The advantages of secondhand bookshops

[Ouroboros]

Yesterday I was passing what is probably the largest secondhand bookstore in Dublin. They've got as much space devoted to SF and Fantasy as any other genre barring general fiction, and if you were looking for any of the major series then chances are you could pick them up in their entirety at this place for a fraction of their cost brand new. Equally, it's the place to go for imports and rarities that people have brought in to sell or trade, and because it's a fair size the turnover of books is better than in most stores- Usually a good amount of new stuff every week.

At the moment my backlist is pretty full up, although I'm making headway thanks to a decision to work through the stand-alones first and put some of the heavier series on the backburner. I wasn't particularly looking to buy anything new (hard to justify, especially with a huge credit card bill on the way after Christmas).

Still, I ended up going in. Because when it comes to second-hand bookshops you simply never know what you will find inside.

Sure, a lot of it will be crap that has been sitting on the shelves for literally years- The kind of thing that didn't sell when it was new, let alone a couple of decades on. And they're probably guaranteed to have seven copies of each of the major beststelling works you've owned for years.

But there's just a chance you'll find something totally out of the blue, and this has happened to me quite a few times. I'd have been planning to order a few books from Baen or someone else whose catalogue only sporadically gets onto shelves in the UK and Ireland. And then, lo and behold, I will look down a secondhand bookshelf and find exactly the book I was thinking of ordering, and sometimes for sale at a pauper's price.

Yesterday, for example, I found Timothy Zahn's 'Blackcollar' and 'The Backlash Mission' available in very good condition and costing only three euros each. Both of these have recently been repackaged as an omnibus costing four times that much and only available to me online. Nice score!

There was also a full set of his 'Cobra' novels, the omnibus of which I'd only recently received before Christmas.

I think there will always be a place for secondhand bookstores like this. Yes, while you might find the same volumes online more consistently, it's not quite as satisfying as coming across a bargain through pure good luck.

[redhead]

i may only make a purchase during less than half of my visits, but I adore second hand book stores. it's a total treasure hunt in a room of comfy chairs, classical music, out of print gems, and completely lacking the sound of an espresso machine whirring.

my local second hand shop is one of my saturday hang-outs. they take my trade ins for store credit, and I feel like one of their employees is my personal "book-guy". He knows me by name, what I like to read, what my husband likes to read, that my husband is allergic to the cat that lives in the store, that we both enjoy Harry Potter, and can always be found in the basement of the store, me in scifi, my husband in history. try getting that kind of service at Barnes & Noble.

if i'm going to buy a book (instead of getting it at the library, my first choice), it's the local second hand store.

[ArthurFrayn]

To me, going to the fly crap speckled used bookstore and SF are entwined in my memory. Some of my seminal best reads come from used bookstores. The classic used bookstore is getting harder to find where I live, or it's wares are overpriced(which defeats the point of buying used), but when you order online, you're getting it from some classic used bookstore in Utah or Wyoming where they can afford to exist on that essential nominal level, probably with the guy in the t-shirt in front smoking a cigar. I would probably start to weep tears of nostalgia if I actually was in the store. So while it lacks the mystery of discovery to order online, it has the authenticity of finding oop things you can only find under a pile of fly crap and dust.

[Bluestar]

I love used bookstores for the treasure hunt aspect, but I feel guilty buying anything there since the author doesn't get my money. How do you guys deal with that aspect?

[Bridie]

I found The Shadow of the Torturer for £1 in my local secondhand bookshop. I couldnt resist buying it, since its now all together with all the following books.... plus who can resist buying a book you want to read for £1?! I havent read it yet though... but ill get round to it... my list is long!

I do feel abit bad when buying second hand books, what with the author not recieving money from the sale but if the books good enough, and they have other books out ill probably go buy them first hand.

[Ambidexter]

I love used bookstores for the treasure hunt aspect, but I feel guilty buying anything there since the author doesn't get my money. How do you guys deal with that aspect?

The Author should have already received something for the book and the after market for used books is something that encourages many to buy more books knowing they can recoup something on it.

Used book stores are also Book stores Meaning that they sell firsthand books as well. They also help keep some authors in the reading publics eye when they are dropped etc.

Overall I would say the good far outweighs the bad here in My Opinion.

[manephelien]

Indeed. And they'll give new readers a chance to read something the original owner might otherwise have thrown away. Perhaps later to buy later books by the same author. Used bookstores are often the only place to find out-of-print books.

[ArthurFrayn]

but I feel guilty buying anything there since the author doesn't get my money. How do you guys deal with that aspect?

What about borrowing a book from the library, or from a friend? How does that put revenue in the author's pocket?

[Hobbit]

What about borrowing a book from the library, or from a friend? How does that put revenue in the author's pocket?

In the UK, authors are paid a (very small) amount for every book borrowed. It means that some get a nice cheque about this time of the year for the borrowings of the previous year.

Some of my seminal best reads come from used bookstores.

Agreed. Especially when money is limited.

As for the wonderful environment of a secondhand bookshop, redhead, yours sounds wonderful! (and yours too, Ouro, for the reasons mentioned above!)

The ones around Hobbit Towers are more of your 'stack 'em high and leave little space' variety. As has been mentioned here at SFFWorld before, as well as elsewhere, in the UK they are in decline (50% gone in the last 4 years!) But in their own way they are great, and have been given much Hobbit coinage over the years.

Mark / Hobbit

[ArthurFrayn]

But you skipped about getting a book from a friend to read. Is this inherently wrong?

The way I feel about it is this: if at some point during the year you spend, like me, $200 -$400 or more on current edition books of any kind, you are contributing to the publishing marketplace which in turn supports authors. So I don't feel guilty about picking up used books. Especially since so much of it's OOP. If that's a rationale, then I guess I'm a bad person.

[Rob B]

There was a very good Used book shop next town over from where I grew up and I always found some good books.

I usually pick up classics at the Used shops, like Starship Troopers, which I'm reading for the first time right now. (I know, I know I'm a little behind on some of them).

[cgw]

I can't pass by a used book store. There are several in the area and I will stop in a few times a year to check out what may have come in. When I visit other cities, I will go out of my way to find their used book stores.
I am usually looking for good hard cover copies of books I have read, out of print books or technical books.
I buy books online but nothing beats browsing a real book store (used and new).

[Ouroboros]

Rob, I'll be interested to hear your take on 'Starship Troopers' when you're done. It's the Military SF benchmark, and is one of the most polarising novels that Heinlein ever wrote, probably.

Back to the subject of secondhand bookshops-

At the moment I'm trying to track down the second and fourth books in SM Stirling's 'Falkenberg's Legion' series. Objectively speaking that won't be easy, but given my run of luck lately I think I might pull it off. Failing that, yes, there's always the web.

As regards the whole ethical issue of secondhand bookselling I must admit I'd never actual considered it. I'd always figured that the author had their bite of the apple when the book was sold first time around- I'm not sure they should be entitled to anything on subsequent sales. If I sell or lend a book it's my perogative, because it's my property- I've bought it, after all, not leased it. Obviously it would be a different story if I set up a printing press and started churning out copies.

I also figure that authors are readers too, and I'd assume that a straw poll wouldn't find that any significant numbers of them have a beef with cornershop secondhand stores.

[Libo]

I don't think authors would mind used bookshops. I bought my first Pern books from a secondhand bookstore back when there were only 3 or 4 of them published (I can actually figure my age of first reading based on what was published back then). I subsequently bought the rest of the series new, and eventually in hardback. So McCaffrey benefited from a purchase in a used bookstore quite a bit over the years.

There are also works that aren't available new any longer. The savvy author would use their movement in used bookstores or on Amazon wishlists to help sell the idea of a reprint.

As a kid, I used to buy book at the grocery store. THere was usually something new every week or two if my mom would let me get it (& she usually would). Sometime that changed though. Now they only sell the top 17 authors -- 12 romance, 3 mystery, 1 western, .5 fantasy and .5 science fiction. Given the paltry selection at the grocery store, and only slightly better selection at B&N, I think used book stores are even more important.

And would we apply the standard against used bookstores to everything? Should we not reuse furniture, dishes, clothes, artwork, cars because we're cheating the original woodworker, potter, artist, artisan, factory worker of their fee?

During college years one of the most distracting things was the Other Change of Hobbit -- a science fiction bookstore selling both new and used books in town. I really miss being able to browse through that many titles at once -- without being on Amazon. Used bookstores can start to bring back that experience -- at least they have more than the 6 titles at the grocery store. & they usually have a little more variety than B&N because they have books from twenty/thirty years or so. I do wish they all would separate the science fiction from fantasy.

[Rob B]

Rob, I'll be interested to hear your take on 'Starship Troopers' when you're done. It's the Military SF benchmark, and is one of the most polarising novels that Heinlein ever wrote, probably.

I can see why it is polarising, and I can also see why a lot of people consider a life-changing novel. More later when I finish it.