TheBanyanTree: Books Are People Too...

[Dee Churchill]

For those of you who don't visit the Coffee Bean Goddess at www.mugajava.com , an explanation is in order. I own a bookshop called The Crime Scene...Books & Other Needful Things. We're talking used books, here. Not having the space or inclination to deal with "everything," I decided up front to specialize in mystery, thrillers, chillers, scifi/fantasy and avoid the rest.

Just last week, however, I got a chance to buy up the stock of another little used book shop. The price was very much right. Unfortunately, to get what I wanted I had to take the whole thing. 2500 books, a significant portion of which was, for one reason or the other, simply crap. Another significant portion is just fine but doesn't fall into my preferred categories and is taking up needed space in the shop. Hey...when you have so many boxes of books piled around that the customers can't get through...well, you gotta do something!

The "something" I've been doing is a daily book sale...paperbacks for 10 cents, hard covers a mere quarter. Each morning I pack box after box of books outside and place them in seductive rows on the cement pad in front of the shop...my own private Sidewalk Sale. Each evening, I wearily pack what remains back inside and stack them on every available floor space I can find.

That's the back story. What follows is a rumination on why I love used books...

***********

It isn't just the difference in cost that makes me care for a used book over its brand-new, pricey sibling. A used book is like an old house in that it takes on a certain charisma, a patina reflecting the people who have lovingly enjoyed it and passed it on. There's an extra dimension to a used book, one the author and publisher had nothing to do with. 
You get quick snapshots of previous readers when you handle a used book. There is no end, for example, to the variety of bookmarks left between pages. I've found countless cash register receipts, postcards, grocery lists, class pictures, business cards (one from a taxi service in San Francisco), and, of course, bookmarks from other book shops. I like to keep those. At this point, I seem to have a respectable collection going. 

There are more permanent indications of previous readers. Some paste in bookplates with their name and address. Some just scribble a name on the inside cover or an early page. One book had, on the blank pages, three different recipes using chicken. Another had a To Do list on the inside cover...in ink. Then there are the readers who are compelled to underline phrases or sentences that touch them in a meaningful way...and you find yourself wondering what has been happening in their lives to make those particular words so touching. 

My favorite, so far, is the inscription I found yesterday in a copy of Fisherman's Wharf Cookbook. The content of that short paragraph made it clear a daughter was presenting the book to "the most wonderful mother in the world" on her 76th birthday. At the end of the note, in a different color of ink, the year '91 was carefully added and circled. I'm thinking the well-loved mother is no longer with us or that particular gift would never have found its way into that box of books. But what a beautiful "extra" story is added, just because of a few words and their connotations. 

My favorite customers today were a couple with one of their daughters. The three of them were going avidly through the several boxes of kidlet books. Stephen, the father, explained to me, "We have seven children and all but the baby are readers." 

Not just readers, judging by the remarks exchanged as they hunted and discovered. Book lovers. When Stephen picked up the cardboard box full of purchases, he took a long, deep breath. "Ah," he said. "Books smell so good!" 

So...tomorrow we do it all over again. I'll go in early and drag something like 36 boxes of books out onto the cement pad in front of the shop. And I'll look at them woefully and think, "Oh Lord, come closing time, I have to drag 'em all back again." But each day I do that, I'll be chipping away at the excess, making room for the books I want on the shelves. Got rid of something like a hundred today. Only 2400 more to go. More or less. 

Heck, if I keep this up, I might be able to walk across my loft again!

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.remsset.com/pipermail/thebanyantree-remsset.com/attachments/20030818/82b16acb/attachment.htm>