From The Editor by Craig Stark #117, 24 March 2008

Questions about eliminating odors from books pop up on bookselling forums all the time. There's unquestionably a raging appetite for answers. Replies, which I assume are largely well intended, range from sensible to questionable to bizarre, and the variety of products recommended - wow, it seems endless. You may recall that we published an article a year or so ago that suggested using baking soda. An ok solution, I'd say, but like most techniques, this one requires tons of patience and often one or more re-treatments - and even then odors sometimes creep back. Why not get it done quickly and completely instead? Not possible? Then you haven't tried an ozone generator!

Also, we're still catching up on our eBay Top 10 lists, and it's December in March today. From Pamela: "Stephen King showed up four times in the Fiction Top 10, along with Poe, Dick, and Grisham. But Marquez led the list with a $4,000 sale of Cien Anos De Soledad. On the non-fiction side, the list started with an signed copy of A River Runs Through It and ended with a Ron Paul title sold to gather funds for his presidential campaign. In between there were the familiar (Narcotics Anonymous, Picasso, Klein's New York, and A Margin of Safety) and the unusual (a pair of early airplane books and Peter Zumthor Works). The biggest news, though, isn't about price or frequency. Fully half of top 10 listings sold as Best Offer or Buy It Now, hinting that the upper price ranges may be moving away from auction sales. Whether this is a trend or a Christmas fluke will become apparent in the next months."

Finally, I accidentally deleted an entire folder of emails last Monday (March 19), so if you sent something late Sunday or early Monday and didn't hear back from me, this is likely why. Please try again - editor@bookthink.comm - and sorry for the inconvenience.

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