Do you want to know the great thing about the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair? (I presume you do, seeing as you are reading this blog.) The great thing about the Sacramento fair is how really and truly a laid back environment it is. The big fairs are beautiful – the sheer amount of awe-inspiring items at an ABAA fair is enough to make your eyes pop. Everyone likes to play dress up from time to time (including me, no matter how I complain), and everyone likes to be served wine and nice salads and walk around like we own the place.

Yours truly. Deception alert: it may look like I am working hard, but in reality I was using my phone to take a picture of “The Right Answers to Tennage Boys’ Sex Questions” to text to my brothers – a hilariously great find at the Sacto fair.

At Sacramento? You wear heels? Then you should be automatically labeled an outcast (not that anyone there cares besides me) – and I, personally, would laugh at you (mainly because I totally tried to wear heels to my first Sacramento fair, of course). It is so casual you could almost swear that half the people there just wandered in from a cornfield or from a local coffee shop simply to gawk at some “old books”. It’s amazing. Another great thing about the Sacramento fair is that it is only a day-long! Short, sweet, and to the point. A seller doesn’t even have enough time to begin complaining about her lower back pain and constant wooziness from standing up so long before – Poof! – it’s over! You load out, you go home, and maybe you watch television with your roommate. (Spouse, friend, children… any of the above, really).

                   Finished product! Beautiful, no?

So I presume that you did not click on this blog to simply hear my thoughts on the dress-code and my old-lady medical problems. You want to hear about the fair itself, right? Load-in, unpacking, and set-up took Vic and me about 2 to 3 hours to complete. That afternoon, fair Promoter Jim Kay offers free pizza and sodas to his hot and sweaty exhibitors, and usually there is a dinner Friday night at Bandera’s that we at Tavistock Books attend with a handful of other Northern California Booksellers (including, this time around, Bookseller Nick Aretakis, Zhenya Dzhavgova of ZH Books, Kim Herrick of The Book Lair, Bookseller Andy Langer, Chris Lowenstein of Book Hunter’s Holiday, and for the first time, special guest Ken Karmiole of Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller in Santa Monica, CA).

And that brings us to fair day! Thanks to Jim’s promotional efforts, there were a steady stream of customers throughout the day, a friendly and collegial environment between booksellers and customers alike. With 61 exhibitors present, it was easy to stay up-to-date with those we don’t see all that often (and staying-up-to-date for me of course means to get in my quota of sarcasm and cuteness – a little something for everyone – before the day is out).

    Up-close and personal view of our display case.

In regards to overall sales, we at Tavistock Books can say that we made back our money spent to exhibit at the fair, with even a slim profit besides. However, as Vic will swear to any who ask, he does not exhibit at the Sacramento fair to sell his way out. He does it to “buy” his way out – a phrase which in the bookseller world refers to when you pick up something priceless at the fair and are able to turn it around and make your money back after the fact, rather than making money at the fair itself. Really, the beauty of the Sacramento fair is how there is something there for everyone. Of course, if you only have the dedication and determination to rifle through shelves and boxes while standing next to a man who you would more expect to see nursing a Budweiser in the local pub and not milling about an antiquarian book fair, who then turns to you and asks what you think about Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetic work “The Witch of Atlas”… well, let’s just say that the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair is a great day filled with lots of surprises! Plan to be in Sacramento September 12th, for that’s the next one!