What's News @ PFB -- Late October 2014

1.  Kind of short notice, but we're launching Image Comics' The Field, by our friends Ed Brisson and Simon Roy, at PFB Main Street, on Friday October 24th from 7-9pm.  Cheap graphic novels, complimentary snack foods & inexpensive but tasty Chilean wine. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by.

2. New bookmarks, featuring likenesses of Simone Weil, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Zadie Smith, designed by our good friend Don King.

3.  We're now carrying Short Stack Editions -- a series of small, hardbound cookbooks published in Brooklyn, each issue focusing on a particular ingredient.  Other limited-distribution food mags coming in the next few months!  If you have a favorite that you'd like to see on our shelves, please drop us a line, or call.

4.  Rebecca Solnit's Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness, new from Trinity University Press, just arrived and is now out on the shelves.

5.  Classy-looking PFB totes with art by graphic genius & old, old friend Rebecca Dart, coming in time for Christmas!

More New Books @ Used Prices

We just bought the stock of a bankrupt BC bookstore.  About 16 boxes of brand new books, which we're selling at used prices.  Lots of recent literature, visual art, books about BC, First Nations studies, & etc.  As always, limited quantities.

Davis' Flaubert

Is it too soon to start nominating best-of-the-year titles?  Lydia Davis' long awaited translation of Flaubert is out and it's a doozy.  I read it once on a recent flight to Los Angeles and once on the way back, undistracted by the snowcapped volcanoes and flake-blue lakes passing by below.  Davis' English sentences are flinty and precise.  Coupled with Flaubert's exemplary psychological realism -- every character in the book is broken differently, and every word they speak affirms it -- it's an unbeatable combination.

Big Folio Society Collection in @ Main Street

About 80 different Folio Society titles, heavy on English and ancient history, including some nice multi-volume sets.  All with slipcases, as originally issued.  Out in New Arrivals up at Main Street right now.

Best of Vancouver

Thanks to the readers of the Georgia Straight newspaper for voting us Vancouver's 2nd best bookstore, new or used, in the annual Reader's Choice poll. This is the first time we have ever placed as a "New" bookstore, and we're enormously stoked to be listed alongside longtime Lower Mainland favorites Book Warehouse and Banyen Books.

In other news, it's still incredibly busy here. We've taken in close to 2000 used books in the last three days, and the new arrivals are neatly stacked (well, relatively neatly stacked) all over the floor, and waist-high in front of the "New Arrivals" bookshelves, which are still full, despite having been emptied twice since the weekend.

We have some interesting new books in house, including signed first Canadian editions of John Valliant's The Tiger, available on a first-come, first-served basis. And program guides for the Vancouver International Film Festival ($10, inc. HST).

It's also Locution tonight, a monthly spoken-word event that we host for the UBC Creative Writing department. Tonight from 7-9pm four different UBC MFAs are reading up at Main Street, along with special guest Lee Henderson, author of The Man Game.

Oh, and it's CSA Space's fifth anniversary today too, with a new exhibition of photographs by neighbor and friend Mike Grill. 6-9pm upstairs from the bookstore at #5-2414 Main Street. Drop by, drink a frosty cold beverage, elbow your way through the crowds.

Yet More New Arrivals: Folio Society; Easton Press

Absurdly busy in both shops all weekend long. Waist high stacks of books three deep on the floor in front of New Arrivals. Two separate vendors with great stacks of used graphic novels, a nice set of leather bound, 14K gold-edged Easton Press hardcovers, a Folio Society Philip Pullman 3-volume slipcased set, some large format art books and cookbooks, and hundreds of other interesting things.

(Image: Easton Press On The Origin of Species)

Big McSweeney's Collection in @ Main Street

Lots of back issues, maybe twenty in all, including a first printing of #3; #11 with the DVD; the Comics issue with the scarce wrapper and the zine inserts; the issue disguised as a pile of junk mail; the fold-out slipcase with the comb; the tiny books in the shallow tray; and many more. Plus a big stack of Believer back issues, and a few books signed by Dave Eggers, including the somewhat scarce Sacrament (a rewritten-and-expanded version of You Shall Know Our Velocity).

A Busy Few Weeks @ Both Shops

Early September, back-to-school rush, lots going on in both shops:

• Approx. 750 new graphic novels priced and out on Main Street's shelves

• Approx. 100 "For Beginners" books priced and out at Main Street

• Big collection of hardcover Heidegger titles, including a number of rare and out-of-print titles, purchased and on display behind the desk at Main Street

• Lots of new books in Kitsilano. New books are selling really well in Kits, and we've recently expanded the selection there, so that all the new titles we carry are now available at both stores. No more crosstown treks! Also, lots of new bookshelves going in at Kits as we speak.

• New lease in Kits! We really like the neighborhood, and plan to be in the 3100 block of West Broadway for the forseeable future. Also, huge shout-out to our new neighbors at Baugette & Co., located at 3273 West Broadway, for their awesome coffees, breads, croissants, pastries and chicken-salad sandwiches. Highly recommended by our staff, and a great addition to the neighborhood.

• Lots of quality used stock in Kits. Very few of our friendly West Side competitors seem to be doing much cash buying these days, and we're seeing lots of prime material. Hesse, Vonnegut, Murakami, Palahniuk, Bukowski & multiple etc.

As always, we're buying and trading books on a daily basis. No need to make an appointment; if you're in before 5pm, we will be happy to consider your books for cash purchase or trade. No limit on quantity; we have the interest and financial wherewithal to deal with collections of any size, and are always glad to see you.

"Say, Did You Guys Get Any New Books In?"

Rebecca vs. the stack. Photograph by Keith Dunsmuir.

Huge Used Graphic Novel Collection In @ Main Street

We just bought a massive collection of used graphic novels. Approximately 750 different books, all in exceptionally good condition, many like new. Mostly recent (1990+) Marvel and DC/Vertigo titles, with a smattering of independents, manga, anime art books, and some locally published stuff (Steve Rolston; Rebecca Dart's great Rabbithead) Some are on the shelves right now, and we'll be adding more every day until they're all out, which will probably take a week or more of careful cleaning and pricing.

New Arrivals, New Shelves, New Cookbooks & Kids' Books

We just spent the last week and a half building new shelves up at Main Street to accommodate a recent influx of cookbooks and kids' books, including out-of-print back issues of Art Culinaire magazine, a recent Cordon Bleu guide, and specialty titles by Rob Feenie, John Bishop, Charlie Trotter, Michelin three-star Pierre Gagnaire & etc. About 200 books in all.

New Classics Collection in @ Main Street

One of our best scouts just returned from a sale in the Pacific Northwest with a car full of classic paperbacks, including a stack of old orange Penguins, and lots of inexpensive popular favorites (Orwell, Huxley, Hemingway, & etc.). Almost 1000 books in all, which will be hitting the shelves over the next few days.

Used Cookbook Collection in @ Main Street

Big collection of quality used cookbooks just arrived at Main Street, including lots of French/Italian/Spanish specialty titles, some of which have been inexplicably out of print for years. Also in over the last few days: about 750 recent pocket books (mysteries, thrillers, science fiction & fantasy), a dozen different Bukowskis, mostly modern Ecco Press reprints, and a collection of twenty different Philip K. Dick paperbacks, including my favorite Dick title, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, a collection of late stories bundled with the heartbreaking autobiographical introductory essay, "How to Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later."

We probably saw 40 different vendors yesterday, a more or less typical Saturday of nonstop buying/cleaning/pricing/filing.

Son of Massive Science Fiction Collection

Another 40+ boxes of mint condition science fiction pocket books and hardcovers just arrived up at Main Street, many originally purchased from my old employer, the Granville Book Company, c. 1986-2001. Shelves stuffed full; lumber for new shelves ordered and on the way.

New Arrivals: Rick Steves, Jhumpa Lahiri & More

Just arrived: a new assortment of publishers' hurts and remainders, including a dozen different recent (2008/9) Rick Steves European guidebooks, just in time for the spring travel season, nicely illustrated kids' books by Beatrix Potter, Jhumpa Lahiri's acclaimed short story collection Unaccustomed Earth, Edward Bunker's long-lost novel Stark, with a new James Ellroy introduction, hardcover copies of The 100 Mile Diet, books on the history of modern graphic design, & etc. All at 50% or more off original Canadian list price. Plus a collection of approximately 400 recent mystery and thriller pocketbooks, which we haven't even had time to touch yet.

It's busy here today!

Massive SF Paperback Collection in @ Main Street

We just bought a 700 piece science fiction paperback collection, which includes 30+ vintage Philip K. Dick titles, c. 1968-1984, about a dozen H.P. Lovecraft Ballantine reprints, many Harlan Ellisons, a number of scarce Glen Cook mass market paperback originals, & etc. All of the books are in immaculate, as new, unread condition. If you collect high-grade vintage SF/fantasy, or are just looking for a particularly scarce title, now might be a good time to stop by.

(Update, 4pm: 16 linear feet of science fiction pocket books!)

Now Arriving: More Remainders

Late-in-the-day phone call from the customers broker, notifying us of the first of approximately 250 boxes of publisher's remainders that will be arriving some time tomorrow morning. A mix of better quality art, architecture, cultural studies, and cookbooks. Photos coming once everything's unpacked and divvied up between the two stores.

Why There Haven't Been Any Updates Here for a While Now

* 3000 volume estate collection, including hardcover first editions by Bruce Chatwin, Thomas Pynchon (pictured), Cormac McCarthy, W.H. Auden, Italo Calvino, Phyllis Webb, J.D. Salinger, David Adams Richards, & etc.

* 1000 pounds of remainder books, including lots of art, poetry, Japanese woodblock prints, high-end gardening books, cookbooks & etc.

* Tons of new books, all at 20% off Canadian list price.

If you haven't visited in a while, now might be a good time to. We're busy!

We're also raising food for the Vancouver Food Bank. Any donation of food that's not instant noodles or K.D. will receive 10% off any used book in the shop now through Christmas Eve.

Now in Stock: More New Books Than Ever!

A month or two ago, we decided to start stocking new releases from most major publishers, in addition to the usual assortment of used books, out-of-print books, and publisher's remainders. Mornings now routinely begin with a parade of courier vans arriving at Main Street's front door, and we've built new shelves at both stores to handle the influx.

Our new book ordering guidelines are very simple: will anyone still care about the book a year from now? If someone buys a book from us, reads it carefully, and brings it back for store credit or cash, will we want to see it again? Questions like this eliminate 90% of the new releases in most major publishers' catalogs. We will happily sell what remains for years to come.

So, no thanks to Sarah Palin's ghostwritten autobiography. Yes please to Barabara Kingsolver's first novel in nine years (above), and Anthony Beevor's history of D-Day, and the Momofuku Cookbook, a new edition of Wade Davis' perennially requested The Serpent and the Rainbow, & etc.

Also noteworthy: the strengthening Canadian dollar means that many of our new books are now priced way below US cover price. Just saying.

Major Renovations @ PFB

No posts for a week or two now, because we've been busy upgrading Main Street's front room to cope with an influx of new books and recent arrivals. Lots of new display space for our ever-expanding selection of new books, and a few smaller A-frame units to hold some of the more interesting new arrivals, including Joseph O'Neill's terrific short novel Netherland (Dutch investment analyst lives in post-911 NYC, plays cricket, and registers the city around him in succinct, lucid sentences equally reminiscent of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Richard Ford); Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife (First Lady to fictitious unpopular president reviews her life); John Huddy's Storming Las Vegas (Soviet-trained Cuban ex-commando and associates knock over five Las Vegas Strip casinos, three armored cars, & etc.), and lots more.

New stereo speakers in the back of the store, too; no more bass blaring at the desk!