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Literary Review
ENDPAPER
A virtual bookstore
BY PRADEEP SEBASTIAN
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“Between the Covers” is the booksite for the serious book collector in India.
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Reading their knowledgeable, witty, detailed description of each book is almost akin to fondling a book in a bookstore or hearing a passionate, literate booklover describe a highly desirable book.
Entertainingly knowledgeable: The site’s banner (top); founder Tom Congalton (left) and the true first edition of The Great Gatsby.
“Between The Covers” offers a browsing experience worthy of that great bookstore in heaven. And the marvel of it all is that you can visit it from your computer.
“Between the Covers” is undoubtedly the best online rare bookstore- book website on the Internet today. Founded by Tom and Heidi Congalton in 1985, BTC is an independent, high-end online bookstore selling first, rare and signed editions in highly collectable condition.
I spend endless hours browsing (seldom buying) and losing myself here because it is really the first truly virtual bookstore. Reading their knowledgeable, witty, detailed description of each book (its condition and variants) is almost akin to fondling a book in a bookstore or hearing a passionate, literate booklover describe a highly desirable book.
There’s even a rotating 3D image of several ‘high spots’ (very collectible true modern firsts, signed or association copies, scarce and rare editions) that allows the browser a virtual examination of a book’s dust jacket, spine, front, back and even fore-edge! This is the booksite for the serious book collector in India.
I once noted in this column: “What, after all, can take the place of browsing in a bookshop, meeting knowledgeable booksellers and actually seeing and holding a book?” To this I can now only say: the unexpected joy of finding yourself in an online booksite such as “Between The Covers” that makes you feel you are in the perfect bookstore.
Busy and colourful
The first thing you notice when you open the BTC site is how busy, colourful and graphic-filled it is. The writing on the site, whether it is descriptions of books, ephemera or notes on their staff, is unfailingly witty, gently self-deprecating, and entertainingly knowledgeable. The one responsible for creating this vibrant, one of a kind booksite is BTC’s general manager, Dan Gregory. Gregory is also credited with inventing the amazing 3D rotating book image.
BTC strongly feels that hunting for books with just a search engine is boring and unimaginative. Looking inside a virtual bookstore such as “Between The Covers” you discover not only the books you want but also books that you did not know you were lusting for.
Apart from its large catalogue of modern first editions, rare and antiquarian books, the booksite has all kinds of other literary diversions – an illustrated glossary of rare book terms, articles on rare book collecting, a series of trading cards with pictures of famous first edition jackets titled Classic Card Series, a literary tee shirt called “The Tattooed Bibliophile” (more on this in a later column), and a literary game you can play: guessing the names of books with famous opening lines.
Their catalogues (hard and soft copies) are entertainingly written and beautifully produced, with literary sketches by the very gifted and witty illustrator Tom Bloom. An important part of the bookstore are the cats, Admiral Muffin and “her sometimes aide-de-camp”, Pirate Pumpkin, who offer the best rare book bargains in the vicinity.
Almost every book listed on their (virtual) shelves comes with a spanking image of the book’s dust-wrapper, and a detailed description of each edition’s condition and value.
The founder
The notes on their staff tell you that Tom Congalton began collecting books at the age of 16 because he was inspired by the memoirs of rare booksellers. From 2000 to 2002, he was President of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA). He has also served on the Committee for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, the oldest book fair in the United States, for the past 13 years, much of that time as either Chairman or Co-Chairman.
In 2005 he was invited to lecture as the specialist dealer in modern first editions at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar. He has published articles on book collecting, and the antiquarian book trade in specialist periodicals, and has been widely interviewed on the subject of rare books, book collecting, and the antiquarian book trade by newspapers and journals.
Tom Congalton currently serves as the only American on the eight-member Committee of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB).
I often think that BTC is the Indiana Jones of Antiquarian Bookshops: they are intrepid hunters of ‘high spots’ in modern first editions. They’ll track down that elusive, truly scarce to rare book, and proudly display it on their rotating 3D gizmo.
For instance, they have for sale right now the true first edition, first issue of The Great Gatsby with its original dust jacket. The picture you see is that very edition — an item seldom seen even by antiquarian booksellers. The asking price? $110,000,00. The legend on the BTC t-shirt says, “Not Just Another Bunch of Books Geeks”.
From this and the knowing, hip tone of the booksite, one gathers the impression that BTC would like to erase the old image of the serious faced, bookish, stodgy antiquarian bookseller.
I celebrate a high-end online rare bookstore such as this one because it allows bibliophiles — rich and poor — around the world to browse inside the store to their heart’s content. You may seldom buy anything here but BTC still affords you the rare privilege of roaming the bookstore, inspecting first editions, and dreaming about owning them.
Between The Covers’ tip for a sound start to book collecting is: “collect what you love, buy the very best condition you can afford, and if you’re on the fence about a book it’s better to purchase it than not, as you’ll always regret the ones that got away.”
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