LIKE OLD BOOKS?
Check out the Houston Book Fair Collectors, archivists at festival will celebrate with city during event
If you like rare and antique books, get to the Printing Museum Saturday for the Houston Book Fair.
The annual festival is designed both to celebrate old books and educate people about them, says the museum curator, Keelin Burrows. You’ll find more than 20 dealers who specialize in rare and antiquarian books — everything from Texana to children’s books, collectible mysteries to antique cookbooks. Here’s the schedule:
10 a.m.-noon: Free book appraisals by Kurt Zimmerman, a book collector who can examine that 19th-century novel you inherited and tell you whether it’s worth anything. Limit is two books per person.
Noon-2 p.m.: Preservation lab by Houston-area archivists. Here’s where you’ll learn about preserving your old books so they’ll last for generations. You can also get advice about restoring or repairing a book the proper way.
2 p.m.: J.P. Bryan, who founded the Bryan Museum in Galveston, will talk about “Following Maps and Finding Books.” Bryan’s museum focuses on the preservation of the history and art of the American Southwest, and he’s a longtime collector of books and printed materials.
All day, you’ll be able to shop for rare and collectible books. Catch demonstrations of papermaking, letterpress printing, bookbinding and lithography and see the museum’s linotype museum in action. The Houston Book Arts Guild and the Houston Printers Guild will sell hand-made books and related crafts.
The Printing Museum is still recovering from an electrical fire in May that damaged its reference library. Exhibit spaces are closed, though the museum hopes to reopen in the new year.
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