"Secondhand 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.
If I was faced with a scenario, where in I had the choice to purchase a book in a chain bookstore or a second-hand bookshop, for exactly the same price, I would undoubtedly buy it second-hand. There are a number of reasons for this.
A main distinctive quality of every second-hand bookshop (as opposed to a chain bookstore,) is that they’re all completely different. There is an exciting element of the unexpected. When browsing in one of these shops I am almost always nicely surprised, by discovering a book, and author, I had no prior knowledge of. I’d have no idea where the book came from, from whom and where geographically.
This is particularly exciting when a second-hand bookshop specialises in a particular genre, maybe one that is relevant to local culture – the book as an object feels more personalised, the character of the book becomes more profound.
Perhaps the most appealing quality of second-hand books is their potential history. If a book is slightly battered, worn and used it suggests that it has been well read – maybe it has been a companion to one person for years, or maybe it has passed hands, maybe circulating a family or friends only to end up here. A spirit of appreciation for the literature, whatever that may be, is achieved by this. You may wonder why or how the book ended up here, which can spark ones imagination also. By buying the book you are continuing its history, furthering its journey and adding to the uniqueness of the book as an object.
‘...because when something has suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.’ - Barbara Bloom
Something which some second-hand book sellers do is to leave things in the books – things such as letters, pieces of paper, photographs, bookmarks, annotation, receipts – all manner of things. This of course adds to the books individual history, also giving a taste of a previous owners past – the time that he or she read the book, perhaps location. The items left in the books could be left there by mistake, or even completely on purpose. It’s quite like finding treasure.
I have always been an avid reader, I would choose to get lost in a book rather than a film any day, but I also appreciate books as artistic objects. Books are physically beautiful – each book has its own cover art and font, some books may have illustrations, a variety of paper types, some have leather covers, hand painted pages, prints, signatures – some are pocket size and some are difficult to lift. But possibly more importantly a book is a symbol of knowledge, imagination, exploration and adventure, among many, many other things. To sit in a room surrounded by this potential, for me, is an incomparable creative experience.
Quite like a child in a sweet shop, one can become almost overwhelmed by choice, but this isn’t an uncomfortable position to be in, quite the opposite. A desire to read every single book, to examine every cover, becomes apparent in these situations. Sometimes it is satisfying just to sit and look at the shelves, or walk around the book store, physically exploring different rooms, picking up some books, only to move on to another.
Physically being in a shop like this can be compared to the action or process of reading a book, one can be taken on an adventure to unexpected realms, one can spend varied amounts of time indulging and becoming completely distracted, engulfed in imagination. – An experience which I do not think is possible to the same level in a chain bookstore.
