Book sales

Not long ago, my friend Lisa brought me to a musty and cramped office basement for a used-book sale. It was All-You-Can-Read Day—fill a grocery bag for $5—and I shook at having to narrow my choices from thousands. An hour later, I hauled four paper bags into the sunlight and made Lisa take me home before I burrowed back for more.


It’s a sickness. And the more e-books we buy, the more temptations there will be for the rest of us as converts unload their paper libraries in deference to their space-saving virtual ones. (By the way, I use “we” in the “you” sense of the word, since I have no plans to make the switch to electronic reader any time soon.) 


How to avoid saving every worthy tome moldering on the Used Book shelf? Certainly steer clear of all book sales—if that’s even possible. 


There’s a scent of inevitability in the air. On a recent trip to Anthropologie, I noticed this how-to guide propped on one of the shop’s innocent and inviting little goody tables. Sad but true: crafters have their collective eye on our prized literature. Think Pride and Prejudice as placemat or Love in the Age of Cholera as lampshade. 


I shudder still.  

Playing with Books:
The Art of Recycling, Deconstructing,
and Reimagining the Book
by Jason Thompson