Book Characteristics
In descriptive bibliography, terms are used which describe the components and binding of the book. Such terms include, but are not limited to: joint, fore-edge, text block, hardcover, endpaper, title page. These terms are necessary to develop the description such that it is understood by the reader. Book binding tomes will often provide the reader with book terms and their use. These books provide an understanding of the intrinsic workings of a book and how a book is constructed. Booksellers don't necessarily agree on this terminology, but it does provide a starting point.

Book Faults
Booksellers must also describe the flaws of the book. Are the boards warped? Are pages cockled? Are the corners bumped? Each of these terms -- warped, cockled, bumped -- has a unique usage in the book world. Although no two booksellers never agree on the terminology used in faults, and have been known to develop their own phrases, a glossary does provide a starting point in this direction. A personal favorite, read and remembered from book description was the word wobble. It described the binding exactly, and did invoke a clear picture of the book. I warmly thank the writer of that description for his usage.

1. Belanger, Terry. Descriptive Bibliography excerpted from Peters, Jean BookCollecting: A Modern Guide. http://www.bibsocamer.org/bibdef.htm. February 12, 2006.
2. Bibliomania Terminology. http://www.bibliomania.net/Terminology.html. February 12, 2006.
3. Carter, John. ABC for Book Collectors Seventh Edition. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1998.
4. Etherington & Roberts, Dictionary. http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/don/toc/toc1.html. February 13, 2006.
5. Richmond, Pamela. Bookbinding: A Manual of Techniques. Wiltshire: Crowood Press, 1989.
6. Smith, Philip. New Directions in Bookbinding. London: Studio Vista, 1974.

1. Where do you buy your books?
   We purchase most of our books at book sales. These sales are held around the country, but we limit most book purchases within several hundred miles of home. After all, we must still pack them, transport them, and unpack them. Many of these sales are held through library organizations. Libraries receive donated books, in addition to their withdrawn, properly deaccessioned library books. We tend not to sell discarded -- as they are called -- library books. Fine books are available for purchase at these sales in quantities and we often restock our supply of books at these sales. There are other places, too, and we take the time to visit these establishments as well.
   
   
2. What types of books do you sell?
   We sell mostly nonfiction published within the last fifty years concentrating on university press, art catalogs, technical books, and Western Americana? Why? Because we like this type of book -- and because the book field is so large that there is a need to specialize. Many booksellers select their own specialties and develop their booksite around those specialties. We are no different in that respect.
   
   
3. Doesn't old book translate to valuable book?
   Alas, in the book world, old means . . . mostly old . . . and that doesn't necessarily translate to valuable. There have been many, many books published. It is not uncommon to be told about a really, really old book, which because it is musty, or with broken binding, must be worth money. There are two points to be made briefly. The first point is that old to a bookseller has a different meaning than old to someone who doesn't work with books. The second point is -- and we can safely repeat the adage -- "old doesn't mean valuable." There may, however, be something about the book itself which makes it valuable: a first edition by a classic author, the binding, or the provenance. The book must be evaluated on its own merits.
   
   
4. If you sell rare, out-of-print, and fine books, you must be selling old books. Where are your old books?
   Fine books, rare books, and out-of-print books can be any age -- from five years to five-hundred years. There are exquisite bindings, classic books, modern books, handsomely illustrated books, informational books which have value and these are found from any period in time from 1455, the time of the first printed Bible with movable type by Johann Gutenberg, to the present day. You never know . . . from moment to moment the book world changes.

1. Do you read all those books?
   No, I don't read all those books. What I look for at book sales are representative samples of the types of books I enjoy and sell: university presses, art catalogs, nonfiction hardcover. I can usually learn a great deal by reading the dust jacket, and enjoy doing so when I write book descriptions. Reading dust jacket blurbs while attempting to purchase books is nigh impossible as book sales are usually frentic. Sometimes I do read the books I have for sale. I rather enjoyed a book on Erasmus at Cambridge and I have the opportunity to view books not normally seen in the mainstream. That's exciting!
   
   
2. What's the most expensive book you ever sold?
   That would be telling . . . but I do remember and keep it and others like it in the back of my mind when scouting book sales. It's unlikely, but surely lightning might strike twice in the same place just as a primate given a personal computer would eventually type out the complete works of Shakespeare.
   
   
3. Do you get to sit and read in the bookstore all day long?
   When I want to read, I go home to read usually in the evening after a day of the bookstore. Alas, owning bookstore means work -- a great deal of work. At this point in time I have a stack of books to clean, a stack of books to list, many books in which I must generate new descriptions. Of course, there's always the book work in the literal sense -- accounting for the day, week, month, and year. There are books to pack and ship and questions to be answered and books to be located . . . and you thought it was all fun? It is greatly satisfying, though, and I enjoy doing it, but I don't read while I'm in the bookstore.
   
   
4. How many books do you have in the bookstore?
   At last count, 7,500 books were in this bookstore with about 6,200 titles. It keeps me pretty busy keeping track of all those books. I check them in, I check them out, and in between I keep them on the shelves. They are sorted by topic and then by size as my space is limited and large heavy books are set to the bottom shelves. I can normally find a book within about ten minutes. It's a little like a needle in a haystack -- one book hides among many books.