Working late on a stack of Baedekers, imagining a whole generation not experiencing currency conversion at European borders... let alone the different standards of weights and measures each country used to have. Did you know Herbert Hoover was involved in international standardization?

Look, about the ghost. We haven't actually registered an apparition / cold spot / odd noise in this house. (Unless you count a few customers asking the name of the white cat. Our cats are orange and tortoiseshell...?) So we usually disappoint ghost hunters. That said... Her name is Claire. 🧵

Today I learned an appropriate exclamation to make over this cat (forgive my transcription into the Roman alphabet here): Tumi koba narama (this apparently means "you're very soft", which is the most common thing people say upon meeting Esk)

We're headed into the holiday season, so two things to know: - The only items in the store that are more expensive due to tariffs are: two leather bookmarks. The other 2,100 gift items and 47,000 books haven't gone up. thehauntedbookshop.com - A trip to a local bookshop is a present in itself 📚❤️

My new assistant is starting next Tuesday. I'm already saving up tasks for her: - Get two Warhols out of the closet - Practice using puppets' eyebrows - Alphabetize Russian-language fiction (okay, I'm kidding) - Rearrange cookbooks by region - Find Waldo - Give Pothos a new 'do

The small African press, writers, and translators we are funding have a very cool plan for these two books you're making happen. But we need to close up the funding on this second book. Can you help? Last stretch! #AfricanTranslationProject #AfricanLiterature #HumanTranslation

Let's talk about books and the public trust. 📚🧵 Something that is easy to forget, in these days of barcode-scanning / auto-adjust pricing on third-party platforms for pennies plus shipping: Booksellers are not merely people who sell some popular books in a competitive market.

We meet again! This is the first edition of "Farm on the Hill" by Madeline Darrough Horn. It's the fourth or fifth copy I've had in 20 years - common in this part of the country (the American Midwest) because of theme, local author... and illustrator. Yes, the illustrations are by Grant Wood.

Sometimes we get dubious remarks about our #CorsiRosenthalBox. "What's with the big filter thing?" This. This is what's with the big filter thing. New 20x20x1" MERV 13 filter on top, old one below. That gray-brown stuff is what you didn't breathe while you were here.

In "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", there's a description of a room that is empty except for dead flies on the window sill. Suddenly, 8yo me realized that one well chosen detail can convey an entire room. An entire mood, even. 40yrs later, I still look for authors who can do that.

Pardon my suddenly watery eyes, but a long-time regular just stopped in with this. He'd been reading, found this line, and thought of me, so he wrote it out and brought it in. "I am a handmaiden of civilization. I am a bookseller." 📚❤️

The first edition of "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh that I... had, until today. Also sold recently: a signed copy of "Olivia" by Ian Falconer. Sign up for new arrival alerts (you can specify one or more topical categories) on our website. www.thehauntedbookshop.com

Looking through the #Iowa State Almanac and Statistical Register, 1860, I stumbled across this advertisement for my predecessor:

Don't underestimate the damage that this political theater is causing. What we reap when we sow uncertainty will undermine public trust for decades to come. “'It really is like that—like they kidnapped us until they get their payout,'” one interviewee said. www.thehandbasket.co/p/snap-recip...

I count six major retailers offering "early access Black Friday" sales as of November 8. It's fine. Everything is fine. Move along. Put it all on a credit card. It's fine.

Not enough coverage of the SNAP tomfoolery and how it affects farmers. A few outlets have mentioned that crop sales are struggling with the tariffs, but not the connection: when Iowa farmers can't sell high quality soybeans, it's not just the market that suffers. (1/2)

Well, I sent off a parcel by Priority Mail last Tuesday, and tracking says it will arrive next Monday, so you know what that means. It's holiday shipping tips time 📦🙃 1. If you're planning to mail your gift, send your USPS Media Mail by Nov. 28. Priority? Dec. 10 at the very latest.

"Images of manuscripts...help document the provenance of items that are taken from their rightful owners during war or under other circumstances. The images are evidence of histories, invaluable in situations where legally uncontestable ownership records do not exist..." hmml.org/stories/reve...

D'oh. We accidentally closed for about 20 minutes before our usual closing time at 6pm tonight, because the cat said it was dinner time, and I still hadn't gotten used to the time change. It's so dark outside! 🍂😅

"Immerse yourself in the captivating narrative of "_____" by A___, a hardcover vintage edition that promises to be a valuable addition to any literary collector's trove" 🤮🤮🫩 Is anyone actually buying books described like this (with almost zero condition information)? It's tacky and probably LLM-AI

Speaking of Her Highness Sophie, how about some NEW ARRIVALS! Email [email protected] or call 319-337-2996 to order. We ship! In-person shopping (masks required) 12-6 Mon-Sat.

On the left, a loving, guileless extravert. On the right, an introvert with many snuggles to share by day... and the absolute damn empress of all she surveys, also prone to leaving small fragments of mice in significant locations, by night.

🗽"51 independent presses and literary organizations have lost a total of $1.2M in federal funding" in 2025 - Jimin Kang, PW 🟥 "Donations of funds and materials valued at over ¥10M [$1.4M]... have significantly improved the reading environment... [for] rural children" - Article on Chinese publishing

Our child was born six months later, and he wasn't eligible to be vaccinated until mid-2022. Emerging data continued to demonstrate that letting him get sick was gambling with possibilities like type 1 diabetes, myocardial inflammation (100x more common than vaccine injury), and long covid. (1/2)

Dear manufacturers, Please. I am begging you. Just give us a spreadsheet with your product list. If you want to be extra nice, include MSRP, UPC/ISBN, and a link to high-res product images. But the point is: I can't tell from your schmancy grid websites which items you've discontinued. Thanks -

How a book that began as a scourge of the establishment became, in the government's words, "an important part of our nation's history". It's the 65th anniversary of Penguin winning the Lady Chatterley trial (they had 200,000 copies ready to go). I wrote about it a few years ago:

Cats, of course, need no costumes, but ours posed with their namesakes' works for the costume weekend 🎃 Sophocles 'Sophie' with the Theban plays Aeschylus 'Esky' with the Oresteia Happy #Caturday and happy #Halloween!

Kyiv has many cozy bookstores. They offer food for the brain (books) and coffee for long, often sleepless nights. Nations that read can think critically. Please, read books.

Well. Hello! We get a notification email when a book sells on our website. Guess what email came in a minute before midnight on October 31st? 🧙

Highlights of our evening with 4yo: - our proto-engineer deciding the shortest route between houses with porch lights on - 'I don't get scared, but that (8ft skeleton) scared me!' - I asked if he wanted a piggyback ride after 2hr walking. He yelled 'Turbo power!' and sprinted on down the road. 👻

We will close 30 minutes early tonight (at 5:30) so that the littlest bookseller can start showing off his costume! Happy Halloween 👻🎃👻🎃👻

A Chinese book printing company quoted in a trade journal article: "Around 15% of our business comes from the US," says Lai.... "We are working on minimizing business risks due to geopolitical instability and trade disagreements while developing different markets." This is what the tariffs cost us

Your periodic reminder that facial recognition is even less accurate on Black and Brown faces Apropos of nothing, I have loads of spare N95 masks. They're great for preventing flu and covid

Active interference in the fine arts is in the best interests of zero people. www.cnn.com/2025/10/29/w...

For those unsure: Fine = As New Near Fine = One or two minor flaws, like a surface wrinkle or a short scratch Very Good = Does not look new, but is complete (including dust jacket) and clean (no stickers/residue/grime). Might have a name written neatly on the front endpapers. Mint = A flavor 🙄

I won't die on a hill over this, because it's not even arguable enough to count as an anthill: There is NO SUCH THING as a "Very Good" "former library book". That is all.

Esk considers growing out his winter coat. NEW ARRIVALS! Email [email protected] or call 319-337-2996 to order. We ship! In-person shopping (masks required) 12-6 Mon-Sat.

🤣🪦 no notes

Actually, you know who else could provide spreadsheets and images? #BoardGame manufacturers. Our columns: Title, designer, art, publisher, UPC/ISBN, price, player count, time per game, age range, essential play mechanic, co-op/competitive/blend, and best season (back to school, Halloween, etc)

lol, publishers pushing for bookstores to use AI to recommend books 🙄 They'd have to give the AI, like, information about the books, or something. We're what, 40 years into computerized point of sale systems? And they still don't give us even spreadsheets of basic bibliographic data consistently.

Or maybe you'd rather donate directly to your own local food bank! Yay! Find it here: www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

If you have it please donate cash to the food banks. $10 in their hands will feed more people than the $10 worth of canned goods you can buy for retail prices. Also check on your elders. Many of them will not admit they rely on these programs so grocery gift cards or a surprise bag of staples

Our local food bank also provides a host of other services, including crisis support and help with navigating available resources. Your donation will strengthen our community. Match our $100 and get a picture of Esk or Sophie. Sharing the link is helping, too. builtbycommunity.org/donate/

Just finished @premeemohamed.com 's "The Annual Migration of Clouds". It's an emotionally genuine coming-of-age story, grappling with an all-too-relatable theme: when you don't really have any choices, how do you face being forced to make one? But you guys. The *world-building*. It's masterful.

Also, Lemme Elementary (if not all the ICCSD schools) has a continuous food drive.

NEW ARRIVALS! Email [email protected] or call 319-337-2996 to order. We ship! In-person shopping (masks required) 12-6 Mon-Sat.

Anyway, here's what Sophie has to say about everything.

The Boy Scouts in Iowa City are having a food pantry drive this weekend at the Fairgrounds.

"SNAP has an economic multiplier factor of up to 1.5, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Under that multiplier, the estimated $45 million in SNAP dollars spent in Iowa each month generates nearly $70 million in economic activity." littlevillagemag.com/food-banks-p...

How Much More Iowa City Does It Get, a series ALT: Beer by Charles Bamforth, The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman, Body and Soul by Frank Conroy, and Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went Into Nature in the 1970s, and Why They Came Back, by Eleanor Agnew