Brattlecast: A Firsthand Look at Secondhand Books

So you're passing away. Time to start asking yourself the really important questions such as, 'What is going to happen to my library?' In this episode Ken shares tips and tricks for ensuring that your books don't become a burden to your loved ones after your demise. Plus, how do you care for your books well enough so they outlive you in the first place? There's not much that we can do to prevent our bodies from crumbling into dust but, given the right conditions, your books can still be in great shape hundreds of years from now. As John Updike said (in a book), 'All around us we are outlasted.'

On this episode Ken talks about haggling: are his shops prices flexible? Yes! Should you ask for a lower price on the book you're thinking of buying? Sometimes! What's the secret to talking your way into a great bargain? Be subtle, be nice, and, ideally, be a child whose early love of reading will later catapult you to the heights of success in a literary field. Plus, why Ken might pay you more for your books if you live on the first floor.

From baseball tragedy to book shop treasure, we’re taking a look at the journey of Casey at the Bat. The poem was first printed in the San Francisco Examiner in 1888, popularized on vaudeville, and, in 1901, published in the very valuable first edition in the studio with us today. It has been reprinted hundreds of times since, and remains enduringly popular with collectors of both literature and baseball memorabilia. Plus a discussion of a variety of other home-run hits of baseball literature.

So you want to start a book shop? Good! Ken’s not afraid of the competition; he’ll encourage you. He wishes every building on his street could house a different independent book shop; he’s a proponent of idiosyncratic small businesses as an antidote to the bland, big-box sameness that plagues most American cities. So what advice would Kenneth Gloss, with his years of experience, impart to the neophyte bookseller? It’s simple: just be in great physical shape, and know everything.

The past is a nightmare, but we can’t erase it. It’s important to preserve historical documents, to make them available, and to let them teach us the terrible lessons of history. But, as a bookseller, what do you do when the contents of these documents are truly vile? Is it ethical to make a profit by selling a photograph of the victims of Nazi concentration camps, or to keep a book on bomb making in circulation? And should you eschew the controversial novels of today, when they tend to become the classics of tomorrow? Join us for an exploration of these thorny issues on this week’s #brattlecast.

On this week's Brattlecast we're talking photoplays: souvenir books that were created to promote classic films during the golden age of Hollywood. They made them for King Kong, The Sheik, and even Moby Dick. Plus, which is better, the book or the movie? Ken weighs in on a particularly contentious case.

Ken receives a popular new novel as a birthday gift. Much to his dismay he finds an evil twin lurking in its pages. The book contains a character who is nearly identical to him, but with some sinister variations. Ken is an honest, well respected bookseller and his shop is thriving; his fictional doppelgänger is the criminally unethical proprietor of a failing book shop on the very same Boston street. An edge-of-your-seat legal thriller ensues as Ken tries to solve the mystery of why best-selling author John Grisham, a total stranger, would want to hurt his feelings like this.

What does the future hold for brick and mortar book shops? Things are looking bright! As the internet has decimated big box book retailers, small independent book shops have reemerged as vital community spaces. These shops offer the author readings and events, fortuitous browsing discoveries, and simple human interactions that you just can't find online. So what's the greatest threat to modern booksellers? It isn't the Kindle: it's the rising rents.

You’ll be over the moon for this extraterrestrial episode!. Ken talks about collecting items relating to the Space Race, in a journey from sci-fi paperbacks and 1960s newspapers to real Russian space suits and million dollar moon rocks. It’s out of this world!

It’s one of the nicest parts of parenthood: reading to your kids! From' ‘Goodnight Moon’ 100 times to ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’, reading is a great way to spend time with your children, and to cultivate their lifelong love of literature. In this episode we talk bedtime stories, fairy tales, and Ken’s own adorable holiday reading tradition.