Hello all! I would like to thank you for the lovely comments in Pip's interview , I'm sure she is very satisfied with such good feedback and I am as well. She give all her soul to write an interesting, chatty and personal interview and the results is there. But well, I've been reading (as always), thinking (fortunately I can) and wondering (madly) it all is resumed to readings.
First of all, do you like to read? Are you the kind who reads only when necessary or that who reads even the small letters in the cereal box while you are having breakfast?
A few weeks ago I joined a community of trade of books. It's very alike with BookMooch but it is in fact called WinkingBooks. I'm sure many of you are familiarized with the first at least, since it is base in U.K. and a bunch of people from other countries also use it. Apart from books in my mother tongue, Portuguese, I also read some in English, especially those friends send and to be honest sometimes I buy some in English not only to send to friends but also so I can read them because they are much cheaper and I have the honor to read something in the original language, not to mention that I am improving other language besides my own. I was very reluctant int he very start but I had some requests and own some points and I decided to ask for some book I wanted for such a long time but I've said to myself I would try to find them in second hand, since they are not new books (some) and it happened. So far I got four books for free, they all look perfectly new, and by now I am reading the second (Budapeste written by the Brazilian composer, singer and writer Chico Buarque).
Normally, I tell to people about the importance of buying second hand books too. It's not that they have diseases because they were used once, there are a lot that are new. Who never bought a book because it had a good price in the bookstore and then you started putting it behind the other in your shelf and somehow one day you look over it and you are sure you will never read it because it actually doesn't awakens any interests of yourself... I've heard from people saying "hmm I cannot abandon my books, they are very sentimental to me" or something like that.
To bookaholics (or bookworms) books are a deep passion, each one we buy is like a small pearl in our shelf. A story, a handful of poems, a play, everything with the shape of a book isn't just a bunch of paper, each tale lives amid those leaves, characters get real lives and they pull us to their world, we abandon reality while we hang around with them in their blue worlds.
One day I got a book I tried to read, I swear I do! I guess I stopped before the last two chapter or so... I know, who does that? I could at least had finished, it was so close to the end, sure! I don't even wanted to know how it would end. It wasn't though to read because of the writing style, it was just out of my interests and some sort of conversion to religion I disliked, not that I have something against who like it, I don't even will mention the title, but it rang some bells in my mind. I would never grab it again and I decided to sell it and I did. I think I made someone very happy because it was new and shinning yet, it looked pulled from the bookstore shelf seconds ago and I've sold it for a third of price in the stores. After that I made a little group of books I wouldn't mind to sell and then I found the place to trade them. For the price of a postage stamp we can get books, isn't it superb?
Do you buy second hand books or does it bothers you because they already had a previous owner?
10 opinions:
I've never had a problem with second hand books as long as they're in a good state. Sometimes it's stupid to pay full price for something you can get for so little.
Well, I have to admit that I'm not fond of reading second hand books. But, only if I don't know the former owner. If I were given a book to read by a friend I would happily read it and cherish it like all the other books on my shelf. I love, love, love, love reading with all my heart. I like to read poetry in the morning and a novel at night-time. The hours in between I spend reading letters, newspapers, magazines, articles on the Internet and, of course, my own written work. I don't think I could let one of my books go, though. Every book was bought and read for a particular reason and I like the memories the pages of books hold.
Alex John The question is, did you ever buy? I thought exactly like you until I got the first and it looked new, it was so normal like any other, it just had come from someone who didn't desire it any more. Was very bothering to me imagine to have a book that already had belonged to someone else, that have been in other house, hands, breath... but I like them now. They are even more especial to me because they were unwelcome in other places and I will give them they deserve. Books should be cared and welcome.
Did you read all your books? Don't you feel bothered to have books you will never pay attention? After all I understand you. All you feel about it now I felt once, not now. (:
I have many books at home and most of them were bought at first hand. Lately I have bought second-hand books, fairs or in secondhand book shop because they are much cheaper.
Recently I joined the Winkingbooks for your suggestion and I am to receive the first book. However I have books that I will not discard because offered me or because they really enjoyed it reads.
Hi Joana,
Probably 99% of the books I buy are second-hand. I love the feel of 'pre-loved' books... the creased spine, turned over pages, little marks. To me, that just adds to the character of the book. But I do also buy new books from my favourite authors, because these are ones I know I'll cherish in my collection forever :)
Pip
Dearest... I feel so upset because my comment just disappeared, it has happened a lot lately =.= Anyway, what I wanted to say was, I've just got a book that I really wanted... I've been trying to find it for a long time, but the author isn't famous, it hasn't been translated into German until 1990 (written 1942) and hasn't been reprinted ever since, so it wasn't an easy task to get it... You can imagine how happy I was when I found it second-hand and it cost 50 cents! When my baby reached its new home, I've seen that it was basically only standing on some shelf, nobody has carressed the pages, felt the stories... So I was happy to give it a new cozy place to stay ^.^ I do buy new books, but the second-hand trade is great because you can still find and get some treasures that aren't bestsellers of popular authors and that are still worth to be read and cherished... I buy books online, at flea markets, trade with friends, I really don't care... The only time I felt weird about a second hand book was when the person who sent it to me said that it came from the apartment of a dead man +.+
I got this pre-loved, perfect edition of Little Birds by Anais Nin in a market in Amsterdam last summer. It's from 1970, with little pencil notes from the mysterious owner in its margins.
I prefer to own second hand books.
-vita
I have major problems with used books. Too often I cannot bear touching a particular book because of the . . . Dare I say because of the book's aura? No, it's because of the previous owners' energy left behind. I've been that way since I was a child. I'm that way with only some books. They make my hands feel so dirty, I have to wash-wash-wash.
I do love the ones I have, though. We're like old friends.
{I love that photo where the girl is surrounded by books.} I buy second hand books. It doesn't bother me that they are used. But for most of my books I go to the library because I don't need to own every book I read. Ciao!!! xoxo
I think second hand books are great if you're not willing or able to pay full price for a new one. There shouldn't be any prejudice involving used books (as long as they're not erotica, 'cause that's a sticky business).
I buy some used books but honestly I'm a bigger supporter of the used books rental business: Libraries.
You basically go to a place full of books pick what you want and then bring them back when you want to. Isn't that a bargain? ;)
Cumps
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