. It's a program you won't want to miss but if you do, it'll be available to view right here on replay.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Your antiquarian collection in 2016

WATCH LIVE: Tonight on Rare Book Cafe join the conversation about your rare book collection in 2016. You can watch right here or you can join us on Blab.im. This program will be recorded and will be available to watch on replay right here as well.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Mike Cotter, Back in Time Rare Books, on collecting Star Wars books and other Eighties nostalgia

WATCH LIVE: With Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening on Friday, we have a special treat on the next edition of Rare Book Cafe. We’ll be talking collectible Star Wars books and other items with Mike Cotter, who recently opened Back in Time Rare Books, specializing in 1980s popular literature.

You can watch Rare Book Cafe live at 8 p.m. Thursday right here on the book fair blog or on blab.im (search for Rare Book Cafe). The first Star Wars movie, Episode 4 - A New Hope, came out in 1977, and the other two films of the first trilogy in 1980 and 1983, so Star Wars dominated pop culture throughout the Eighties. A prequel trilogy was released in 1999, 2002, and 2005.

 In a test session, Mike Cotter, bottom, shows a Star Wars book from his collection.

Patrons of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair may remember Mike Cotter from his days at the popular Yeoman’s in the Fork Rare Book and Document Gallery in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. Mike represented Yeoman’s for years at the book fair.

Now he has begun a new endeavor, embracing his early love of the Star Wars franchise, the Indiana Jones franchise, and the Back to the Future franchise, among others. Mike and his family moved to St. Augustine, Florida, where he opened Back in Time Rare Books to market his extensive and growing collection of literature, board games, toys, and other items related to those immensely popular films.

Hollywood turned out Monday evening at the Dolby Theatre for a red-carpet premiere of the seventh film in the series, the first Star Wars film released in a decade. The revival of the franchise will likely lead to increased demand for the books, computer and video gams, comic books, 8-track cassettes and more spawned by the original first two trilogies. Mike Cotter has been hard at work gathering many special related items and is ready to show some of them on Rare Book Cafe. Expect to see some rare signed pieces and to hear some of the great stories Mike has collected.

Rare Book Cafe will now be seen live on Thursdays at 8 p.m., having been moved from Wednesday afternoons. Our first couple of evening episodes were well received so we're continuing with the schedule that many find more convenient. The program will continue to be broadcast on Saturday afternoons at 2:30 p.m. Steven Eisenstein, owner of A-Book-A-Brac Shop in Miami Beach, Florida, is the host of Rare Book Cafe. His co-host is Thorne Donnelley, owner of Liberty Books in West Palm Beach, Florida. Edie Eisenstein, Steven’s wife, is often featured in a segment on miniature books.

Not only will you be able to watch the live broadcast here on the book fair blog but you also can watch the replay after the program is over. Please share this program with your friends.

COMING SATURDAY: Bookseller Boe Rushing, owner of Back in the Day Books, on setting up a bookstore and why you should support local businesses in your community. Join the conversation on Rare Book Cafe.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Madlyn Blom, Old Bag Lady Books

Madlyn at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

The next edition of the Rare Book Cafe will feature Madlyn Blom, owner of Old Bag Lady Books in Sun City Center, Florida, across Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg. This will be Madlyn's second appearance on Rare Book Cafe, but her first as our Special Guest. Early on in the development of Rare Book Cafe, Madlyn visited the show and spoke to us upside down for a brief time. In this appearance, Madlyn will be right side up. More about all that in another article.

Madlyn is on the board of directors of the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association and is an exhibitor at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair each year. Madlyn will gladly tell book dealers considering doing a show for the first time the benefits of such a decision. For one thing, dealers who only sell online lose touch with real people – their customers. The book fair is an opportunity to reconnect with old customers and meet new customers and learn what they are reading and why.

Of course, the other great reason Madlyn will tell a book dealer to exhibit at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair is to meet other dealers face-to-face, and buy books from them or sell books to them. You could end up with a collection of signed first editions to sell to other customers, a stash of cash from all the books you sell, and a notebook full of contact information from new customers.

When she's not selling books or buying books, you might find Madlyn out with her camera shooting award-winning shots. Madlyn took up photography only a short time ago and already has surprised herself and others by winning top honors in local contests. We'll have more about Madlyn's photography exploits in another entry.

In the meantime, you can watch Madlyn on Rare Book Cafe by logging in to blab.im using your Twitter account, then searching for Rare Book Cafe. The live streaming program will be on the air on Wednesday, November 18 at 3:30 p.m. ET. You don't even have to log in to Blab to watch. You can see it right here on this page above. What's more, if you miss the live stream or just can't get enough of watching Madlyn, you can see the replay of the program right here, too. It'll happen automatically and you can tune in any time to watch. We hope you will.

RARE BOOK CAFE: Josh Niesse of Underground Books

We're delighted to have Josh Niesse, owner of Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia, on Rare Book Cafe this evening at 8 p.m. ET  Josh and his wife Megan are exhibitors every year at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Josh and Megan run "a charming vintage bookshop just off historic Adamson Square," as their web site says. And, yes, it's really underground. Down the road a little way is the University of West Georgia, so Josh and Megan have a cool little bookstore in a college town. Nice. These two innovative booksellers keep up a very interesting blog, and in it not long ago, Josh revealed a behind-the-bookcases look at their business model, which includes not only the charming bricks-and-mortar store but also an extensive, and growing, online retail presence as well as their appearance, of course, at book events like the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Tonight's presentation is something of an experiment. It marks the first time we've presented the Rare Book Cafe in the evening. We think it will make the live show more accessible to people who otherwise might not be able to see it live because of it's traditional afternoon broadcast time. You can watch it right here on the book fair blog or you can follow this link to watch it on the Blab.im platform. Either way, we hope book lovers will embrace this new approach to celebrating antiquarian books.

Mystery writer Michael Lister to be rescheduled

 

 UPDATE: Well, we're sorry Michael Lister wasn't able to appear on Rare Book Cafe on Wednesday afternoon. We'll schedule him for another time. Meanwhile, Wednesday's program turned out quite interesting. Steven Eisenstein, the host, discussed antique book-related advertising items and as surprise paperback copy The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and his encounter with him, as well as other interesting topics. Edie Eisenstein discussed her passion, miniature books and how she and Steven met. Plus, visitors had questions. You can watch it right here on replay. Enjoy!


NOTICE: Michael Lister will be unable to appear on today's program. His visit will be rescheuled. Please watch for an alert.  Join us today for an entertaining show on antiquarian books.

Our next special guest on Rare Book Cafe will be mystery writer Michael Lister, winner of two Florida Book Awards and author of the prison chaplain John Jordan "blood" series and the hard-boiled, 1940s noir Jimmy "Soldier" Riley series.

It might seem strange for a contemporary writer to be on a show about antiquarian books but not in the case of Michael Lister. He has an extensive collection of antiquarian books, including a 1911 copy of G.K Chesterton's The Innocence of Father Brown, the first clergyman who went about solving murder mysteries. No doubt, Lister will discuss Chesterton's influence on his own work.

Rare Book Cafe is the world's first live streaming Blab TV program devoted to antiquarian books. You can watch it on Blab.im by signing in with your Twitter account, then searching for Rare Book Cafe. You can ask questions and participate in the ongoing conversation during the program. This episode of Rare Book Cafe will be broadcast live at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday,  November 11. You also can watch the program on this page where it is embedded above. Afterward, the program will be available to watch on replay right here.

Rare Book Cafe is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, celebrating 35 year in March 2016. Watch for interesting information about the book fair on upcoming episodes of Rare Book Cafe. Subscribe to the broadcast so you won't miss anything.

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: Our first embedded show

Okay, folks! This is a first! You will be able to watch Rare Book Cafe right here on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET. The developers of the Blab live streaming platform have added this feature to make it possible to embed a Blab session in other venues. Now you can watch the programming almost anywhere. No longer will be it be necessary to log into the Blab platform.

Keep in mind that this is a test. We don't know, for instance, if embedding this program here will make it unbearably slow, thus rendering it useless. We don't know if you'll be able to participate, though it looks as if you might be able to type in comments if you sign into your Twitter account then send a direct message to @beachbookman or @rarebookcafe.

After the program is finished, you should be able to view the recorded version here as well. This is all so new, it's hard to tell what will happen but if it works we know it's going to be exciting.

If you watch the LIVE version, please let us know about your experience. And thank you for being part of history as we adapt 21st century tools to spread interest in the subject we love – books, maps, prints, and ephemera of the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

UPDATE: We've now slightly widened the blog so it will accommodate the Rare Book Cafe broadcast and the comments next to it. This embedded platform will allow book lovers to watch the program from right here on the book fair blog and see the comments. Although the comments remain on the screen, you can't scroll through them yet. In fact, they disappear, only to return when the broadcast is over. Still, this is nothing short of amazing.

Please join us for the next Rare Book Cafe on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Watch for a post soon.

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.