Buenos Aires – First off, a Happy New Year, or Happy Rosh Hashanah, or Shana Tova, in particular to any of my Jewish readers, friends, neighbors… though really, to everyone – today begins the year 5768, and we’ll just have to see what it has in store for SaltShaker, my life, and the lives of those around me. I wish only good things for all!

Second, I thought a little update on “the book”… or should that be “The Book”? Especially since I keep hearing things like “oh, I vaguely remember you mentioning that at some point…” from people who as far as I’m concerned should have already gone out and bought seventeen copies and given them out as gifts to all their friends. I mean, come on guys, it’s my first book. I admit, it’s not a page-turning deeply involving mysterious spy thriller. It’s a dictionary. A food and wine dictionary. Spanish to English and English to Spanish. As far as I know, it’s the only one of it’s kind. It’s got great cover art by my friend Frank Rocca. I’m already hearing back from people how useful it is. Really.

Okay, enough schilling… or is that touting? I’m not good at it. Hey, there’s a link over there in the right-hand column where you can order it direct from the publisher, or from Amazon (assuming you’re reading this on my site rather than through an RSS aggregator or syndication). It’s selling well. It’s not shooting to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, but it’s selling well – a dozen a week or so at the moment (it’s actually more than that, because I only get a report about retailer sales once a month, so this is direct from publisher sales). And it’s been picked up by online retailers in several countries in Europe, in Australia, and Japan. It hasn’t yet been picked up by online retailers or brick and mortar retailers, as they’re called, in the U.S. (with the exception of Amazon), because for whatever reason, the official domestic Books-In-Print entity out there, Bowker’s, is still listing it as a “Forthcoming” book, without details. The publisher says it normally takes about four weeks to be fully listed, it’s been six… breathe…

For local folks, i.e., here in Buenos Aires, I’ve got copies for sale. Not a huge number of them, but about 50 of them here at Casa S, and more to come in the future. AR$80, which is roughly the same as the US$26 cover price, and hey, you save having to spring for overseas shipping. So feel free to get in touch if you want to buy a copy.

Oh, and I’ve added a little link, also in the right-hand sidebar, called Dictionary Errata & Additions, which is just that – it’s a compilation of new things I discover and learn that I want to add to a future edition of the book, and the occasional correction that gets called to my attention (how did three people proofreading the book all manage to miss that one word on the English to Spanish side didn’t have a definition after it – and two of them professional proofreaders?!)

I also have copies of Robert Wright’s famed Recoleta Cemetery map available – painstaking detail went into the production of this amazing map – it’s an incredible value at 20 pesos!