Thoughts on a Monday after SBL

I didn't have Internet access from Tuesday AM until Wednesday PM, and then I didn't have my computer until this morning, so no updates on the book I'm reading now. With my finger still in a huge bandage, typing is slow. Hopefully I can post again tomorrow from it.

Other thoughts: Driving 1300 miles round trip for SBL saved us substantial money in drayage charges, but it left me quite tired. Traveling in a big truck with books bounces one around a good bit and the noise level leaves one a bit deaf. Just so you get an idea, the fees we pay for shipping books to and from conferences are significant. But, the frustrating part is that the charge for shipping them is usually significantly less than the fee we pay to have them transported to the hotel; that fee is called drayage and is a monopoly. In right-to-work states, you can bring your own stuff in, which is what I did this year in Atlanta.

I had many good conversations at SBL. It is always nice to put a face to names and renew acquaintances. I was especially encouraged by the number of younger scholars who purchased from us and complimented us on the quality of our books.

I didn't take any pictures of tear-down; I was too busy tearing down so I could get the truck loaded and get on the road. I had a 7.5 hour drive ahead of me. The drive was very pretty; I have always enjoyed driving through Tennessee and Kentucky. I took I-75 on the way home, stopping in Cleveland, TN to pick up some books.

I arrived back in Warsaw on Wednesday around noon, unloaded the truck, returned it, and checked e-mail briefly. After that I rode my bike home in freezing rain; quite different from the 72º F weather I had just left!

Thursday morning, I headed back to Louisville, where I had left Debbie while I was at SBL. She stayed with her aunt and cousin; I joined them for the weekend. Nothing like another 500 miles of driving on top of the 1300 I had just done. We had a grand time with them and arrived home late last night.

SBL day 2

Wow! Today flew by! The first half-hour was totally dead; I had flashbacks to the 2008 AAR conference in Chicago where you could have done cartwheels in the aisles. But, thankfully, it got busy shortly thereafter and the next thing I knew, it was 1:00 in the afternoon. I had just spend 4 hours talking to countless people, directing them to other vendor's booths for stuff we didn't have that they were looking for, helping people find the right book, etc. It was a blast. I also had a good time talking to all kinds of people; please don't get offended that I don't mention you by name. There are just so many people.

This afternoon, Hendrickson Publishing did a special presentation to the people involved in the production of the Codex Sinaiticus project. Very nice. The book itself is beautiful; it is definitely worth the $500 they are selling it for at the conference.

This evening, I finally managed to get to a bibliobloggers dinner. I met lots of people for the first time ever, got to put names to faces on others, and renewed acquaintance with others. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation—and the food was pretty good too :) I had a Reuben, and you know they know how to make a Reuben when they ask if you want pastrami instead of corn beef! Chris Tilling was aghast that I would eat sauerkraut, cheese, and meat in a swirled bread, but you know those Brits and good food. He told me that English food was underrated; I'm not convinced :)

I was late getting to the bibliobloggers' affair because I ran into Joseph Kelly and John Anderson (a soon-to-be Eisenauthor) outside the book exhibit. We talked for a good while and suddenly realized we were late to the dinner. I guess in a way we were already there :)

Enough for today. I need to read some and I have a 7:00 breakfast engagement tomorrow with Bobby from Hendrickson. We always have good time together, so I am looking forward to it. I'll do a workout first, of course. Oh, that reminds me, I haven't told you about the workout facilities here, have I? Well, they are adequate; they have two treadmills, an elliptical, and a stationary bike, but it is in a tiny room. The bike is a Life Fitness—a good enough piece of equipment. But, the software has the intervals divided into 10 seconds; that is too short. The interval is too short to get a good workout; it should be at least 30 seconds. My average heart rate working out was about 25-30 BPM less that normal.

SBL set-up

OK, I'm a day late posting this; I should have done it last night. But, I was having too many good discussions after the IBR lecture last night and didn't get in until late.

Now that the excuses are out of the way, here's the traditional pictures of set-up. We did things a bit differently this year. I drove a U-Haul™ with all our stuff this year. No, I wasn't trying to avoid the airport security!

Here's the back of the truck. No, the soda isn't mine!


About this time, we feel like it will never get done.





But, we do



We're trying something new this year. How's your Luwian?

Serving and being served

Over the course of the last week I have been served many times. It is simply amazing to me how much not being able to use one finger on a hand changes your abilities. I'm thankful for the opposable thumb, but this week, I am even more thankful for fingers! Things that I normally would do without thinking have become a major undertaking, or even impossible in some cases. Typing, for example, is not easy. I took for granted my typing abilities. Not anymore! I've never seen so many typos in my stuff. And, even worse, it takes three times as long.

The timing wasn't what I would have chosen, either. We had two books come in this week. I had to make room in the warehouse for them and then help unload the truck. Normally, I wouldn't have a problem moving boxes around; after all, I've worked in warehouses most of my adult life. But, now I have to be careful or I will be almost screaming in pain. One misjudgment in placing the box results in a few minutes of pain—I don't like medications, so I take the minimum I can bear.

Additionally, it is the week before SBL. Anybody who has worked for a publisher that exhibits there can tell you what I mean. No matter how carefully you plan, there are always last minute things. This year seems worse than most for some reason. I've been behind on getting things done, which has put others in a bad spot.

I didn't get the order forms done on time for various reasons. That resulted in a special plea to the printer. He said he would do what he could, but no guarantees. I received a call Saturday morning from him; he was working on them on his day off and had a short question! I was truly humbled; he took his day off to serve me—and it was my fault that we were late! Later on Saturday, in the early evening, I received a call from Andy. I had screwed up on one of the poster layouts and he was redoing it. On Saturday evening!

As I think of these things, I am truly amazed at how much I take for granted in my daily life. I haven't even mentioned how much more Debbie has had to do this week. I can't even take a shower without her help; I can't help with the dishes, or the laundry, or...the list goes on. Talk about humbling...

I am truly grateful for all the people who have served me. I thank God for them; may I never forget how blessed I am.

One final thought: please, don't count the number of typos you found in this post! I used to dislike the squiggly lines in word processors under words it didn't recognize—not this week!

What's with this sign?

This was in the men's restroom by the exhibit hall at SBL:



The first time I saw it, I thought I was in the women's restroom...

SBL, the return flight

As I was saying on Wednesday when the Internet got cut off...Our return trip to the airport in New Orleans began with two cabbies fighting over us. The one cabbie wanted all 6 of us (which would have cost us more), but the person at the Marriott told him he could only have 3 of us. So, another cabbie claimed three of us. The first cabbie began to object, loudly, that he was first and should get all 6 of us. Meanwhile, the other cabbie filled his cab and left. Another cabbie came up and three of us proceeded to move to his cab. The first cabbie had already loaded 4 of our suitcases and seemed to think that meant he got 4 of us, all the while making his claim loudly. In the end, 3 of us went in each cab, with the suitcases unevenly distributed. When we arrived at the airport, the first cabbie seemed to think that since he had 4 of the suitcases, he should be paid more. In the end, after Dave had called him on it, he agreed to the posted fare. The irony of all this is that he had Christian music going in his cab...do you sense a disconnect here? Then again, if your theology is one of substitution without transformation, maybe not. But, that is a subject for another day.

Because we got done so early, we had quite a bit of time at the airport, so we had one last New Orleans lunch. I really do like New Orleans food; I like spicy foods. So we waited for our flight, some of us reading, others knitting, others napping (or napping while reading...), some trying to make the wireless work (it was free, and worth every penny of it, but no more than that...). Then comes the lovely news that because of a glitch with Airtran, our flight to Atlanta was delayed ½ hour and our flight out of Atlanta was delayed a full hour. We were already getting into Indianapolis at 11:15 or so; now it would be about 12:15. From Indianapolis to Warsaw in about 2.5-3 hours; can you say tired?

The flight to Atlanta was without incident, but once we got there, the gates had all changed. No problem, except that our flight was sharing a gate with another flight. Talk about confusion. One person missed their flight; I think she ended up spending the night in Atlanta. Our plane was on the ground and waiting for us, but we couldn't embark; the flight attendants were still in the air on a different flight. Ah, the joys of air transportation: crowded flights, tight security, getting charged for luggage, late flights, should I continue?

Anyway, when the flight attendants came rushing up, there was a round of applause. They missed the irony, but I can't blame them. They probably wanted to get going as badly as we did. We embarked and left Atlanta behind on our way to Indy, arriving about 12:15. Disembarking, we headed for the baggage claim; we could still get home at a fairly reasonable time—NOT! We watched as another flight's luggage was unloaded within 5 minutes of their landing. We, on the other hand, waited for our luggage to be unloaded for 45 minutes! No explanation was given; we just had to wait. In the end, we arrived home after 4:00 AM EST. Our return trip had taken us more than 13 hours...needless to say, none of us were at work at 8:00 that morning :(

ἐν παντὶ εὐχαριστεῖτε· τοῦτο γὰρ θέλημα θεοῦ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ εἰς ὑμᾶς. (I Thes. 5:18)
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (NRSV)

SBL Day 4 and return

I got into the exhibit hall a bit early (one of the doors wasn't latched all the way), so I decided to try something new for the last day. I took all the books off their stands, except the new releases. Then I put them spine up on one table, creating a bargain-like look (it also allowed us to get a head start on tear down, but that wasn't the reason).

It was interesting to watch the response as people came in. Even though the prices were identical, people would grab a book and possessively hold it while looking at the next book. The attitude around the table was also less relaxed and more tense. Interesting, isn't it? I'm not sure I will do it again; I don't like the selfish attitude that it surfaced, but interesting, all the same.

Because I had a head start on tear down, we got done about 1/2 hour earlier than usual. So, we grabbed a cab—actually two—and headed to the airport. Getting the cab was an interesting experience. I'll post pictures on Monday and continue; right now they are cutting off the Internet to update the firewall...

SBL Day 3

Another busy day (aren't they all?). I finally heard registration figures today. There were 4600 preregistrations, but the final total is right around 4300. That compares to around 6000 preregistrations last year, with a figure around 5700 attendees. So, a 20% drop in attendance.

I must say that the conference feels about 20% smaller this year. There is less of a buzz around the conference hotels and the the exhibit floor seems less crowded. But, we're still selling books at a good clip, for which I am thankful.

Monday night is always our Eisenbrauns dinner. The dinner always happens the last night and is a chance to reflect on what has happened, what we would do differently, what we would do the same, and what we've learned about the industry. During the conference we are so busy and running in different directions that we don't always have a chance to keep up with each other, so this is a good chance to do that. Oh, and the food is always excellent. Tonight was no exception. I can't remember the name of the place, but it was on Dauphine street, about 3 blocks in. Good food, good company, good year at SBL.

Here's some pictures of the booth:

Gina, getting ready for the day


A view of the new release tables


Your friendly Eisenbrauns staff (from right to left: Dave, Marti, Gina, yours truly) (Merna is taking the picture)

SBL days 1 & 2

Boy, these last two days have been a bit of a blur. The first day started out a bit slow until people found us. We are in a side room this year, off the main hall. The signage could be better, but people have found us—and bought books.

We have a lot of new books this year, and are almost sold out of A Manual of Ugaritic; there aren't a lot of A Syriac Lexicon left, either. We're totally out of The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought. It seems I never bring enough of some titles, and too many of others. If only I could read the minds of our customers and bring all the right books!

Saturday night I made it to a few receptions: the SPS/WTS, Augsburg/Fortress, and de Gruyter. Tonight (Sunday), I managed to find a bit of floor space to hear N.T. Wright speak. After the question and answer section, two of us stood around and talked theology for about an hour before I headed off to the Brill reception. Now, I'm ready for sleep...tomorrow comes early.

Speaking of which, the number of people in the workout room the last two days is zero. Yes, a goose egg; nada; zilch. I noticed that at a conference earlier this year; the attendance to a workout routine seems to have been one of the victims of the economic downturn. Never mind that it doesn't cost anything; the right way to assist in the economy is to stop exercising. I know, it doesn't make any sense, but that's what I have seen this year in my travels.

New backdrop

I mentioned the new backdrop for the Skyline in the last post, but neglected to post a shot of it. There are over 160,000 book covers in the image! You need to come by booth 704 and see it in person:

SBL day -1

Today was a bit busy. I spent a good deal of it running back and forth between ASOR, ETS, and SBL. By the end of the day, I really needed a shower :)

We have 6 booths at SBL this year and have rearranged our floor plan to give us more space for books. I think you'll like it. We also have a new back drop behind our checkout this year. I posted a picture of it below. It contains over 160,000 book covers; Andy had to split it into 5 different files to keep his computer from crashing.

Setup went amazingly well, considering that at first there were only two of us instead of the normal four. Marti was stuck in Indianapolis overnight because of the FAA computer screw-up; Dave was tending ETS so I could do SBL setup. That left Gina and me. I don't know why, but it seemed to go faster this year. By the time Marti rolled in a little after 10 (she had a 6:00 AM flight!), we already had the backdrapes up, the tables draped, the posters up, and we were ready to work on books and the Skyline. I had already made one trip to ASOR for stuff we needed and had transferred some stock from ASOR to ETS as well—I was sure loving that the three conferences are only 2 blocks apart this year!

By 2:00, Jim had delivered all the ASOR stock and was helping Dave inventory and box the ETS produce. When Jim had to leave for a meeting around 3:00, I took over. We were completely done with setup by a little after 4:00—an amazing accomplishment! If we hadn't needed to inventory and move the ETS stuff, we would have been done even earlier. I don't know what was happening, but I sure am thankful!

Here's some pictures of the setup:

Gina, putting together book risers


David Orton of Deo (we distribute Deo in North America)



Gina and Marti setting up the rest of the Skyline display


Putting the finishing touches on the Carta posters

ETS day 2

Busy day, not for sales, which were a bit less than yesterday, but for interaction with people. Really, that's why we do conferences; sales are nice because they pay for the conference, but the real reason we do them is so we can interact with people. I can't even begin to remember all that stopped by, so I won't even start (I know, a cop-out).

I managed to get around to a few other vendor's booths today. There's some good stuff out there. I grabbed a copy of The Faith of Jesus Christ: at the Hendrickson booth. It was just published, even though our website says January. It looks very good; I can't wait to read it. While at the Hendrickson booth, I got a copy of another Michael Bird book, also just published: Crossing Over Sea and Land:. Good reading ahead!

Well, tomorrow I head over to SBL right across the street for setup. The FAA mess this AM really has caused problems for us. Marti got stuck in Indianapolis until 6 AM tomorrow. At least Gina got out; she just arrived about an hour ago. If Dave hadn't come yesterday, it would be a real mess; Dave will man the ETS booth while Gina and I do setup and pray that Marti gets in on time!

OK, time for dinner. I'm getting hungry.

and they're off!

At least some of us are, anyway. Jim, Merna, and I are on our way to New Orleans. In fact, as you read this (due to the power of scheduled posts), we are somewhere between Indianapolis and Atlanta. The rest of the gang who will be there for SBL are leaving either Wednesday or Thursday.

I am attending ETS; Jim and Merna are taking care of ASOR. So, if you are attending either one of those, come by and see us. We won't even make you buy a book! But, I bet you will; we have some great titles this year and, as always, some great deals. I will be posting pictures tomorrow, as well as commentary on the conferences.

Last minute details

It's that time of the year when all the last minute details jump out at you. I'm getting our shipment ready to go to SBL; it has to leave Monday in order to get there without a penalty—and the last thing I need is a penalty! They already charge an arm and a leg for drayage! So, my time today has been spent building the skid of display material, making the pick-up appointment, running to the print shop to get the order forms, on and on the list goes...all the last minute stuff.

Don't get me wrong here, I really love this stuff. It just all seems to pile up at the last minute. You seem to be on schedule, everything is ready...then, BOOM something you forgot, or something is late, or... Yep, it's that time of year :)

So, after the SBL shipment goes on Monday, the ASOR shipment goes on Wednesday, and the follow-up ETS shipment goes on Thursday, I have nothing to do about conferences for 2 days. Then, Tuesday morning, November 17, I'm off to the airport and the conferences.

Once I get to New Orleans and get checked into the hotel, I head on over and set up the ETS display. ETS starts on Wednesday at 9:00 AM...I'm tired just thinking about it. I think I'll just live a day at a time. Maybe that's why Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, eh?

SBL in October!

Yep, you read it right: Eisenbrauns is offering in-booth pricing on titles now through the end of October. If you subscribed to BookNews you already saw this:

BookNews from Eisenbrauns

Eisenbrauns has two great deals going on right now and running through the end of October. One is for folks who are planning to attend ASOR, ETS, or SBL in New Orleans this year; the other is for those of you who can't make it. The odd thing is...it's the same deal: ASOR/SBL/ETS in October!

No need to pay New Orleans's sales tax, no waiting in line, no worrying about availability or having to elbow your way through colleagues to be sure that you get that book you dearly wanted, plus no shipping costs (for domestic orders over $99.00). Browse our virtual booth and get ASOR/SBL/ETS in-booth pricing, but only until October 31.

OK, enough said! Here's the link to the books:
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/pages/vbooth01

The fine print:
1. This sale includes forthcoming Eisenbrauns titles! We will hold any order that includes a book that will be published between now and November 1 until November 1, so that your order can all be shipped together. (Of course, your credit card will never be charged until the books are invoiced and shipped.)

2. The prices on this sale are in-booth prices; these prices are the very best that will be available on these books! Prices will not be lower either in-booth or after the meetings. Order form prices will be 10% higher than in-booth prices on Eisenbrauns titles.

3. We think we've included every book that will be in the booth, plus some extras!

4. No returns will be permitted on this sale.

5. Sale absolutely ends October 31; NO late orders will be accepted.

Of course, we still hope that you will come by booths 704-708 in New Orleans, at the SBL, or by the tables at ASOR and ETS, to say "hi," and chat a bit; but we hope that making this sale available now will make your time at the meetings in New Orleans easier and more enjoyable!