{ bee + spool }

After breakfast ,

H. (his account of the day here) and I headed over to Berkeley for Small Press Distribution’s semi-annual to occasional warehouse sale. 20% to 50% off independent press titles for one day only. SPD is “the only wholesaler in the country dedicated exclusively to independently published literature. [They] take risks on exciting new writers, enabling their work to develop an audience and gain recognition in the marketplace.” I missed the one held earlier this year, but spent part of Saturday visiting the warehouse in West Berkeley.

In addition to the about-20% off on new and current titles, there was even a $2 rack where we found, among other books, Burroughs’ half-English, flipside German book, Naked Scientology/Ali’s Smile, which is definitely worth the two bucks just to see how big of an ef-u Burroughs gave to Scientology in 1973 (first publication date).

We missed the 2pm readings by local authors, but gained a *free* book at the Poetry Trading Post, where you can write a poem in advance or on the spot (see left) and trade it for a book amongst a small, but interesting selection.

I scored a signed copy of Chris Abani’s Hands Washing Water, published by Copper Canyon Press, whose books are distributed by SPD (of course).

Perhaps it would’ve been wise to put more sense into the endeavor and fare as local poet Oscar Bermeo did when he traded his poem at a previous SPD Poetry Trading Post event and then was featured on SPD’s website. I recall using the words, gun, lollipop and highway to an uncertain end for the poem-to-trade. Oh, but what a cool reward, nonetheless!

On shopping: The warehouse is not sensical to the non-employee, as the books are not arranged by author or subject matter, and only loosely organized by publisher. I found myself wandering up and down the aisles of shelving, mostly judging books by their covers, as I didn’t have a particular author or independent press in mind going in. There were several letterpress chapbooks (both covers and content letterpressed) published by Burning Deck Press found and bought.