[PUNK ZINE]. [USED-BOOK TRADE IN NYC]. Cometbus #56: A Bestiary of Booksellers

New York: Microcosm Publishing, 2015. First Edition. Very good. 8vo. 112 pp. Original illustrated wrappers. WE IMMEDIATELY READ THIS BOOK COVER TO COVER. IT IS A REMARKABLE AND VERY INTELLIGENTLY WRITTEN PUNK 'ZINE THAT IS TANTAMOUNT TO A LUC SANTE-INSPIRED, PARTLY TRUE, PARTLY FICTIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CYNICAL USED-BOOK SELLER IN GRITTY NEW YORK CITY.

The author, Aaron Cometbus (pseudonym of Aaron Eliott) is best known for his Cometbus punk 'zines which began in 1981 and which were at first simply handwritten and photocopied. He is not only a bookseller, but a punk musician, author and editor. The present volume has been described by (truncated) the author and his publisher as a ‘zine but to us it seems more like a quasi-autobiography. It is quite literally an A-Z Bestiary, and in it Cometus energetically and cleverly describes the strange attitudes and behavior of used- book sellers in the wicked city.

From the publisher: "The 56th issue of Cometbus is a loving ethnography of New York City's wild, weird, and bearded used book trade. Aaron writes about his fellow book dealers -- and their tribes -- with all the unflinching and generous powers of observation that he's applied to every subject. As he writes in chapter one, 'A book sale is a competition, after all, where knowledge, physical endurance, and speed all count. But like an early eighties hardcore show, it only looks violent and chaotic from a distance. Up close, where the action is, everyone is helping each other out.' This Cometbus zine is also a love story -- about books and about people. Full of wordplay, dusty houses, and animals of all species."

Typical used-book hawking curmudgeon follows: "Customers? Don't get Adam [his cohort] started. They are the worst, the scum of the earth, which is why his career as a retail shopkeeper was neither successful nor long. He would chase people out if they came looking for Lord of the Flies. 'Idiot! You should have read that in middle school. This is a book store, not a daycare. Get the fuck outta here!' (Inventory #: 4366)