Your Favorite Used Book Buy

[Matthew]

I happened to stumble upon a nine volume 1923 edition of The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it's become my favorite used book item that I own. It's an old, well used collection that looks beautiful in its agedness. I looked up the name of the previous owner (the name is in another volume I left at my mother's home, so I don't have it right now) and it turns out he was a minister, who lost his faith, but remained socially active in charity work in New York. I often think of him and his life, when I pick up a volume from this collection. That is one of the wonderful things about buying used books, I feel like I'm in the line of a reading history of people that stretches back almost a century.  I found a picture of the edition on the 'net.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Matthew

[Larry Kart]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1828 edition); eight volumes for $40, purchased about 30 years ago (same edition in similar shape goes for about $500 now).  Leather boards are in about the condition in the image below, bindings intact. The layout of type on the page is ideal. Gibbon is an immensely entertaining writer. Has the bookplate of Harry Dupuis, a star cricketeer at Cambridge.

 

www.worthpoint.com:.webloc

[ejp626]

Not sure it is my favorite, but for sure the best bargain I ever landed was this 3 volume edition of Burton's translation of 1001 Nights for $1.

I still own it, though I've only read through it once.  Maybe one day I will crack it open again.

[ghost of miles]

All of the old Modern Libraries that I've picked up over the last 25 years or so--this is one of my favorites, cover design by E. McKnight Kauffer:

[erwbol]

My (signed) Iain M. Banks Culture UK hardcovers.

[Justin V]

8 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

All of the old Modern Libraries that I've picked up over the last 25 years or so--this is one of my favorites, cover design by E. McKnight Kauffer:

I love that cover.  I remember plowing through a ton of Hammett before moving down the line to Chandler and Macdonald. 

[crisp]

Ending Up by Kingsley Amis, Penguin, signed. 

About 15 years ago I set myself the task of reading all of Amis's books at a time when all but a couple were oop. For the only time in my life I scoured used bookshops in search of them. I had already read Ending Up when I saw this paperback edition for about £2, but it was in perfect condition and I liked the Quentin Blake cover so I bought it. It wasn't until I got it home that I realised it was signed. I've subsequently bought a signed first edition of Amis's memoirs, and this Ending Up probably isn't unusual or worth much, but it is my favourite because it was such a nice surprise.

[medjuck]

I'm helping a friend out at a 2nd hand bookstore. People bring us books and sometimes we go hunting for them at estate sales and Friends of the Library sales.   We're mainly looking for classic and recent paperbacks since we've found that our customers are reluctant to buy hard covers even when they're about the same price as paperbacks.  

We have  come up with some interesting finds:  first edition signed books by Tom Robbins, Alan Furst, Margaret Millar and Sue Grafton (she was a local girl so they're a dime a dozen though we only have a couple from before ""H" is for whatever it's for.."").  But  we've found a lot of great old paperback by Ross MacDonald (another local), Chandler, Hammett etc.     Also things we're enthusiastic about even if our customers aren't:  Pynchon, Joyce etc. (Actually we do eventually sell most of them.) 

But we're still looking for that elusive Ben Hur, 1860, Third Edition, the one with the duplicate line on page 116.

Edited October 21, 2019 by medjuck

[David Ayers]

8 hours ago, medjuck said:

 

But we're still looking for that elusive Ben Hur, 1860, Third Edition, the one with the duplicate line on page 116.

 

I haven't got that, but I can help you out with a Chevalier Audubon 1840.