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The demise of the second-hand bookshop

thecritic.co.uk

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Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#141

Post by chrisseaton »

Freak_NL wrote: post #133
chrisseaton wrote: post #60

If you like second-hand bookshops, visit Hay-on-Wye. I'd recommend crossing the Atlantic to see it even. It's in south Wales, and it's a whole village of second-hand bookshops. Many are huge, some are tiny and very specialist (horror, detective fiction, etc.) Every year I spend three or four days there browsing and reading, and doing some walking in the mountains as well.

I've had Hay-on-Wye on my radar for a while (I'm Dutch, so it is a doable holiday destination by train and bus). The surrounding area looks interesting as well, and the mountains certainly appeal to me. You make it sound worthwhile. How are the prices? London's second-hand bookshops seem to be notoriously overpriced (not surprisingly due to rent and costs). For now the only things holding me back are the fallout of B…

> How are the prices?

I don't think I've ever really considered the prices. They're always just 'a few pounds'. Doesn't seem necessary to worry over it given how good the experience is.

If you're buying genuinely valuable or rare older books over the £50 mark I might stop and think, but I'm usually not browsing for that kind of book - I'm already looking on AbeBooks etc.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#142

Post by avasthe »

mistrial9 wrote: post #21

Used bookstores are a lot like gardens -- they must be tended daily and grown in 100 ways, year after year. The city I grew up in was legendary for used bookstores, and they sit all but empty now, decades later. The 'modern' people chiming in about how to "search faster" are missing an aspect of the experience that is literal and measureable, as well as partially undefineable simply because the portion of the mind an…

> The 'modern' people chiming in about how to "search faster" are missing an aspect of the experience that is literal and measureable, as well as partially undefineable simply because the portion of the mind and senses that is exercised is non-linear -- file that under "non-linear thinking"

I don't understand the luddite attitude towards ebooks: - you can carry them anywhere - you can search them (more important for technical books) - you can save important parts as screenshots in some other folder - they can be significantly more affordable - even those people in small cities can get them without searching in bookstores - Poor/middle-class students can easily get pirated copies - you can copy paste from them.

The resistance to ebooks instead of adaptation is weird.

In fact, because of ubiquity of smartphones, I wish there would be some sort of programming environments for these devices, that nicely reformat code to fit into the smartphone screens or even use some different representation, so that we can get something done on the go. These devices are not just for consuming Netflix content.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#143

Post by bookofjoe »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #42
jb775 wrote: post #30

I actually really appreciate second-hand books. It sounds weird, but it makes it feel like there's more life to a book knowing others have read that exact copy. I also find it interesting and often helpful reading notes or underlined/highlighted parts of the book. I recently purchased a few books from thriftbooks.com and noticed they shipped from different locations....I'm not sure if they're run as a marketplace whe…

I also enjoy buying used books where one can tell that the previous owner treasured the book over the years and made notes or highlights. However, the demise of the sewn binding – publishers have shifted to shoddy glued bindings even for prestige titles like the collected works of many poets – means that there will probably be less well-used and loved books around, since the binding is likely to give out already with…

Right up your alley: https://archive.vn/jMbcO

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#144

Post by biophysboy »

Balgair wrote: post #101
biophysboy wrote: post #23

One thing I appreciate about second-hand bookshops and libraries is that they are not curated for me. I read a lot of non-fiction, and I find that websites like Amazon and Goodreads do give decent suggestions, but they are books about topics I already know, sharing ideas I am already familiar with, in a style I like. I can feel the customer profit gradient descent maximization breathing down my neck. Looking at you,…

When I was traveling, I'd love me some second-hand bookstores. They were perfect for a few hours to kill. Each one was like a tattoo on a town, unique yet familiar. Large cities, small hamlets, the used bookstore in each were all the same stacks of yellowing books haphazarded. The smell, oh the smell, exactly the same musky deep scent. The pacing feet or strolling dogs outside the door drop away, leaving an alike mea…

Unfortunately, I've found that even the remaining second-hand stores have lost a bit of this "uniqueness" from location to location. Now they all push the same anarchist, grunge aesthetic. I dont mind it, but its not novel to me anymore, and it'd be nice to experience something else.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#145

Post by BLKNSLVR »

Balgair wrote: post #101
biophysboy wrote: post #23

One thing I appreciate about second-hand bookshops and libraries is that they are not curated for me. I read a lot of non-fiction, and I find that websites like Amazon and Goodreads do give decent suggestions, but they are books about topics I already know, sharing ideas I am already familiar with, in a style I like. I can feel the customer profit gradient descent maximization breathing down my neck. Looking at you,…

When I was traveling, I'd love me some second-hand bookstores. They were perfect for a few hours to kill. Each one was like a tattoo on a town, unique yet familiar. Large cities, small hamlets, the used bookstore in each were all the same stacks of yellowing books haphazarded. The smell, oh the smell, exactly the same musky deep scent. The pacing feet or strolling dogs outside the door drop away, leaving an alike mea…

The last few holidays I've had I make a point to look up whether the towns we're staying in have any second hand bookshops, and to damn well visit them - with the ever present chance of slight frustration due to some odd opening hours that seem unique to second hand bookstores in such a way as to appear to be saying "you must earn your visit by rescheduling your holiday around me".

It's possible to be correct in three guesses what the owner will look like just by knowing the opening hours.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#146

Post by [deleted] »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #49
bjo590 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming ~600 man hours (your numbers) to digitize an entire used book store, at $15/hr cost for labor it would cost ~$900 to digitize a bookstore. I think you're shy a factor of 3 or 4 on the amount of labor it would take to digitize a book store, given my experience with running inventory at retail shops. Maybe it could be worth it if there was an inventory management system that could automatically post the books…

> you can use it as an opportunity to remove inventory that wasn't selling anyway If you don't have a database of your inventory, you don't know what's selling and what's not, apart from hazy memories of employees and the amount of dust on the shelf.

[deleted]

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#147

Post by tonyedgecombe »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #54

Nope. There are several reasons why individual secondhand bookshops are on the way out, but Oxfam is not a particularly significant one. I am honestly puzzled by the author citing the Oxfam shop on St Giles as an exemplar, because it's a poor shop full of tat and tired old guidebooks to Greece in the 1960s. Even the Oxfam bookshop 15 miles up the road in little Chipping Norton has more interesting stock. But it's int…

Yes, that Oxfam shop is dire, even if you find the odd interesting book it will be priced accordingly. I've never found a bargain in there.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#148

Post by mercer »

Bodell wrote: post #88
derbOac wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of OPs point is that you think you can get a copy of any book. I don't mean to sound snarky at all; it's just that you know what you see online now, which is not all that is offline. You don't miss what you don't know. My experience is of numerous out of print books that might have had small publishers in small editions. Even an unusual edition of an well known book can be unique in various valuable ways…

To add to your point, I recently tried to pick up some of my favorite movies from when I was younger, only to find that they were “out of print”. Some of these may not be lost to people searching around online because the directors are well known, but you’d likely have to search first. Inland Empire - David Lynch / The Dreamers - Bernardo Bertolucci / Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - Sam Peckinpaw / La Luna - Be…

Every one of those titles showed up on torrent sites via the in-browser search feature, and a total of two clicks (magnet link, confirmation in torrent app) would've had the movie viewable on my laptop within, at most, a few minutes of downloading.

Ethics of torrenting aside, I can't think of a faster way to get the results you want.

For books, again, ethics aside, usually Library Genesis is equally fast.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#149

Post by mercer »

Teever wrote: post #56
pfdietz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that time will eventually grind down even the memory of every last thing you have ever known or loved, right?

This is needlessly reductionist and pessimistic. It is wholly reasonable to pine for the simple joys of life and their passing.

It's also reasonable to point out that this is perhaps a trap lots of people growing old fall into, and also perhaps not the most healthy thing to do.

It might be better to adapt rather than pine, if that's possible.

I could pine for the days of my favorite rock bands not being considered 'classic rock'. I could also try and enjoy new music that isn't strictly 'classic rock'.

Re: The demise of the second-hand bookshop

#150

Post by randcraw »

toyg wrote: post #81
TomSwirly wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like all the things I cared about, it is going. I'm starting to lose interest in the world.

That's what growing old looks like, friend. The world we knew is going away, to be replaced by a new world for new people who care about different things. I'm sure people who genuinely loved tending to mules and horses "lost interest" when regular folks started using trains and cars to travel. It's just how it is - humanity goes forth, as it will.

It used to take about three generations before everything you love fades from public memory. Now it's less than one.

Soon Warhol's adage will be proven right: 15 minutes will be the lifespan of not just fame, but of all shared memory. Soon thereafter, all individual memories will last just 15 minutes. Then long term memory will no longer exist.

7 +/-2 will be the maxim of all existence.

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