Bibliophiles Find Knowledge, Fellowship at Farmington Bookstore

Bibliophiles (book lovers) from all over the metro area come out to Farmington on Monday nights to show off pieces of their collections, learn more about the history and culture of books and get expert instruction from a man who has made his living from the book business.

hosts the Collectible Book Seminar every other Monday night. The classes, $5 each, cover the history of books, terminology and jargon, how to value a book and how to identify first editions. The informal seminars are open to whoever collects books, deals in them or who just likes the feel of a hardbound edition of their favorite author's works.

The seminars are taught by Jim Deak, owner of Acorn Books and a dealer in rare and interesting books for 20 years. He is a boardmember and past president of the Book Club of Detroit.

The book lovers talked a while about bookseller services like "Fulfillment by Amazon" and  "Bookrouter"; Web sites that take books from people who want to sell and hold them until someone comes looking for those specific titles. They traded tips and hints about which of these online book consignment stores are best as Deak coaxed them into sharing their treasures.

"Two book limit on show and tell," he warned.

Maurice Barie of Ferndale had a picture book of classic movie stars. He wasn't looking for values and didn't want to sell his books, he just wanted to get a sense of what he was holding onto.

Harriet Larson of Livonia brought a 1869 copy of the Cider Maker's Manual. She also wasn't interested in selling her books, but wanted to show them at the seminar.

Dave Stockman of Ann Arbor talked about the infamous Asbestos 451 copies of the Ray Bradbury sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451. As a publicity stunt, the publisher put out a limited 200-copy run of the book with asbestos covers, in the days before it was known the mineral is toxic. These days, 54 years after that stunt, copies of the poisonous book go for up to $10,000 apiece.

Denny Freitag of Detroit showed off her 1907 trashy romance novel, The Six-Cylinder Courtship. She defended her ownership of the book, and hundreds of others like it, as the opposite of those racy magazines people say they buy for the articles.

"I buy (the books) for the covers," Freitag said. "I'm an English major and these are written really badly. I do read them, but I collect them for the cover prints."

Along with that gem, she had a copy of The Scarecrow of Oz that Deak said was worth between $100 and $150 for the condition of the colors on the cover alone. Freitag is the owner of the Detroit Antique Mall and Senate Antiques, both in Detroit, and is using her growing understanding of books to start to buy and sell them at her stores.

"I sell them to buy better books," she said.

Part of Deak's lecture covered some of the terminology of books. Many words in the study aren't used anymore (octavo, quarto) but are kept because of their specific, if obscure, meanings.

"You have to know what these terms mean so that you know what you have," he explained. "Also, knowing the terminology is a connection to the past."

While there were dealers and collectors at Deak's class, there were also professional bibliophiles. Mike Kotwick of Fraser is a academic librarian who works at Baker College in Flint. He came to be around his people – book people.

"I come for the conversation, for the validation," he said. "I get to sample the scene with people who are very into a particular medium. In this case, physical books."

Future seminars covering the valuing of books and the history of bookmaking will be held on March 21 and April 1, respectively.

The Collectible Book Seminar meets at 7:30 p.m. every first and third Monday at Off the Beaten Path Books & Cafe, 23023 Orchard Lake Road in Farmington. For more information about the seminars, contact Deak at (586) 578-0900 or follow Acorn Books on Facebook.