Have you ever heard of “deduction”? If you watch Sherlock (or any other detective show) or have read Sherlock Holmes then you know what I mean. Figuring out details of a situation or person by looking at the clues around you. Pretty much it’s just being observant and decoding those observations. That’s what I like to do with used books. It’s the reason I’m so thrilled when I see that people wrote in the book or scribbled their name on the title page. It gives me more to go on. To be sure, I can still deduce some things when it’s not written out. My copy of Inkheart is a badly torn paperback (even more so after I read it five times) and was like that when I got it. This could mean that the person who owned it before hated books. Or maybe they loved the story and couldn’t stop gripping the thing in excitement (resulting in a great many pages falling out). Or maybe a baby got a hold of it… or a dog. Yeah, I’m not really the best Holmes, but I have fun trying. Sometimes it’s not the condition of the book itself that’s so exhilarating, but what people have used as bookmarks. Okay, so I used to intern at my local library and one of the things I got to do was go through the donated books and check how good of condition they were in (and if I liked them I got to keep them, which was probably the best perk ever). Eventually, I noticed that books had things stuck in them, things like cute bookmarks. I eagerly began to flip through all the pages of the donated books to see what I could find. Here is some of what turned up:
Of course, this has started me on a habit of going through every used book I bring home. Thus far I have found a pressed flower, a ribbon giving specific verses in the Bible for specific situations, a few more receipts, a used airplane ticket from Dallas, and a bunch of scraps of paper that were utterly insipid. Apart from playing detective, what else can I get out of buying somebody else’s used, potentially grimy, tattered book? I mean, why don’t I just get the same book from a bookstore or online? Um, because it’s way cheaper, duh. Did you know I once got 17 books from a library book sale for $7.50? Cause I did. One of those books was in pristine condition and would have cost me $16 at its original price. I got it for 25 cents. Okay, so what if I was a bajillionaire who didn’t need to worry about the prices of books? What’s in it for me now? Used books are useless to me now, right? *hits buzzer* Wrong! You can find the coolest antique books when you go looking for used books. Shall I giveth thee an example? Indeed I shall. When browsing at an antique shop once, I found this book titled: Polite Society at Home and Abroad. It was published in 1891 and depicts what you should do to be a regular snooty-snot in the olden days. Quite frankly, it is hilarious. Another time I found this amazing atlas (Rand McNally World Atlas International Edition) that was published in 1941. It is so neat and historically awesome. If I ever go time traveling to World War II I’m bringing it with me. I’ve gotten two other antique books that are super duper awesome. To sum it up: I love used books. What are your feelings on used books? Do you like or dislike them? Are you neutral? Are you wondering where you can get some? To answer that last question: go to your library and ask if and when they will have a book sale (on top of getting books you also get to support your library!), when you see a garage sale, locate the tub or box or table that will have the books and go through them until you’ve either found something you want or you are certain there is nothing in the pile you could ever want, check online to see if there are any used bookstores near you, check your local newspaper for advertisements about charity sales going on, or you can look at eBay and Craigslist or other online places. I wish you the best of luck in your hunting!
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