Anyone Going to Kalamazoo? (2010 Verson)

I thought about adding this to last year's thread but decided to keep it separate. You can read last year's discussion here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/62099

Anyway, this is for the International Congress on Medieval Studies which is held each year in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This year's Congress will be held May 13-16 - a week later than usual. For registration and other info, go here: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

I'm sure we'll talk about it more as we get closer. This year you have until April 28 to get the early registration price.

I have a couple of posts on my blog about the Congress. This one's my recruitment post: http://medievalhistorygeek.blogspot.com/2010/02/geeks-guide-to-kalamazoo-volume-...

And here's the link to details about a book giveaway: http://medievalhistorygeek.blogspot.com/2010/04/kalamazoo-book-giveaway.html

There's also a Congress Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=18622829442

If you can get there, you should - great conf.

I'll be at Kalamazoo, though not giving a paper this year. My first stops in the book display on the first morning will be the Boydell & Brewer and Cambridge booths, probably in that order. Ashgate is now a lower priority for me, because I now get a 40% discount on all their books as an author (since I wrote a chapter in an Ashgate book that came out last year -- Locating the Queen's Men, 1583-1603.)

I'm writing a journal review for The Long Morning of Medieval Europe and they sent me a review copy - you think I'd get 40% off too?

It's a pretty favorable review ...

I already get 20% off Cambridge but I'm trying to figure out if that'll be in addition to Conf discounts in Michigan.

I registered some time ago. Playing with the program, I found that a session I wanted to attend was right next to one where a couple people are going to talk about the longbow. Drat!

I'm here - and in Eldridge!

That means no toting books up those friggin' stairs!

This year I'm right above the coffee shop - someone out there knows me. :)

So, are we going to manage an LT coffee/bad wine hour this year? Good chance to gloat about all the books...

The evenings are shot for me - but Saturday AM is open.

I actually went to my room real quick to try to assess the damage so far.

At this point I have 32 books in the room and 13 to pick up Sat eve/Sun morning.

And that was after arriving too late to pick up the Chaucer blog book and before I've visited about 5 publishers and Powell's.

This is already a record year for me - now it's just a matter of by how much.

EDIT: Just remembered - I also have 4 books being shipped to me - was gonna order them later but the publisher will ship 'em free.

I ended up buying 48 books this year, 43 of which I'm carrying home on the train tomorrow, and 5 of which I had to have shipped. Looks like you beat me, Curt! In the Boydell & Brewer booth today (Saturday) I saw that you had reserved that book on the Early Medieval Siege that you mentioned somewhere. I got something like 15 books from Boydell & Brewer, which I think is more than I bought from them the last two years combined.

Here's the final damage, including those being shipped:

60 total books
30 from my wishlist, 30 not
39 paperback
21 hard cover

I don't remember exactly which booths I bought the most at - I was very much an equal opportunity purchaser.

However I do remember being surprised at only buying a couple from Loome and about 10 from Powell's - but Powell's had a whole stack of Liverpool's Translated Texts for Historians Series for anywhere from $9-$13. Couldn't pass those up.

Of course the real damage is to my wallet, even with the conf discount. Frex, the Med Siege book lists for $115 and I got it for $69.

I'll tag all of these "ICMS 2010" for anyone who's interested.

Edit: Entered - I also posted a picture of what I came home with as a profile picture - the book on the floor's one I took with me to read, not a new one. It ended up being 59 because the two Philo volumes entered as one.

Here's my haul from Kalamazoo, including only those I physically brought back home with me, and not including the 5 (I think) that are being shipped later:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dkathman&tag=kzoo%2B2010

I did get 15 from Boydell & Brewer, plus a few older Boydell & Brewer books from David Brown Bookseller. I got nothing from Powells this year, mainly because I've gone to both of their Chicago stores recently, and got most of what I wanted then. The most expensive book I got was $75 (vol. 1 of The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, half price), and I got a few others that were over $60, including a Boydell & Brewer one that (like your Medieval Siege book) was normally $115 but $69 with the conference discount.

My highest dollar purchase was The Langobards Before the Frankish Conquest for $87 - it lists for $145. A bit steep but I'm a fan of the Historical Archaeoethnology Series.

Part of my problem is finding books I don't really want or need - but are in my "sort of OK" mental databank. For example, The Compleat Scholar had several including a copy of Ziegler's The Black Death for $7. It's 40 years old and I have quite a bit of newer stuff but it's supposed to be OK and if I ever run across someone who wants to lear more, I can pull it off the shelf and give it to him or her. My guess is I bought 10-15 books that fit in that category - I didn't really need them but the price was right.

I'm dangerous around books.

Oh, I got some books like that, too, as I always do. The David Brown Book Company has a lot of remainders like that -- things that I don't really need, but for $6 or $8 or $10 (often for a book with a list price of $30 to $50 or more), they're hard to pass up.

I was extremely restrained, because I had to take Amtrak to Chicago, hang around an hour at Union Station, then take the Metra to far enough out to be picked up, with books on my back. Three, including one very large one, are following by mail. so my total this year was about a dozen or so. By now I see quite a few that are already on my shelves 8-) I was just adding the new ones to my on-computer bibliography and happened to think I should put them on the website, too. That reminded me to have a look here.

Well, if anyone's interested in the sessions I attended, I've started summarizing them on my blog: http://medievalhistorygeek.blogspot.com/

I think I got away relatively unscathed compared to Curt -- maybe 10 this year, but then I got wholloped with $25 (!!) to check my now-bulging bag at the airport. I clearly need to move closer to Michigan.

Next comes the collateral damage - references that came up in papers or someone you talked to mentioned. I haven't started wishlisting those yet - and figuring out which I have to have.

Well, the books I paid to have follow me by mail just arrived and now all my new Kzoo books are listed in librarything.

Same here. The last of the books I was having shipped arrived today, and they're now all in LT with the tag "kzoo 2010".

2011 Congress information, schedule, registration, etc. is up: http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/index.html

Yep, I got an e-mail from them the other day. I'm giving a paper this year, on Thursday at 3:30 (Session 106).

I was just thinking it must be getting to be that time. I just go for academic fun and let other people do the work to entertain me 8-) I was cornered into giving a paper one year; too much work jamming years of even sporadic research into a few minutes!

Is anybody else here in Kalamazoo? Today was the first day of the conference. My paper went very, very well, which was gratifying, and I bought 39 books -- 25 that I carried away, and 12 that I have to pick up on Saturday, and another couple that I'm having shipped. I got 16 from Boydell & Brewer. I'm going to wait until I get home to input them to LT.

Well, this is a sad day for my bank account. Yesterday was actually sadder but I finished it off today.

Final results will have to wait until Sunday but my latest count is 66 books - 43 here in the room, 20 to pick up Sat and 3 to ship.

Shame on Ashgate and Cambridge for 50% off all hardcovers! I'll post the final damage here (not in dollars).

I only bought one book from Cambridge here this year, but I bought eight from them last month at the Shakespeare Association of America meeting. I got five from Ashgate here, all of which I have to pick up Saturday even though they had multiple copies of several of them. I bought five more books today, one of which I have to pick up tomorrow.

I think my total is something like 47 or 48, including two that I'm having shipped. I may have to wait until Sunday to assess the final damage, because tomorrow night I'm going out with a friend immediately after the conference and will then need to pack.

By my initial count, I have 43 books to carry home on the train, which is the same as last year. I know I'm having at least 4 books shipped, and if there aren't any more that I'm forgetting about, that means I fell one short of last year, when I carried 43 books home but had 5 shipped.

Three of this year's haul are books I got for free in exchange for agreeing to review them for Sixteenth Century Journal. Last year I only had one of those.

Here's the damage as of now:

63 Books I brought home
4 more to ship (I think)

Of the 63:
44 Hardcover
19 paperback
38 from my wish list.

They're all entered and tagged, "ICMS 2011". I'll add the others as they arrive. I uploaded a picture as my profile pic - now I have to see how my shelf space is doing.

Impressive, Curt.

Here's my Kalamazoo haul, not including the four (I think) that are being shipped:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dkathman&tag=kzoo%2B2011

Mine only included 8 paperbacks, which made hauling them home on the train harder (but I managed to do it).

You've also been going to Leeds and other conferences and buying a bunch of books there. In the long term, your acquisitions are far more impressive than mine. Packing 60-100 lbs of books and taking them on a train is pretty impressive too - when I was hauling stuff to my car I kept thinking how nice it was that I didn't have to worry about getting them through a transit system.

I've never bought as many really nice books before though. I'm trying to figure out if I should stick with the cheap "furniture in a box" type bookcases I've usually gone with or buy a really nice one to match.

Yeah, that's true. I've gone to Leeds each of the past two years and got a bunch of books there, and I go to the Shakespeare Association of America every year and typically get 30-35 books there. Plus other conferences now and then. This year I'm not going to Leeds, but I am going to Prague for the World Shakespeare Congress, before heading to London for two weeks. I'm going to try to constrain myself somewhat. It's tougher to take books home on a plane than on the train, where I can haul a couple of extra bags.

I bought a couple of nice custom-made bookcases last year to go with my cheapo ones. Of course, I need more now, as always.

I've become a real piker; I didn't buy nearly as many books this year at Kzoo. Of course, I had already bought some on my Orkney trip. They're all here, and one from Kzoo should be turning up ere long. A friend spotted a Fred 2 book I discovered I didn't own. . . It had someone's name in already, but they said they could ship me a copy. Naturally it was the most expensive book I opened there. . .

The last two books I ordered in Kalamazoo finally arrived today, so now my entire 48-book haul is input. See link above in #28. Will I crack 50 next year? We shall see.

My Fred 2 book arrived and I discovered something I hadn't noticed in Kzoo: it's in German. No problem except that I can't share it with anyone I know around these parts who'd be interested. Magnificent illustrations I could share, however. It's a collection of essays. I've only read one on his falconry book so far. All these new books. . .

I bought a couple in French this year. Figure'd it was time to bite the bullet. I already read one essay in French in another book - it came back quicker than I thought it would.

My two U Chicago Press books came yesterday and I added them. Still waiting on a couple more.