Reading and good secondhand bookshops

[presta]

When it comes to second hand books, my father's collection here on the shelves would keep me going a lifetime, even after giving away enough football & cricket books to fill the boot of my Carlton. We used to have a pleasant little independent bookshop here, but Amazon saw it off eventually. They tried to hang on with just the stationery & art side of the business for a while, but it didn't work.

Try eBay. Some of the secondhand books are in mint condition.

I have a few used books off Amazon in mint condition, although one was withdrawn from the University of Surrey library without ever being borrowed - because 33 pages had been bound upside down.

It would be a fun book to sit and read on the train.

I have a complete aversion to High Street shopping

I don't mind as long as it's the sort of shop where you can go in, browse, and walk out unnoticed.

Another bookshop that's a shadow of its former self is Chaters Motoring Bookshop

Back in the 1970/80s, Chelmsford technical library used to stock the workshop manuals published by the manufacturers, they were much more comprehensive, about three times larger, and more reliable than the Haynes ones. I used the Ford one to correct all the torque figures in my Haynes manual.

 

[All uphill]

Not much use to anyone here, but interesting, I think.

Last summer I was in Groningen in the Netherlands, heard about a book event and went along.

There was a huge selection and all books were €2.50 per kilogramme! I got two books of Seamus Heaney's poems for €3 and had to carry them round on my bike for the next five days.

It made the point to me that books rapidly lose market value.

 

[Time Waster]

Current scrap price of brass is £2.00-3.50 per kg I saw on a dealer's site. So books in Netherlands are about as valuable as brass! Interesting!

 

[Profpointy]

Isn't Foyles a chain?

Charing Cross Road has "the" Foyles with a couple of much smaller branches in a couple of places, so only a chain in a very pedantic sense

Sadly I don't think Foyles has the shambolic charm, nor the range it once did. it's much better organised, but the heaps of random and often damaged books had a certain something, and I don't think they carry anything like as much obscure dead stock as they did

 

[Reynard]

Charing Cross Road has "the" Foyles with a couple of much smaller branches in a couple of places, so only a chain in a very pedantic sense

Sadly I don't think Foyles has the shambolic charm, nor the range it once did. it's much better organised, but the heaps of random and often damaged books had a certain something, and I don't think they carry anything like as much obscure dead stock as they did

Only new stock now, in a much smaller shop. Looks swanky, but now no different to any other large bookshop. And most other book shops have a much better selection of motoring and sci-fi stuff than Foyles.

 

[Reynard]

It made the point to me that books rapidly lose market value.

It depends. Most mass-market books do, and it's always worth waiting a few months after something you want to read comes out and then pick it up on a boot sale or in a charity shop for a fraction of the cover price.

Other volumes, usually specialist with a limited print run, will hold their value and / or increase in value. It's all down to demand. And, sadly due to fashion and changes in trends in what collectors actually want.

Being friends with a book dealer of 40 years' experience is certainly an eye-opener in this respect.