Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Second-Hand Books

I bought a book this past weekend. And even though it might upset my mate K G MacGregor it was a second-hand book. (That's "used book" to you lot across the pond.) I bought it in a genuine, old-fashioned, second-hand book shop. There aren't many of those around any more. None at all in my city. Real second-hand book shops where the books are stacked floor to ceiling, where the staff (usually just the owner and their family)know books and love books, and the shop has that very special "old books" smell. I love those shops. When I was younger I must have bought about half my library in those kind of shops.

Back then most of Charing Cross Road - from St Giles down through Cambridge Circus and all the way to the Edith Cavell statue - was second-hand book shops. (And yes - I bought books in Marks & Co. as a kid, long before a certain American made it famous.) Not now. They've all gone. I was gutted when Marks closed.

K G is right that second-hand book sales probably do cause damage to small, specialised, genres of books. But I don't think that applies across the board. For a start although it might be possible to find new copies of H Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain or (more likely) She the chances of finding a new Allan's Wife or Eric Brighteyes are slim to none. I don't expect I'd have any better luck finding new copies of Leslie Charteris' works either. I read everything by those two authors, scouring the book shops for second-hand copies, when I was younger.

As Charing Cross suggests - a thriving second-hard market goes hand-in-hand with a thriving publishing and book-selling environment. The closing of the second-hand shops is part & parcel of the loss of independent book shops generally. The damage is being done by huge chains. Our own (Waterstones etc.) and the American incomers (Borders and Barnes & Noble) which have been gradually increasing their presence over the last ten years or so. And of course Amazon - which has to have done more damage to London's Bookshops - new or old - than the Blitz did.

I miss those shops. I miss the sudden delight at finding a rare, but worthless to anyone else, scruffy little hardback by some author I loved. I miss the knowledgeable owners who could talk for hours about books, the love of their subject clear to all. Much as I did this weekend.

Oh - and K G don't worry. Neither author, publisher nor translator suffered. The author's been dead close to 2,000 years, the translator died about 30 years ago and the publisher got swallowed up by a multi-national sometime in the 1980s.

The book?? Tacitus' Annals of The Empire.

Ze

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2 comments:

Barbara Davies said...

I take my surplus SF/Fantasy books to a local second hand bookshop. The other day they told me that a holidaymaker from South Africa had been browsing the books when she let out a whoop of delight. She has been searching for a particular trilogy for literally years, with no success, and there it was on the shelf in front of her. (Yes, it was a set I had taken in.) I was extremely glad for her. I know what it is to long for a book and not be able to get hold of it.

5:47 AM
E said...

I think used books have there place. I do realize that authors and publishers lose money on them in some cases, however I do believe they also make books more tangible for many. The ability to purchase a book is a splendid thing, even for that smell Ze.

I don't here serious complaints about libraries because we see the benefits in having such a great tool for so many. And I personally believe used books belong in that picture as well.

I personally buy many books, most new when they are still available, however many I look for are no longer being published and I head to the used places and I think without them so much would be lost and that is sad.

And Ze come visit I will take to you to many smelly bookstores. They are a great thing that is sadly disappearing rapidly.

6:29 AM

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