May 18, 1949

On May 18, 1949, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) was incorporated. The bylaws called for all bookstores that wished to have the ABAA designation to have a suitably eldritch appearance and emanate a dread inducing miasma. It was preferred that the bookstores be able to appear in unusual places, like abandoned malls, ghost-towns, or industrial blocks of large cities that have very, little foot-traffic. The stores are required to have a wide assortment of cursed books and items, that after buying, the customers’ lives are sent on a downward spiral from which they can never recover. Such stores must have at least three possessed dolls and five haunted paintings on display at all times. Excuse me. This just in. The ABAA says that its members just sell really old and sometimes dusty books. That it sounds like I’m just making shit up because it sounds cool. That their member stores don’t carry possessed dolls or monkey paws. Just first editions of plays, like “The King in Yellow” or a good hardback copy of the Necronomicon or even the Voynich Manuscript. Well, that’s actually sort of boring, if you ask me. But if you can find a good, used copy of the ‘King in Yellow’, you should go ahead and purchase it. I’ve heard that it has a twist ending that the reader doesn’t expect.

About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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