used books

Online bookseller is approached by a little old lady while he's scouring the used books at Goodwill. Would he like her recently deceased husband's collection? The books turn out to be worth not so much, but he buys them anyway to be nice to the woman. When he takes stock of the stock, many turn out to be hollow. Contained within are hundreds of Poloroids of said husband in flagrante delicto...

Be careful what you use as a bookmark. Thousands of dollars, a Christmas card signed by Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby’s tooth, a diamond ring and a handwritten poem by Irish writer Katharine Tynan Hickson are just some of the stranger objects discovered inside books by AbeBooks.com booksellers.

In Manhattan, hundreds of sidewalk book scavengers—homeless people with a sense of industry—rise at 3 a.m. to begin their day rescuing discarded books and selling them to new owners. Some pedal the books on the street, while others take their finds to the Strand Bookstore. Either way, the homeless are doing an efficient job of finding old books new homes.

If getting your "words" out to a larger audience is something that has some interest to you, then the information I am about to share with you may help you accomplish that mission. If the word “FREE” is at the top of your vocabulary and budget then we are a good match!

Bookfinder.com is a search engine for used books. I didn't know it, but they release a report every year (July to June) on the most searched for out of print books. Frankly, I'm a little surprised at how obscure the books are. Or perhaps it's just that publishers are bringing back books more readily than they used to, so there is little that is out of print.

Book rescuers beware; you may be taking home more than you bargained for. A school in Wales has issued a warning to well-meaning people who recovered books from the dumpsters outside the building. The estimated 500 books were trashed because they are infested with fleas!