I like to buy books off of eBay. I like that, somehow, the books cost less than shipping. I like that they show up coffee stained with hair in the binding. I like that they show up pre-read. I like to read the underlines and notations from the previous owner. I like when they leave me a bookmark. I really like a book with a heartfelt inscription. I just like used books, they are great, they are proof that people read.
I bought a Kindle to cut down on buying books. I have too many books. I have three bookshelves completely full of books. I donated 2 other bookshelves worth of books to get to this point. So why do I buy more? Why not use the Kindle? Because books are artifacts, a book is more than the words on a screen. A book has soul, a used book, even more in my estimation.
The economy has a place for these cheap, nearly free, books. And so I buy them. If nothing else I add a little bit of money back into the post and hopefully provide enough to the sellers that they will continue to ship books to me while making around fifty cents to a dollar. I wouldn’t sell a book for $1 in profit.
I recently read my children The Trumpet of the Swan. It was a beautiful book about a swan who cannot talk, so he learns to play a trumpet instead. I read about the editions of the book and found that there is a beautiful edition that is hardcover with a nice illustration of the swan on the cover. I ordered a copy of this for $6.14. What came was a much older copy of the book that was not hardcover. I was not upset that the copy was the wrong edition. I did however message the seller letting them know the error, and received a refund for the $6 book and not having to return it. I felt a little dirty about the whole situation. But when you track down a certain printing of a book, you painstakingly track down every copy being sold on eBay and buy the hardbound copy. It should be that version! That being said, if you are making a margin of 50 cents, you probably can’t check every single edition of every book.
I didn’t keep the paperback copy. I will track down a hardcover at some point because it was a beautiful book and I want to read it again with my children. Why not keep the paperback? I like to read paperbacks, but I don’t like to own them. I don’t particularly like owning hardcovers either, but it’s better than a softcover. I love to own leather-bound versions like from Easton Press or really nice slipcover versions from the Folio Society. It’s not a matter of money, well, it is, I can’t afford every book I want in a version I want. So I settle for versions that I don’t like.
I got a copy of Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. It is a beautiful little book with a bird on the cover. I got a paperback version of the 25th anniversary edition for $4.30. I dove right in and am on chapter three. The book is a guide on how to write. I like to write, but don’t really know how. I sit down and try to get out something that is inspired. Occasionally I will write something that I really like, only to come back to it later and find out that it is truly terrible. In order to fix this I searched for books that might help me overcome this issue I have of writing terribly. I have not solved it yet, as you well know from reading this. Even still I ordered the book and am going to try the advice given by the author in order to become a better writer. Maybe I will keep this book, or track down a better version of it. Maybe not.