As much as I love my e-reader there are still things that are out of print that I love and used books are it. And I still love the feel of a real book just that I have come to love the e-reader more for the ability to carry around the HUGE books that otherwise are kind of a pain to tote about and it is awesome for vacation packing.
2 Likes
Used bookstores never disappeared here. Theyâve always been in greater numbers than independent new bookstores. Though oddly, when one closes it gets the same lament given the closing of a new bookstore. Even when one closed in the spring because the owner decided to retire after 30 years (and like many used book sellers, he may have gotten into book selling as a second career), some reacted like it was the end of time.
I canât think of a local bookstore that was around when I was a kid and still in operation but thereâs still a used bookstore that opened in 1971, and another that opened in 1975.
One thing that does seem to have changed, or reverted, is the tone. I assume traditionally used book stores were more like a new book store, except a place to get out of print books. I get that impression from passages in fiction set in the past.
But paperbacks caused a big change. So much cheaper to start, and print run so much larger than hardcovers. The books were so cheap to print that anything was covered, pulp style fiction, cheap introductory books about some bit of history, âinstantâ books like Che Gueveraâs diary or The Pentagon Papers, or quickie books about the latest rock star (or that 1985 quickie âWozâ about Apple Computerâs Steve Wozniak about the time he organized the âUSâ Festival). I even have a âPenguin Guide to Radio Astronomyâ, next to a guide about model rocketry, to show how esoteric they could be, really cheap publishing yet not always to simplify a topic. I have a history of the NAACP and various books from the time that collects articles from underground newspapers, almost throwaway books, but since they survived they provide raw material rather than a second hand interpretation in a more recent book. And of course fiction, would Jack Kerouac be as well known if there hadnât been pocket size paperbacks of his books? How could you hitchhike to Big Sur with a hardcover book? Paperbacks meant a generation in motion could stuff a book in their pocket.
Paperbacks caused a shift in used book stores, or so I interpret things. Suddenly they were commodity stores, books coming in cheap by the shovel full, then sold at half the original cover price. I bought many a book in the seventies that way, the older the book, the cheaper it was. Instead of being selective, the cost meant the stores could often take anything, hoping it would sell, and if it didnât, it could go to the âfreeâ box, or recycling, the money spent to acquire it minimal. The only reason to buy new was if you were impatient (well, if nobody bought new, the inflow would dry up). You could get all the bestsellers, but the esoteric too (so long as someone local had bought it and given it up). I found copies of the Whole Earth Catalog, and proceeded to buy the books mentioned in them at used book stores and sales.
But thatâs tapered off, at least here. The used bookstores are selective, wanting to present a âcuratedâ selection of books, and higher prices. So I can still buy used Kerouac books, but at prices higher than I paid for them new in the seventies. The turned away from pocket size paperbacks helps this process, a trade paperback is respectable, and higher price can be attached. Non-fiction has pretty much moved to large format paperbacks, more respectable and higher prices on the used market. Except, those âDummiesâ books are introductory, and canât match that Penguin Guide to Radio Astronomy.
So the used book stores here have become mostly like new bookstores, except the stock is used. They are a âqualityâ place, people willing to pay the price to get a book thatâs less a bestseller.
4 Likes
Where is âhereâ because it clearly isnât California in the Bay Area or other big city?
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
