How about when a secondhand bookshop becomes a representation of the owner’s taste? There’s one near me, the only guy ever working there is the owner, and he has the most curated selection I’ve ever seen. The place is overflowing with books, but quality books. I doubt he holds anything that he doesn’t personally vouch for. I started to get a sense of this when after reading Knausgaard, who frequently mentions the authors who have influenced him, which led me to track down these authors (Hamsun, Bernhard, Handke, among others). This store I’m talking about has them all, and I haven’t seen them anywhere else.
I fear that like the dinosaurs we are lumbering towards our destruction... '84 Charing Cross Road' is still one of my favourite films and books... but I hear friends and associates mutter darkly about their unwieldy book collections and what can be done about them...
Great piece. If I lived near a second hand bookshop I would go on today just to celebrate your words. Sadly the only one in Stow closed during lockdown. Its a dog grooming parlour now.
Well, yes, of course. I've been rummaging in seocnd-hand bookshops since I was about 13, and my careers have depended on their existence, and secret treasures, for at least thirty years. I was in Hay on Saturday and bought three books I didn't know existed, and one of them is already 'seminal' and 'key' and all those other words meaning Essential to a current project. Going on holiday means finding the local second-hand bookshops because the stock is always better over there.
Totally agree - there’s something wonderfully indulgent and rebellious about sifting through the dusty old boxes and scouring the shelves at secondhand bookshops.
How about when a secondhand bookshop becomes a representation of the owner’s taste? There’s one near me, the only guy ever working there is the owner, and he has the most curated selection I’ve ever seen. The place is overflowing with books, but quality books. I doubt he holds anything that he doesn’t personally vouch for. I started to get a sense of this when after reading Knausgaard, who frequently mentions the authors who have influenced him, which led me to track down these authors (Hamsun, Bernhard, Handke, among others). This store I’m talking about has them all, and I haven’t seen them anywhere else.
Yes, I think that’s rare though individually managed shops do often have a special flavour which makes them more interesting than others.
I fear that like the dinosaurs we are lumbering towards our destruction... '84 Charing Cross Road' is still one of my favourite films and books... but I hear friends and associates mutter darkly about their unwieldy book collections and what can be done about them...
Great piece. If I lived near a second hand bookshop I would go on today just to celebrate your words. Sadly the only one in Stow closed during lockdown. Its a dog grooming parlour now.
Well, yes, of course. I've been rummaging in seocnd-hand bookshops since I was about 13, and my careers have depended on their existence, and secret treasures, for at least thirty years. I was in Hay on Saturday and bought three books I didn't know existed, and one of them is already 'seminal' and 'key' and all those other words meaning Essential to a current project. Going on holiday means finding the local second-hand bookshops because the stock is always better over there.
Totally agree - there’s something wonderfully indulgent and rebellious about sifting through the dusty old boxes and scouring the shelves at secondhand bookshops.