Used books are just the best. So many of them out there are so cheap it’s mind boggling. There’s a giant wall at my local used book store labeled ‘All books to the left, ¢.25, all books to the right, ¢10.’ Don’t get me wrong, there’s a reason all those books are less than a dollar, but the sheer mass of them at such a cheap price is a really cool thing to see. There’s crappy fiction, crappier nonfiction, textbooks, self-help, and every other book that nobody has ever wanted to read. They’ve got a wall full of em that they can’t even get rid of. Many of them are pretty old, and give off that distinct old book smell. They waft it out onto the street like how a subway pumps their bread fumes at you. It’s irresistible.

Feels like everything else in the world is incredibly expensive right now, but at least the continuously oversaturated book market still has a back end where you can get great books for less than ten bucks. Thrift books is probably one of my favorite online retailers now despite how it can be unreliable sometimes. Something about going into a checkout screen with four or five books that add up to $20 is just awesome. Is it weird that I kinda like how it’s a bit of a lottery with what you’re gonna get? Sometimes I order books in poor condition just to see how low I can get away with. It’s hard to say no to a book for $3 that ends up being in pretty good condition anyway. Many of them have hand written notes inside, under linings where someone particularly enjoyed a passage or a sentence, question marks where something didn’t make sense. These things lower a books monetary value, but for me the reading experience only improves. Those are the little things that make me slow down and appreciate how good (or dreadful) a certain part of the book is.

And yes, libraries are awesome, but I like to own the book too. Watching a shelf fill up is just as fun as unboxing and reading them. The whole process is great. What is it you like most about buying books? The reading itself? Having something new in your hands that could be the best book ever? Shiny new books, or yellowed old ones? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley