It's been a long while since I've posted anything on my blog. It's definitely not an ingrained habit. This year I am planning buying trips to California and Nebraska. I've had a large amount of inventory come in over the past few months and I've bought some nice books. I have about 40-50 boxes of unpriced inventory in boxes around the book room and in the garage. It's always easier to buy inventory than it is to price and catalog it. It can be a tedious process checking book condition, researching market value, and then doing the data entry for cataloging.

We returned Friday 7.13.18 from our trip to Nebraska to see our daughter Lindsay and son-in-law Spencer. I had some appointments to follow up to look at books along the route. We left Sunday 7.8.18 and I took along my wife Valeta and my two teenagers Katie and Timothy.

I dropped them off in Lincoln, Nebraska and then drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I had an appointment to look at books from a long-time customer of mine who is selling his collection. I also had one other follow up lead in Minneapolis. I ended up purchasing 40 boxes of books in the Minneapolis area. Combined with my other appointments in Nebraska and Wyoming, I came home with 52 boxes of books. That's quite a bit of weight to pull home in the van and trailer.

One of the fascinating aspects of my business is the variety of books that I encounter when I'm out on a buying trip. I have been doing this for 27 years full-time now, and I always encountered numerous books that I have never seen before and I about buying.

On this trip, in addition to the collection of books from my customer in Minnesota on Utah and Mormon history, I looked at collections of books on Christian and medieval history, Minnesota history, Eastern religions, and quite a few books on regional American history. On a recent trip to Montana I looked at a large collection of books on French history and the French Revolution.

I truly do love being a bookseller. I am surrounded by books in my office and book rooms and am constantly handling and examining books. I do take the time to read brief excerpts sometimes from the books to better acquaint myself with different topics in which I don't know as much as I would like. No one should ever make an excuse that they are bored. There are unlimited numbers of books and topics to study and learn. So many books, so little time as the saying goes.