Mullen Books, Inc.

07/12/2026

Saturday evening. So sad to see Norway fall to England after spending the day unloading pallets. We are down to 1 pallet! Tomorrow we will finish phase 1, and then phase 2 will commence. Almost 1700 feet of books. My back hurts!

07/06/2026

So there has been an interruption to the progress in unloading the pallets. First we had a 4-day heatwave, then last night we had a monsoon that flooded the basement here at the bookstore. Thanks to the efforts of Serv Pro, Western Lancaster County, things are on their way to being restored. We were here from 9 pm until 1 AM this morning, and returned at 6 AM to check on the situation by the light of day and formulate a plan of action. I'll post some pictures later - suffice it to say water is no friend to books, and much time was spent moving tomes which were in the line of the mighty wave of muddy water that attacked indiscriminately by the darkness of the night. The fight was valiant and so far only 5 volumes have made the ultimate sacrifice to the Water Gods. We aim to keep that number in the single-digits.
Meanwhile, at the Storage Unit, we are down to 7 pallets to unload. In all it will be over 1700 shelf feet of books. This morning...at 1230 AM, it was 84 in there, so the next visit is a few days off yet. At least the humidity there was a comfy 46%. It's always important to count your blessing where they present themselves to you.

07/03/2026

Books...and Paper matter. They are a direct link to our heritage and shared sense of purpose.

Listed simply as “another paper” in the Royal Navy inventory, the Declaration remained buried in British archives for 250 years.

07/02/2026

We are down to 7 pallets to offload, onto 180 feet of available shelving. It’s gonna be tight. The heat wave is going to postpone any further progress for around a week. The dehumidifier is doing a terrific job, but the temps will still be uncomfortabl;e, so it’ll allow us to catch up on office tasks that have been piling up!

06/28/2026

So, i spent some time unloading 25 boxes of auction catalogues this morning, and have some general advice for anyone packing boxes of books. Build a pile in the boxes of the books flat, and fill in any gaps with books on their spines. This way when you stack those boxes, the weight is distributed evenly, and your books wont bend and warp over the course of their storage. I'll post a video someday of how to properly do it. Whoever packed the auction catalogs that I unpacked this morning, put them all on their edge and the shifted weight caused them all to warp. And band. Now I have them flat and stacked with lots of weight on them, hoping they will become flat once again over the course of time.

06/28/2026

Todays update: Phil and I powered through 5 pallets and a piece today. 90 boxes, each 14x14x18. We've got 16 pallets left and 160 shelves. For those who like numbers, that means 1212 feet of books shelved already, or 404 shelves. It is gonna be touch and go to see if we can fit everything left on the available shelving in this unit!
I am learning a lot about this library from unpacking it, and each box reveals new surprises. Ive been selling art books since 1992 and I'm seeing a lot of books, and a lot of artist names I've never encountered before. Truly humbling! Enjoy these few pictures from our day today. Heat wave coming, so we may need to suspend the excavation until temps dip back below 85!

06/25/2026

We are almost halfway through the 46 pallets. A few pics. What a treat and privilege!

06/20/2026

A short update on the unpacking of this amazing library. We are through 19 of the 46 pallets, which is 41%! The next day or two will be spent erecting the remainder of the shelves in the annex, which will have 1760 feet of shelving. I'm figuring this library will occupy all but 90 feet of that shelving! What a joy to be discovering such seminal, beautiful and uncommon books, in English, Italian, French and German. This library will make an amazing resource wherever it eventually lands, comparable with a University or Museum library from the get-go. More will be revealed!

06/12/2026

Updated picture. 24 more banker boxes unloaded today...4 pallets down, 44 to go!

06/10/2026

As a few of you know, we recently acquired a massive collection of books on European Art from the estate of a well-known art restorer who passed, and we have only now begun to unbox this monumental trove. We have had it four weeks and had to establish logistics for handling it and displaying it. I will post pictures of the process over the next few weeks so you can follow our progress as we work our way through 48 - yes, forty-eight! - pallets of this collection. We have erected 432 feet of shelving in a storage facility to get us started. Stay tuned!