We had a great time on Rare Book Cafe, a web-based talk show just for book lovers

We had a delightful time on Saturday appearing on Rare Book Cafe, the web-based talk show devoted entirely to rare books. It was good, as usual, to see Steven Eisenstein, the host of the show and owner of A-Book-A-Brac Shop in Miami Beach. Steven has been an exhibitor at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair for years. We've known Steven and his wife Edie for decades.

It was also good to meet a new co-host for the program, Lindsay Thompson, owner of Henry Bemis Books in Charlotte, North Carolina. Lindsay is a retired lawyer and is knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects. He is a terrific addition to the show.

Edie Eisenstein has a segment on the show called Miniature Corner, 

We missed our friend Thorne Donnelley, owner of Liberty Books  in West Palm Beach, who also is a regular exhibitor at the book fair each year. Thorne, who is a co-host on the show, was away at Rare Book School in Virginia. We're eager to hear tales of his adventures when he returns. T. Allan Smith, creator and executive producer of Rare Book Cafe, was in and out during the show.

We took the opportunity during our visit on the show ta couple of volumes from our recently acquired Martin L. Fackler Collection of surgery and gunshot wounds. Dr. Fackler was a military surgeon and distiguished researcher in forensic sciences. He was the author of more than 300 articles on would ballistics, body armor, and the treatment of wounds. We're offering these volumes as a collection. You can watch a replay of the program above. Toward the end of the program, we had to depart to tend to customers since we were broadcasting live from the store.

The Rare Book Cafe is live from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. every Saturday on Blab.im. If you enjoy rare books, it's time well spent. It's easy to get on Rare Book Cafe. From your desktop (or laptop) computer, sign into Twitter or Facebook. You should use a Firefox or Chrome browser. This Blab.im system doesn't work with other browsers. Navigate to Blab.im and follow the prompts to sign in. Once you're in, do a search on "Rare Book Cafe" and should easily find it.

You can also sign in on your iPhone or iPad. Be sure to download the app. Make sure you get the Blab app with the little purple space owl.

Thanks, Steven, Lindsay, and Allan for all  your work on this program on rare books, which is sponsored by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. 

Lighthouse Books in 3D! Do you like it?

Well, we're trying a experiment here. There is a new smartphone app out called Fyuse and it's intended to make 3D photography available to the masses (read: ordinary folks who aren't likely to invest in a special 3-D camera but do have an iPhone). It's intriguing because of the possibilities it presents for showing antiquarian books in a whole new way and, potentially, to a new audience.

It's too early to tell how well Fyuse will be received but one thing we liked about it is that no special equipment is needed to view it. The scene at the top is inside the front entrance. If it's rotating wildly, just put your cursor over it and stop the scene anywhere you'd like. That's Mike at his desk amid unending appraisal work. Notice the book about lighthouses in the foreground as you pan around. How appropriate! And it clearly illustrates the 3D effect you get with this new app.

The bottom scene is a book about surgery from the 1500s. It's part of a collection of books on surgery we acquired recently, and quite an interesting find.

Of course, 3D photography has been around for eons, ever since a Victorian-era English scientist invented the stereoscope. In the earliest days of movies, filmmakers were tinkering with 3D effects and, of course, who can forget the legions of filmgoers wearing those paper-framed glasses with the red and blue lenses that made the likes of the Creature from the Black Lagoon scare the bejeebers out of everybody. Over the decades, the popularity of 3D has waxed and waned but 3D movies are still with us. These days, if you're a fanatic, you can even buy your own 3D camera. They cost, though.

Now all you need is a smartphone.

We're going to keep on doing these videos. VR or Virtual Reality has become popular these days. If you're a business owner, you can have a Google photographer come to your store and create 360-degree scenes. Well, this is pretty close to VR so we're going to do our own. So check back and you'll see more scenes inside Lighthouse Books, ABAA.

This has been a fun experiment for us. We kind of like the results. We hope you do, too.

Rare Book Moment: Signed copies and such

No. 20: Rare book appraiser Michael Slicker discusses signed books, inscribed books, and association copies. Michael Slicker, a recognized authority on antiquarian books, has owned Lighthouse Books, ABAA in St. Petersburg, Florida, for more than 35 years. Michael Slicker's Rare Book Moment is recorded at Lighthouse Books, ABAA. Music by Jack Payne: Back to Those Happy Days

At the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, we'll be in Alcove 3. We hope you'll come to see us!

The excitement builds as we approach time for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. We've been sorting books and putting them in boxes for weeks now in preparation for the book fair. At this writing, we're only a week away, and as always, it seems like an insurmountable task to get all the selections made and everything ready for the short trek over to The Coliseum.

After 34 years, though, we know it'll all come together in the end.

We're looking forward to seeing many old friends who will be coming to town specifically for the book fair. We hope they'll make some time to take in some of the events that are a part of SunLit Festival, the springtime celebration of literature that begins today and runs through the next ten days, including the book fair next weekend. A lot of folks in town have been instrumental in building SunLit Festival 14 events in its inaugural year last year to more than 40 event this year. Follow the link to more information about the SunLit Festival.

When the book fair starts next weekend, you'll find us in Alcove 3, our usual spot. We'll have shelves and cases and tables full of all the books we specialize in, including Florida history, antique maps, vintage prints and more. We expect to see a lot of old friends both in the antiquarian book industry and book lovers who can't stay away from the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Most people coming to the book fair know what to expect but sometimes we encounter book lovers who haven't experienced the book fair before, and invariably, they'll wonder if they will be able to find something that suits their tastes – and their wallet. For the newly initiated fairgoer, we say that you can rest assured that you'll find books of all types, from very rare and very expensive to remarkable inexpensive find of delightful reading copies. We always have a table of $5 books, and we know that many other booksellers do, too.

Above, we're sharing a video that is running on local television stations to promote the book fair. It was made by visitors to the book fair last year.

More later, but we've got to finish packing.