Here to share my three decades of bookselling experience. Mysteries of the old book business will be revealed. What’s an old book worth? How do you buy a quality used book online? What’s up with Amazon?
All of us who value books– readers, buyers, sellers, collectors, scholars– have a common cause. I’ve always thought of the books that exist as one global library, a cultural trove. Ownership is temporary. The books travel and have lives beyond any particular person or place. All of us are caretakers in a way, custodians, guardians. If there are fewer printed books in the future, preservation of the good ones here already is even more important. As a bookseller, I get to share in that with people all over the world.
Last week, I sent Music and Theater in France 1600-1680 to a customer in Japan. I sold an 1889 edition of Herndon’s biography of Lincoln to an Indian gentleman in California, who told me it was a gift for a friend in India opening an institute for the study of democracy. Two continents, two centuries, two cultures.
Next time you sit back and open a book, savor the privilege, the peace, and the power to read.