A Castle of Books: June 2007

Saturday

UFO Science

Sorted some boxes, shelved a few stacks of books, and put some in the closet.

Sold quite a few UFO & Science books - the shelves in those sections had been rather full.

Friday

'Good' Books, and returning Flyers

Filed papers.

Searched for a car top sign, or maybe a roof storage box that I could put lettering on, but didn't really find anything useful.

Shelved a box of better - or at least more valuable - books this afternoon. Some of the better finds were:
Bruce Lee - Enter the Dragon Soundtrack LP

Signed Judith Krantz - 'Till We Meet Again

Signed Max Ehrlich - The Big Boys

Signed - Cassidy - The Passing Summer
The Gathering of Zion - Mormon History
Ninety Years of Healing - Signed
The Light of the World
The Education of Sonny Carson - by Mwlina Imiri Abubadika (Sonny Carson)
Candace L. House - the Gailbraiths and the Kootenays

Movie Showstoppers - the scores for all the popular movies to 1989

And several of them show that sex sells, or at least holds it's value.
Sensuality

The Muse - Signed by art muse Veronika Kotlajic

4 or 5 people came in and either used the flyer or mentioned it.

Thursday

Incoming

Picked up a load of stuff from Bob last night, and up early to get another load from storage this morning.

Sold a gift certificate - or well, something like one, since I hadn't actually gotten around to getting any yet.

Traded for several boxes of books, in which there is quite a few music books & sheet music.

Shelved a couple of boxes of stuff, some nice newer modern classics fiction, and some of everything else.

Purchased a stack of Military books which, while they did not turn out quite as nice as they had originally appeared, were still nice stuff. A few books on Trains and Aircraft in there as well. They're already shelved.

Wednesday

Flyers all over

Made flyers to get passed out at the AnimeExpo in Long Beach, by Juan-John.

Had flyers passed out in the local area by LA Flyer 8:00-1:00, already had one response this afternoon.

More trade-ins, and a call from a listing in the OC Register.

Shelved a box of vintage mysteries, most went on the shelves in the mystery section,

but a few were more collectable.

Comics came in - one box was poorly packed, jammed a large book into a too small box, it got twisted and quite bumped, and it's shifting around damaged the 2 comics below it. The other 2 boxes were fine, except for missing 3 things...

Put up more labels for the Fiction & SF.

Tuesday

AudioBooks up & some trading

Shelved some more AudioBooks, now have about double.

Shelved a bunch of LP vinyl records, Polka, Funk, Reggae, Metal, and others.

Had someone trade in books again, 2nd trade.

Finalized the coupon/ad in the OC Weekly.

Set up for flyer distribution early tomorrow morning.

Monday

Shirt, Stamp, & Release

Tried to order business cards from staples in person but they had no clue.

DiscoverCard is all set to accept now.

Ordered T-Shirts with A Castle of Books Logo.

New stamps arrived.
self-inking $1.00 stamp
and erasable graphite stamps for pricing paperbacks

Paid bills - bleagh

Ordered punch cards from staples website - we'll hope they come out alright.

Spoke to Valerie at the OC Register about opening the bookstore. She's doing an article on Book Baron's Closing.

Emailed a press release, that Phil was kind enough to write up, for the Chris Lembesis Signing.
Here is it:
Join us at A Castle of Books to celebrate our Grand Opening with local author Chris Lembesis, who will talk from and sign his books on Old-Time radio, on Saturday, July 28th, from 12-4 p.m.
(old address) We are located in Orange County at 7159 Katella Avenue, just east of Knott Avenue, in the Katella Square Shopping Center.
Chris and co-author Randy Eidemiller will sign their book SUSPENSE 1942-1962 RADIO'S OUTSTANDING THEATRE OF THRILLS which includes an introduction by legendary writer Ray Bradbury.
Chris has worked with Bradbury and movie critic Leonard Maltin and is an expert on what radio was all about in its "golden days."
Bring the whole family and discover the city of Stanton's first and only bookstore, which carries a full range of subjects, in paperback and hardback, used and new, from best selling fiction to history and more.
"A man's home is his castle," is the owner's credo, "and a house without books is like a room without windows."
Contact us at Current phone is 562/448-2262 (edit 2012-06-10)

Sunday

Boxes and Bible

Last night, after much struggling and twisting and maneuvering, managed to squeeze one of the extra bookcases into the closet.

Picked up an SUVload of boxes of books from storage in the morning.

Messed around with adding comments to peoples Myspaces.
If you're on myspace add A Castle of Books as a friend!
http://www.myspace.com/acastleofbooks

Sold that fancy German Bible.

Went and picked up two more SUVloads of boxes of books in the evening.

Saturday

Best dressed books

Want to wear an advertisement?
T-Shirts, a Hat, and a Clock!

http://www.cafepress.com/acastleofbooks

http://www.cafepress.com/acastleofbooks2

Unpacked 8 boxes of hardcover SF/Fantasy.

Shelved around 4 or 5 boxes of paperbacks, filled in the spin-racks some more.

Friday

New History books

Went and got a fire extinguisher this morning, so everything should be good with the Fire inspection.
Phil came by and sold/traded some nice new political & history books.
Billy the Kid - The Endless Rides by Michael Wallis

Einstein by Walter Isaacson

Manhunt by James Swanson
FDR by Jean Edward Smith

Hemingway on the China Front
John Hemingway - Strange Tribe

Hopefully he can also lend his Borders experience so I can do the promotions for signings.

Sales were up quite a bit from yesterday's paltry single.... :) and there were a number of browsers.

Also we have:
Popular Mechanics - Do-It-Yourself set

And anyone want to Draw Manga?

Thursday

of Signings, and stuff

Went and picked up a pair of file cabinets that Warren Woody donated at his work. It took awhile, traffic up there was terrible, plus there were construction delays, so didn't get back to open until about 10:30.

Fire inspector came by, I thought that this had been done, but obviously not. I'd forgotten to
get a fire extinguisher, so I need to do that and put it up somewhere.

Yellowbook stopped in and convinced me to do yet another yellowpages ad.

Chris Lembesis, local book collector & author, came by and offered to do a signing,
tentatively scheduled for Saturday July 28th.

Here's some more toys,
Betty Boop statue

Mr. Potato Head

Simpsons Couch Statue

Simpsons - out of beer

Simpsons - Krusty the Clown

Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean's Mirrormask Sphinx cat statue

an 1800's Bible in German

and a few Edward Abbey first editions.

Well, I just got scammed

Guy came it to 'return' a couple of books, swears his son bought them, but they already had them at school. Freeman Patterson Portraits of Earth - Signed $33, and A History of Great Inventions by James Dyson $25, prices still on them. Not really something a kid would have purchased. He said he called and someone said it was okay to return them, there's just me answering the phone and I certainly don't remember that conversation, nor do I remember selling them and it's just been me running the register. There was no receipt of course. So I paid $40 for my own stuff back. I just wonder when he managed to get them in the first place.

Wednesday

StoreFront Sign

Camera!

Joe (UPS) brought a bunch of stuff this morning.
Bain sent me a nice flatscreen and a digital camera!

The Wire Racks arrived, in very multiple pieces to be put together, and the wrong color, I'd wanted the dark red, they sent black. Ah well I don't want to send them back.

Went a bit wild taking photos :)

Beans mini-graphic novels/short manga stories, illustrated poety, interesting cute stuff. Real small hardcovers with dustjackets.