BOOKCELLAR NOTES (2/28/03 Fri):

CDs played today (indicative of time spent hard at work in my downstairs warehouse/office):
- THE COMPLETE STAX/VOLT SOUL SINGLES VOL. 2: 1968-1971 (Disc 3)--another emusic download
- Mississippi John Hurt LAST SESSIONS (Vanguard, 1972) (Xgau: A)
- Purcell SONNATAS OF III PARTS (Sonnatas Vol. 1) (Chandos, 1988)

---Got started by 8AM this morning. Not much sleep last night, thinking about having to get up to put the recycling out by the curb in time for the truck’s usual trundling 6:30 arrival.
---Fixed myself some eggs and toast to avoid conking out for a while at least. I do not eat meat, but I do eat eggs and dairy, even salmon (which is bad for the fish population, I know) or sardines; so I don’t know what sort of vegetarian I might be, but it is not hard, with all the excellent meat substitutes on the market today. Seitan is one of my favorites. Tempeh, tofu, and texturized vegetable protein (TVP) are good too. You would not miss meat, believe me. After a while it would seem kind of gross to eat it. But I guess we human beings are cruel and vicious as a species, so it is misguided to try to go against our natures.

---Heard from Babbage Press by email. The books I finally got around to ordering are being sent now. I can report that the proprietress (also the owner of Dangerous Visions bookstore) is most pleasant to deal with. I am only getting four titles to start with, but here is a list of what was available as of last September:

00-3 ECLIPSE (John Shirley) $17.95
01-1 ECLIPSE PENUMBRA (John Shirley) $17.95
02-X ECLIPSE CORONA (John Shirley) $17.95
03-8 DRAGON'S FIN SOUP (S.P. Somtow) $17.95*
*At the request of the author, this title will be "retired" for a
while. Limited quantities available.
04-6 THE DARK COUNTRY (Dennis Etchison) $17.95
05-4 SEEING RED (David J. Schow) $18.95
06-2 LOST ANGELS (David J. Schow) $17.95
07-0 THE FALLEN COUNTRY (S.P. Somtow) $17.95
08-9 WILD HAIRS (David J. Schow) $19.95 **
** Winner of the 2002 International Horror Guild Award for Best Nonfiction [I thought that said Horror Guilt Award when I first saw it--Chris]
09-7 THINGS BEYOND MIDNIGHT (William F. Nolan) $17.95
10-0 FALSE DAWN (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro) $17.95
11-9 A SONG FOR LYA (George R.R. Martin) $17.95
13-5 HOMUNCULUS (James P. Blaylock) $17.95
14-3 CONTROL FREAK (Christa Faust) $18.95
16-X THE DIGGING LEVIATHAN (James P. Blaylock) $18.95
17-8 THE EMERALD BURRITO OF OZ (John Skipp & Marc Levinthal) $19.95

Coming soon:
12-7 AUTUMN ANGELS (Arthur Byron Cover, sf novel - revised) 18.95
15-1 THE HEIGHT OF THE SCREAM (Ramsey Campbell, horror collection
- reprint) 18.95
21-6 ELVISLAND (John Farris - a BP original collection) 19.95
23-2 A SPLENDID CHAOS (John Shirley, sf novel - 1st pb) 19.95
25-9 THE NIGHT PEOPLE (Michael Reaves - BP original collection) 19.95
26-7 CRYPT ORCHIDS (David J. Schow - 1st pb) 18.95

Printable catalogs available online at
http://www.babbagepress.com/catalog/0602.pdf (with covers)
and
http://www.babbagepress.com/catalog/0602-to.pdf (text only)

--And this news about current projects:
"As soon as John Farris sends me the last or four new stories, his new
collection ELVISLAND will be ready to rock. CRYPT ORCHIDS (Schow) is
nearly ready too. I'm adding a glossary of sorts to AUTUMN ANGELS
(Cover)-- something to help the next generation of readers get the
references in the roman á clef. Will keep you in the loop."

---Next orders I need to send out include Wildside, HarperCollins etc., Random House etc....

---Email from me that might interest more than just the recipient:
"I forgot to send updated publisher list for MDP [Membership Discount Plan]. A copy will be in your shipment, but here is a paste from my datafile:
Aberrations • Aboriginal-Absolute Magnitude-Weird Tales-Dreams of Decadence • Academy Chicago • AC Projects • Addison Wesley • Advent • Alexander-Farthest Star • Anamnesis • Andrews & McMeel humor books • Armchair Detective Library • Bantam-Doubleday-Anchor-Dell-Delacorte • Bereshith-ShadowLands (25%) • Black Heron • Borgo (30%; hc 10%) • Broken Mirrors • Cambrian (20% tpb/10% hc) • Carroll & Graf • Century • Charnel House (10%) • Chronicle (25%) • Consortium Group • Crawdaddy • Crossroads (10%) • Cumberland House • Dalkey Archive • Dark Harvest (20%/ltd. 5%) • Dark Regions • Deathrealm • Delirium Design Image • Drumm (30%/ltd. 20%) • Eel Grass • Eotu Group • Fantasy Commentator • Fantasy Macabre-Fantasy & Terror • Fedogan & Bremer (30%/ ltd. 10%) • Fenham • Five Star (5%) • Fjord • Foul Play-Countryman • Fragments West • Galactic Central-Benson Bibliographies • Galaxy (25%) • Gauntlet (30%/books 10%) • Geek • Golden Gryphon • Grove Press-Weidenfeld & Nicolson • Gryphon-Paperback Parade • Haffner (20%/ ltd. 15%) • Harcourt Brace-Harvest • HarperCollins-Perennial Library-Continuum-Avon-Morrow-Greenwillow-Books of Wonder • Horror's Head • Houghton Mifflin-Ticknor & Fields • Hypatia-Hargreaves-Darkside-Silver Salamander (20%/ltd. 10%) • Incunabula (10%) • Jwindz (30%/ltd. 10%) • Kensington-Zebra-Pinnacle-Citadel • Libraries Unlimited (5%) • Little, Brown-Atlantic Montly Press-Evans • Longstreet • Macabre, Inc. • Maclay (30%/ltd. 20%) • McPherson-Treacle • Magazine of Speculative Poetry • Malibu Graphics-Eternity (25%) • Manuscript Press • Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine • Masquerade-Badboy-Rhinoceros • Meisha Merlin (25% pb/20% hc) • Merrimack • Midnight Graffiti • Midnight Zoo • Mississippi • Morpheus • Mystery Scene • Naiad • Necro-Into the Darkness (30%/hc 20%) • Necronomicon • Necropolitan • New Blood • New Moon • New Pathways • Night Shade (20%/ltds. 10%) • Norton-Dembner-Thames and Hudson • Nova Express • Ocean View (30%/ltd. 10%) • Old Earth • Original Music (25%) • Owlswick • Penguin-Putnam-Viking-Dutton-Overlook-NAL-Onyx-DAW-Signet-Roc-Ace-Berkley • Pulphouse-Axolotl (20%/10% “leather”) • PS (15%) • Random House-Knopf-Pantheon-Vintage-Modern Library-Schocken-Ballantine-Del Rey-Fawcett-Crown-Harmony • ReSearch (30%/hc 10%) • River City • Rutledge Hill • St. Martin's-Tor-Tarcher-Forge-Orb-FSG-Holt • Sarob (15%) • Sasquatch • Scarecrow (10%) • Scream Factory/Deadline (20%/books 10%) • SF Eye • SF Review • Sequitur-R&D Publishing • Simon & Schuster-Fireside-Summit-Pocket-Baen • Sirius Visions • Small Beer • Spectrum SF (10%) • Spine-Tingling • Starmont • Stone Dragon (15%) • Strange Co. • Strange Plasma-Edgewood • Subterranean (15%) • Tachyon (pb 30%/hc 20%) • Tafford • TAL Publications • Talebones-Fairwood • Tartarus (15%) • Three Stones • Heliocentric Net-Detours • Thrust-Quantum • Tomorrow • Trafalgar Square (distributor for many UK publishers) • Twayne (5%) • 2AM • Ugly Town • Ultramarine (25%) • Underwood-Miller (30%/ltd. 5%) • Univ. of Chicago & Univ. of Illinois Presses (5%) • Ursus (30%/ltd. 10%) • Van Hise • Walker • Warner-Popular Library-Questar-Mysterious • WCS-Eyeball (30%/ltd. 20%) • Weirdbook-Ganley (all editions) • Westview (5%) • White Wolf • Without Fear • Wordcraft of Oregon-Jazz Police • Wormhole (10%) • WSFA (10%) • Wynwood • Zero Gravity Freefall • Ziesing (20%/ltd. 10%) • Zwitter——and others to be added to this list from time to time. Ask for e-mail of updated list, if you wish.

Most other publishers are discounted 20%.
Used and “as new” books receive a 10% discount.

Looks like a big game against Orlando tonight--one of the teams a couple games ahead of them [the Knicks--actually they are more like four games behind, and tonight is Patrick Ewing night] they need to catch to make the playoffs. Good thing I don't get cable! I would have to miss Springsteen on CBS, but I have my VCR programmed anyway."

---Not that I am a big Boss fan. Believe it or not, he came along during my rock-interest hiatus and I never really cottoned to him that much. But he is an institution, and I don’t expect he would do a Garth Brooks (maybe a Garth-Brooks alter ego). Now, Garth I would prefer hearing on CD, but he is insufferable to behold in his TV concert specials.

---Had another 5-mile run, third day in a row after two weeks off. The thaw is still not here yet, but right around the freezing mark feels okay. Once the bike trail clears off, maybe I can start increasing distance again and maybe run a time-trial for fun and agony, to see how much I have slowed down now and give me something to improve upon during the springtime--if we don’t get nuked.

---CEMETERY DANCE #42 just came in (yes, at four o’clock in the afternoon). Names on cover: Nancy Collins, Charles L. Grant, Tom Piccirilli, Thomas Tessier.

---Had to go upstairs to preheat the oven for baked potatoes to serve leftover chili over. I had to stay up there to poke the potatoes, because if I came back downstairs to work I would lose track of the time and the timer would be going off unheeded for who knows how long. So I brewed up a pot of yerba matté and watched an episode of my Netflix-rented DVD of Sopranos. Hour-long shows are a bit more managable than some of those epic movies. And with all the DVD special features, sometimes even a regular-length movie can become a marathon viewing experience, especially if commentary is required for full appreciation, or even partial appreciation.