On Second-Hand Books
- Beth Gough
- Feb 13
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
"Second-hand 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."
— Virgina Woolf
The business research company reports that the second-hand book market has a compound annual growth market of 7.1%1, people are also buying more second-hand books than they are first hand in the UK. I think this is an amazing development for books selling and here are my reasons for buying second-hand books and why the industry is thriving.
The first is the environmental impact books have. While by no means reaching the heights of the fast fashion industry, book production is intensive, resulting in carbon emissions and old volumes are often not recyclable (if they’ve been written in or damaged too badly). But unlike fashion, books don’t go out of style, and a worn-out book is only a reason to love it even more. Websites like ‘World Of Books’ try to limit waste and buy and sell books that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Therefore, buying second-hand books does mean less copies are printed there by reducing waste. Some online websites are even able to give a commission to the author. By buying second-hand books they circulate, and you may find yourself with a book that has been bought, read, and sold many times before it came to you.
If you're buying second-hand books from a website, they often also platform small bookstores that may not be able to sell otherwise.
Another reason for buying second-hand is that you may be able to find books, or editions of books, that are out of print or are less popular. For example, Hilda Doolittle’s novel ‘HERmione’ is impossible to find in bookstores and costs £20 on amazon in the UK, however from a second-hand online bookstore I found a copy for £5 in very good condition. Sometimes old editions of books can be preferable to new ones. The Penguin Popular Classics series is a good example of this. It was a collection of paperback popular English classics that stopped printing in 2013 so now can only be bought second-hand. These versions are small and light enough to carry with you in coat pockets or bags but still are in a big enough print to read comfortably.
But most importantly perhaps, there is a magic to second hand bookstores you are hard pressed to find elsewhere. Three years ago, inside a copy of Charlotte Bronte’s ‘The Professor’ I got at a second-hand stall in Cambridge, I found an old post card, on the back was written:
Dorothy from Ken.
With love and best wishes
For a very happy birthday
A memorable year: 20/8/88
- 20/8/89
On the postcard is a picture of the watercolour painting ‘Clamming 1887’ bought from the Museum of fine arts, Boston. By no means is this postcard going to end up in a museum, but these small sections of history can be found accidently and easily in these kinds of books. Sometimes people argue that the purpose of books is to take you far away from yourself, but I disagree. I think they bring you closer to the world. A good book should introduce you to a perspective or experience you’ve never seen before and compel you to see people in a new way. That’s why it's so beautiful. That’s what second-hand books do, tell you that someone else has read and loved something that you might read and love, that you are not alone.
The thing about books themselves is that they live with you forever and the impact they make on you is indelible. Once a book has been read you are encouraged to read it a million more times, as many as you can. Even a worn and torn book is not something that should be thrown away but rather read again as a badge of honour. If one day you find you simply have no use for it, you may sell it, give it to a friend, donate it to a charity shop, or simply leave it behind you in a public place to be picked up and read by someone else. Books do not have an expiration date, and that is why the second-hand book industry thrives.
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