November 9th, 2005used books?
Every morning on my way to work I pass a used bookstore. It’s cute, tucked into an old building on a small side street off Main, and it always has two racks of books outside on the sidewalk. And every morning, I have to resist the urge to pull over and peruse their selection.
This morning I noticed a young man unloading cardboard boxes from the back of his truck, and carting them into the store. He had four, and they were full-to-the-brim with books. The books didn’t appear to be particularly old or worn out—so I guess he was just selling them. After all, the sign above the door does say “Used Books—Bought and Sold.”
It made me sort of sad, to be honest. (When I told the coworker over lunch I was going to blog about a used book store, she rolled her eyes at me, lol.) See, I can’t imagine parting with a single book I own. (I even kept some textbooks I liked in college.) I love books—particularly my books—and while I love and respect the concept of a library, I hardly ever step foot in one. Partly because I’d end up in there for hours, and partly because I get cranky when I read a book and then am forced to give it back. Give it back? But it’s brilliant… the prose, the thoughts, the feelings it evoked when I read the last page… I don’t want to give it back.
In my apartment I have books in bookshelves, on dressers, on side tables and in cabinets—back at my parent’s home, I have three giant bins of books, dating back to when I first started reading, waiting for me in the garage. Every Christmas when I go home I crack open those bins and page through the memories of my youth, then I take a few and stick them in my suitcase, promising the rest that I’ll be back soon.
I plan to have amassed a giant personal library when I die—and that I can bequeath to someone who loves them as much as I do.
Either that or I’m having a giant pyramid built to house them all and I want my body (encased in a white gold casket with emerald accents) placed smack dab in the middle.
You have issues.
Comment by Grampa — November 9, 2005 @ 8:38 pm
yea. definately issues.
i was gonna say you should have the pyramid made out OF the books. and encase it in like, some sort of polymar to keep out the weather and bugs, and you can be encased IN your books. much better idea methinks.
Comment by wendykat — November 9, 2005 @ 8:43 pm
You don’t have issues, you’re intelligent. I do the same thing except I move and then I have to get rid of books to lighten the load…otherwise my room would look like 1/4 of the Library of Alexandria. (although I’ve been there because ultra-conservative brainwashed dimwits torched it..bastards)
Comment by Augustus the Great — November 9, 2005 @ 8:49 pm
Calm down, Augie. I own over 4000 books, myself. Unfortunately, it is time to devest myself of them, as they are currently living in my dad’s attic and he is moving.
Soon I will be at his home to go through them and decide which ones are worth shipping out here.
The others are going to some friends, some are being donated to a school library where my best friend teaches, and the rest are going to be donated to a jail near Pittsburgh. There’s nothing guys in jail need more than books.
Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.
Comment by Grampa — November 9, 2005 @ 8:56 pm
Thanks Grampa.. that’s nice. I demand to be one of those friends.
Jackass.
Wendy.. I like it. Encased in my books. Lovely thought.
Augie—see, I knew there was a reason I get along with you. 🙂
Comment by the insider — November 9, 2005 @ 9:44 pm
*Corrections on publications by Augustus*
November 9th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
(although I’ve *NEVER* been there because ultra-conservative brainwashed dimwits torched it..bastards)
====
Sorry, I’m OCD when it comes to typos (pet peeve) that mark a pivotal part of my writing.
Comment by Augustus the Great — November 9, 2005 @ 10:34 pm
Augie, you do know that the Muslims didn’t burn the Library of Alexandria, don’t you?
Comment by Grampa — November 9, 2005 @ 11:19 pm
Augie… lolol. I’d have liked to have seen it myself. 🙂
Grampa… I feel a history lesson coming on. doodoodoo
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 12:23 am
when we were moving, my roommate kept telling me to sell some of my books. i kept repeating, “we do not get rid of books in this house.”
And while i’m certainly glad that used bookstores exist, i always wonder where they came from. it’s saddening to think that the only reason i just scored a first edition of mysteries of pittsburgh is because someone else decided to part with it.
I don’t have some of my college textbooks. i still have all of them. hell, i still have my college russian workbooks. i refuse to let them go. i moved halfway across the country and the toughest decision was deciding which books to pack and which to box. i hated being without them for the few days it took the movers to get here after i did.
i love books, and i cannot imagine parting with them.
Comment by ecamirg — November 10, 2005 @ 12:28 am
You are so my hero right now.
I mean it.
I adore you.
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 12:31 am
“Augie, you do know that the Muslims didn’t burn the Library of Alexandria, don’t you?”
It was the Christofascist, wasn’t it?
Comment by Augustus the Great — November 10, 2005 @ 1:16 am
Aha! That’s why I never like to go to the library- I hate having to give a good book back. I was like you but then had to do a serious cull of my books when we moved. Now I only keep books which i know I will read again. Why not let others who may not be able to afford new books enjoy them now? Also, the second had bookstore is where I have been known to find a whole back-catalogue of books when i discover a new author I like to read!
Is back-catalogue the right term for that?
Comment by ms. mac — November 10, 2005 @ 1:51 am
I love second-hand bookshops: books for cheaper!
Although I must admit I have sold some of my books-Mary Higgins Clark, though, that’s fine, right? Also, I completely understand your not going to the library. I absolutely hate to have to give back a book.
Comment by anne — November 10, 2005 @ 2:07 am
Yes.
Comment by Grampa — November 10, 2005 @ 2:09 am
http://www.bookcrossing.com/
Comment by Grampa — November 10, 2005 @ 4:05 am
i have never sold a book. i’ve given some away to friends of family. most of books are at my dad’s house… sigh. in california. sigh.
they are mostly cookbooks. with a lot of scifi and fantasy thrown in there. and my collection of children’s books. and my secret stash of harlequin romance novels. because, sometimes you just need some dahing rake to push you against a wall and undo your corset top. *contented sigh*
anyway. i miss the cookbooks most. i’m a sucker for food porn. and i miss the gorgeous glossy pages of beautiful food.
Comment by wendykat — November 10, 2005 @ 5:34 am
Ms Mac: Back-catalogue.. definitely right. 🙂 When I was trying to impress this guy in college, lol, I went a got two or three Raymond Carver books (his favorite) at a used bookstore. Needless to say, the guy had issues… lol
Anne.. cheaper does make me happy, lol. 🙂
Grampa… oooo. They’re my hero too.
Wendy.. you and I need to take a roadtrip and rescue our books from the West coast. And rotfl about the “dashing rake undoing your corset top.” I lilke a good Nora Roberts myself. 🙂 But oh yeah, cookbooks. Yup, yup.
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 9:25 am
hehehe… nora always has too much plot. i like a good sleazy romance where it’s just fluttering hearts and always the firey redheaded virgins… why is the virgin always a red head? and the evil chick is always like blonde? and the women who aren’t virgins are brunettes? but the guys are always… ALWAYS tall, broad shouldered, blue eyed and usually dark haired. sigh.
anyways… must rescue the romance novels uhm i mean, cookbooks… yes. cookbooks.
Comment by wendykat — November 10, 2005 @ 9:44 am
ROTFL… I need the plot. Prefer it actually, lol.
But yes, we’ll “rescue” them, lol.
Ooo… or maybe when the boy from across the sea moves, you two can take a nice little roadtrip and “see the sights.” 😉
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 9:56 am
why is see the sights in quotation marks?
Comment by wendykat — November 10, 2005 @ 10:37 am
hehehe
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 10:41 am
yea. brat.
Comment by wendykat — November 10, 2005 @ 11:36 am
🙂 smooches
Comment by the insider — November 10, 2005 @ 11:54 am
i totally hear you. but do you ever buy a book that doesn’t turn out to be that good? those are the ones I’m happy to give back. maybe someone else will like it more 🙂
Comment by Moxie — November 10, 2005 @ 1:13 pm
i love books. i read books. i sell books. sometimes, if i see a need, i give books away. (but i always, always, always check the in/out-of-print status before i give a book away.)
some of my favorite books quotes:
“An ordinary man can…surround himself with two thousand books…and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” Augustine birrell
“A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.” jerry seinfeld
“an independent bookshop is evidence that people are still thinking independently” me
Comment by Michelle — November 12, 2005 @ 10:46 pm
I saw that you sell books. I’m a huge fan of the independent bookstore—too bad yours is located so far south, lol. 🙂
In my other life, I’d have been a bookseller.
Quote-wise: “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”—Gilbert K. Chesterton
Comment by the insider — November 12, 2005 @ 11:03 pm