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Give 'em an experience they'll never forget

For the book lovers on your Christmas list, here's the perfect gift idea. Don't give 'em a book. Give 'em an experience they'll never forget: a weekend at the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It's an adventure.

Consider this. At the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, more than 100 top-notch antiquarian book dealers from all over the country converge in St. Petersburg for one weekend. For the book lover, that's Paradise. Your book lover can browse beautiful, rare, unique, and amazing volumes that go for thousands of dollars or delicious reading copies of favorite classics that cost only a few dollars.

Here's the best part for you, the generous gift giver. Right now there's a Holiday Gift Special promotion available online at Eventbrite that lets you purchase four Weekend Pass tickets for the price of two. That means you can create an event for your book lovers that is remarkably reasonable. For what you would pay later on for just two tickets ($20), you can get four tickets. That's two for you and your best book lover, and two more for other book lovers in your life. What you're giving here is not just some tickets to an event. You're giving a special weekend of quality time spent in pursuit of joy!

Now what are you going to do with all that money you save? Well, you could make one of those gifts extra special by putting some spending money in the envelope, too. Something toward those incredible treasures you're bound to find at the book fair. Just sayin'

Just click on the link to Eventbrite where you can purchase tickets and you'll have this plan in the works without ever leaving your computer screen. Your book fair adventure starts here.

Tavistock Books' Vic Zoschak knows his Dickens

Vic Zoschak, of Tavistock Books, ABAA, in Alameda, California, is an authority on Charles Dickens. Vic started his Dickens obsession in the 1980s when he discovered a first edition of Dickens' first book, Pickwick Papers, in an antiquarian bookstore in Vancouver. If you want to talk the dickens out of Dickens, he's your man.

By wonderful serendipity, back in February, on the occasion of the great Mr. Dickens' birthday, Books Tell You Why, ABAA (which will also be returning to the book fair), published a very interesting interview with Vic about Dickens, trends in collecting, and the future of rare books. We suggest you take a look.

Meanwhile, we're looking forward to seeing Vic, and Joachim Koch of Books Tell You Way, ABAA in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, when they return to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

For Whom the Bell Tolls hooked Dan Whitmore

When Dan Whitmore, of Whitmore Rare Books, in Altadena, California, was in law school in Philadelphia a few years ago, he discovered a first edition of For Whom The Bell Tolls in a local bookstore, and he was hooked. He credits Kevin Johnson, of Royal Books in Baltimore, with helping him get started in book collecting and then giving him sage advice as he became a rare book dealer.

Nate Pedersen of Fine Books and Collections interviewed Dan for the magazine's Bright Young Things feature a couple of years ago. We hope you'll check it out and learn more about Dan.

We look forward to seeing Dan and his wife Darinka when they return for their second year at the book fair in March.