Books!

I love books.  I love the colors, the designs and the care that goes into the designs  and the covers.   A books cover can be rich in leathers of gold or deep earthy browns, while others are purples or reds or even those  rich greens creating the feel of the 1940s.  That's what I feel anyway.  I happen to think of the  printed fern on the curtain and slipcovered furniture, a filterless cigarette with it's smoke trailing to the ceiling in the hand of a red nailed dame.
 Smells can resonate from the words of a title taking you back to a place you may have been, or thought you were, or even inside a period reel to reel.  Books are our imagination in letter form in any language in any genre.

I love the jackets,  especially the ones from the '60's and before.  I hate it when people are careless and remove them or rip them up.  This is Art.   Time and effort and an added 25% of your value goes into the worth of a book with the jacket  if you are into collecting.  If you have any sense at all, you'd listen to your mother and "keep your jacket on"!  

 Books can add color to a room, ignite a conversation, draw us in to a character and either  love or hate them, possibly  while conjugating a verb ( I don't know why on earth you'd want to) or figure out a fraction.
Books are fiction, non fiction, movie tie-ins, historical, and so on.  They can be rare, but not medium rare only a steak can have that title.  There are so many categories to put them into as various as the shelves they sit on.
Books are everywhere, all you have to do is look.

 A few years ago unexpectedly I started helping at a  Thrift store with a mission.   All the books coming into the store are sifted through, by me, and either shelved or set aside to raise extra monies for The Hope Foundation.  A good cause and I get to have fun!


And then this brings us to Textbooks.
While I love the aforementioned books and am learning everyday or trying to what makes a First Edition in all of it's contradictory forms, I can at least say with certainty I do know about Textbooks.

I worked at an off campus Textbook store, Textbooks Plus, (now a mere memory), for a friend of mine in the early '90's.    This was when my love of textbooks was birthed.   I didn't know it in the beginning,  it was a process.
At some point within a few years I learned the value of TB's, beyond paying for them, but in Buyback form.
I learned skills or tricks in buying and reselling and I learned NOT to be greedy, you only loose.  This wasn't rocket science of course, it goes without saying in any area, most generally.
I know how to spot books that most don't have a clue about without their "trusty" scanners.  They may be handy I see them as a crutch.  I know what sites to go to beyond Amazon.  I know books. Seriously,  I am not bragging but I state it as fact, but- I'm not close minded, I am always open to checking out a buying or selling  site or new information.

  I'm in school now and have temporarily laid my contracted buying  aside for MBS.  Temporarily of course but I miss it, it's  in my blood

There is one thing I don't miss though,  the rude obnoxious students young and old alike, acting like they are entitled to selling their books back or if they can that every book should be worth more than they paid for it or ............I could go on and on  with the tales of greed and woe.....but
some of those stories both  good and bad alike are "shelved"  away while  I  consider writing about them, maybe creating my own first edition,  my own 21st century red nailed version.  In the meantime, be nice to your books--how much is it worth to  you?