I love buying used books. The books have already lived a life before us. Traveled from bedroom to kitchen or across the world, or has been weathered and torn from inhabiting the depths of a woman’s purse. You can’t know what kind of life it has already lived, but it is now in your life and it has something to show you. Out of all the books in this world, this one is here with you now.
Lately all I've been buying are used books. Any title I want I spin up AbeBooks and try to find the earliest edition that doesn't cost a fortune. Last week I received a copy of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill and it was an unexpected first edition, not that I collect first editions or anything.
Used book stores leave me kind of cold, because in my case I don't like to browse and I'm always looking for something specific, so AbeBooks works better. But fear not: AbeBooks is actually a global network of independent used book stores, which supplies the books (though I believe AbeBooks itself is owned by Amazon). I often get books from the UK or the Antipodes. It's crazy how cheaply they can mail books around the world.
I stamp my name on all my books. Some might call this vandalism, but personally I don't intend to be the last owner of any book. Someday, I hope, people not even born yet will enjoy books I once owned. Last year I received a first or early edition of All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which was a Christmas present to a woman in 1946. She had an unusual name, and the book came from Indiana, so I was able to find her obituary online. It added so much to the enjoyment of the (really quite excellent) novel to know a little of the provenance of the physical book itself, to know something about another pair of eyes that read it before me.
Other books will have multiple names written in them by serial owners. That makes me happy.
Lately all I've been buying are used books. Any title I want I spin up AbeBooks and try to find the earliest edition that doesn't cost a fortune. Last week I received a copy of The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill and it was an unexpected first edition, not that I collect first editions or anything.
Used book stores leave me kind of cold, because in my case I don't like to browse and I'm always looking for something specific, so AbeBooks works better. But fear not: AbeBooks is actually a global network of independent used book stores, which supplies the books (though I believe AbeBooks itself is owned by Amazon). I often get books from the UK or the Antipodes. It's crazy how cheaply they can mail books around the world.
I stamp my name on all my books. Some might call this vandalism, but personally I don't intend to be the last owner of any book. Someday, I hope, people not even born yet will enjoy books I once owned. Last year I received a first or early edition of All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which was a Christmas present to a woman in 1946. She had an unusual name, and the book came from Indiana, so I was able to find her obituary online. It added so much to the enjoyment of the (really quite excellent) novel to know a little of the provenance of the physical book itself, to know something about another pair of eyes that read it before me.
Other books will have multiple names written in them by serial owners. That makes me happy.