I walk in, quickly grab a cart and walk to the books, all the way in back. I go through the bins quickly but thoroughly, my hands and eyes working together instinctively. Tossing aside the harlequins, the bad vanity press poetry, Oprah books and last week’s best sellers, I sift for gold.
Here a hard cover on WWII submarines, there a crisp Vintage International copy of Lolita. I snatch a pocket book of The Short-Timers (worth $35 to someone in London), take a chance on a History of Smith & Wesson (might keep that for myself), and laugh silently to myself when I come across a long out of favor writer such as Frank G. Slaughter – writer of doctor/nurse thrillers – that I haven’t handled in 20 plus years of doing this. And what is this?
Book scouting.
I am the guy who goes looking in dim thrift stores, yard sales and flea markets for old books. Old books that are undervalued, which I turn around and sell online at places such as ABE, BookFinder or Amazon. Or if they aren’t worth selling online, I trade them at used bookstores for ones I like, either to sell or to keep for my own collection. I have been doing this for over 20 years at this point, starting my apprenticeship alphabetizing pocket books in a used book store, one that I would call a dead shop, assuming it was still around. And by dead shop I don’t mean anything bad, only that it is a store that knows exactly what it has, the stock is priced against online sources and sits around for years. As opposed to a live shop, where the stock is moving so fast that the store often has no idea what it has and mostly wants to keep it moving for cash flow reasons. A live shop is where you find the bargains and treasures.
I laugh at the kids with scanners, checking each bar code to see if the book is listed for anything at Amazons buy back dept. They miss so much, not realizing that books printed before ISBN’s are where the real business is and the things that are worth only pennies online are often highly prized at book shops. But then, there is a reason why I am packing up 47 crates of books as I prepare for to move. 47 crates and nothing to read, as the books are all packed. So I head to the thrift store to find something for myself. The only interesting thing (funny how I never see something when looking for myself) is Pynchon’s Inherent Vice. I guess I will give it a try…
So, what are you reading?
The Hunt for Vulcan, by Thomas Levenson. Vulcan being the projected, but it turns out nonexistent, planet inside Mercury’s orbit. But I bought it the new-fashioned way. I downloaded it onto my Kindle. For better or worse, I only buy hardcopy books nowadays if they are older books that aren’t in ebook format, or specialty books within my research interests.Report
This was an interesting post, Aaron..
I’ve been reading bits and pieces of lots of things. Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr upstairs in bed, Chicks Kick Butt by a bunch of people in the loo, Tor’s first five years of stories while traveling about…
Watching/listening wise I’ve been going through a free course by the University of Warwick entitled Literature and Mental Health.Report
Thanks @maribou!
Nevada Barr is a really nice woman, if you ever get the chance to meet her. Very popular with the readers, did great signings.Report
Normally read multiple works (nothing electronic) — in no particular order: Matheson’s What Dreams May Come; Ian Toll’s ‘The Conquering Tide’; Elie Wiesel’s “Night”; Jack McDevitt’s “Thunderbird”; Tom Powers’, Three Days To Never.Report
A few days ago I felt an urge to read something weighty and couldn’t for the life of me think of a fiction writer or book which sounded the least bit appealing. Weird, I said to myself, since there are literally hundreds of thousands of published books to choose from. Oh well. Then it occurred to me, as if in a flash: non-fiction!
So I downloaded The Guns of August.Report
Heh. I downloaded US Grant’s memoirs for similar reasons.
Though if you’re looking for a weighty novel, I recommend Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy.Report
If you’re looking for something weighty in the future and don’t mind non-fiction, I can’t recommend Robert Caro’s Path to Power series on LBJ enough.Report
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A Kindle search for “The Path to Power” contained two books: one by Robert Caro, the other by Margaret Thatcher. I was dutifully observant when one clicking my purchase.
Thanks for the tip.
Mike,
Did you download A Suitable Boy on Kindle or read it the old fashioned way? I can’t seem to find it in the Kindle store.Report
The old fashioned way, years ago, when my eyes still worked. Odd that there’s never been an e-book version.Report
There has been. The Amazon US site says that the kindle version is not currently available for sale. The Amazon UK site offers it for £1.99. An epub version (almost certainly a conversion of the kindle edition with encryption removed) is available on a number of pirate sites.Report