The Wonderful Secrets of a Used Book Store
Nov 05 '01
The Bottom Line If you're looking for a change from an electronic society, take solace in a used book store.
The dusty smell and the creaking floors. The piles and piles and piles of books, everywhere you look. Old books, new books, worn books, fresh books, famous books, infamous books.
Ah, the glorious pleasure of a used book store.
I recently started college, and was excited to find a cute little town to go with my cute little college. And low and behold, within the cute little college town, there was a cute little used book store. I had never shopped in a used book store before. In fact, buying used stuff (like at Goodwill or the Salvation Army) usually gives me the creeps. But I kept on telling myself that it was no different than going to the library and borrowing books, and so I began my adventure and sparked my true love for used book stores.
One of my favorite things about the used book store is the shelf of books that is right outside of the door. Any time of day, be it 2 AM on Christmas Morning or 3.30 on a warm Tuesday afternoon, you can go and take one of the books, and just slip a dollar or two under that door. Could a Barnes & Noble ever do this? Of course not. But people who frequent used book stores are a special type of folk, people who will slip the money under the door and not just grab the book and run. This kind of trust is what drew me to the store in the first place.
And inside! Filled with books, books, and more books, books on everything and anything you could ever imagine. On various trips I’ve bought brand-new looking books (The Fairy Tale Catalog, a hardcover children’s book for $5.00 that I later found out a friend had bought for full price.. and ours look exactly the same), old and dusty books (a book of Anderson’s Fairy Tales from the thirties, with whimsical illustrations and beautiful writing for $9.00), and sometimes just the book you were looking for (I got a slim volume of e.e. cummings poems for 95 cents). My boyfriend bought a beautiful copy of “As You Like It”, slipcovered in soft blue fabric, for $4.00 as a birthday present for a friend… it looked far more expensive than that. I found a beautiful marbled copy of Hamlet in German which I have to a German speaking, Hamlet-loving friend of mine for his birthday.
The other great thing about used book stores is that you can usually find out of print books that you might need or that might interest you. A friend of mine found a fabulous book on Theatre Tech the last time she was there, an almost textbook like thing from a few years back that has little exercises in the back, and cute illustrations, and a lot of great content.
So let’s examine the pluses of a used book store:
*Price* (usually cheap)
*Selection* (usually wide and varied)
*Atmosphere* (usually warm and friendly)
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love places like Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com (totally addicted, actually), but sometimes I just want to take a little walk into downtown Madison and visit the used book shop – and maybe discover a treasure.
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Epinions.com ID:
meeshling
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Member: jessie
Location: assorted spots all over NJ
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 22 members
About Me:
'Can't you just go out and get drunk like a normal seventeen year old?'-my mom
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