“Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.”
– Virginia Woolf
[h/t Lit Musings, via Liquid Night…photo via Breathing Books…]
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 26, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Nan
Oh, Virginia! My latest second-hand book is on its way to me – Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s Memoirs.
November 27, 2010 at 7:33 am
lazarusdodge
The only freshly printed books I buy are what I call “reference books” – the ones I keep going back to time and again. Recipes, how-to’s, etc. And occasionally, a small press anthology or poetry collection.
As for the rest, I only seek those that have been read before – and often identified on the inside cover with a handwritten signature or an ex libris sticker. Too often the ones I look for are out of print…so only the “previously owned” version is available.
Keep ‘em circulating!
-J.