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[elettaria]

Tell me about your favourite second-hand bookshop finds.

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I found the red leather one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings, which Steve wanted for Christmas every year since he read it the first time. It was beyond my budget, but the one I found was at a bookstore going out of business. It was in mint condition, and while already used, it was also 50% off. Score! He was stunned when he got it.

[catnip-junkie.livejournal.com]

My copy of The Neverending Story (bought in D's shop, I believe) which has the inscription on the flyleaf:

'To Michael,
Because goodbye is not just an ending, but also a beginning.
Love, Heléne'*

Also, I have to mention my desk encyclopaedia, because it's ace and very handy, and that really old copy of Sense and Sensibility. I'm sure there are more, but I'm not by my books right now. But that first is definitely the all-time favourite.

*It's entirely possible that I'm paraphrasing here. More than possible, in fact. But that's basically what it says. Also, she spelled 'Michael' wrong the first time around, and had to go over it. She spelled it 'Micheal'.

[selenityk.livejournal.com]

I found a collection of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poetry at an antique bookshop in York for ₤10.

[poisoninjest.livejournal.com]

Shakespeare, The History Plays: An Illustrated Edition. Hardback, absolutely beautiful illustrations--portraits, contemporary paintings, photos of funeral effigies. $40 new (out of print), got it for $15.

[sphinxvictorian.livejournal.com]

Probably too many to mention, but one of the ones that stands out was a few years ago finding the entire series of the Yellow Book for a ridiculously low price at a store in Scottsdale AZ, where the guy didn't know what he had!

I also lucked out at the Oscar Wilde Book Store in Greenwich Village NYC, when I asked if they had any Wilde first editions and they handed me an original of the pamphlet form of his first poem Ravenna. This time I may have paid too much, but I didn't really care, being the huge Wilde buff that I am.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

All my Antonia White stuff. Obviously ;)

[sweetrush.livejournal.com]

Rather pretty copy of Boethius (in English).

[leenah.livejournal.com]

it's a family story (though not all of the family believes it) that my grandmother was named for the book 'Lena Rivers. my mother told me this, but i didn't believe her, until i found a play of the same title, and it said 'based on the book'.

so i started searching for the book. serendipity struck - i was going thru the outdoor racks at Victor Hugo Bookshop - the outdoor racks were the 'junk' books, usually for $1 each.

and there it was, an edition of 'Lena Rivers, by Mary J. Holmes. and it was printed around 1900. and $1.

my BESTEST used bookshop find, and useful only to me. :) fyi, it's a HORRIBLE book, i describe it as 'danielle steele of the late 19th century'. poor 'Lena (Helena) is an orphan, her mother had her out of wedlock (HORROR!!!) and she goes thru trials and tribulations to come out a winner at the end. awful book.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

And you do realise that your answer to this question has to be D, right? ;)

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Naturally. In fact, such a discussion is where I got this idea from (http://eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com/179781.html). We're both still trying to work out what our favourite actual-book finds are. I'm sure there are plenty I've been in seventh heaven about, but when half the flat is walled with books and most of them were second-hand, it can be harder to remember.

It's lovely seeing the responses to this post, bonding over our passion for books, both with the old friends and the people I hardly know.

[king-laugh.livejournal.com]

The second-hand bookshop round the corner from Tchai has yielded some amazing finds; and many, I'm certain, yet to come. These include Scunthorpe Revisited, Spike Milligan (which includes some writings on psychiatry I've not found anywhere else, and a great many reasons to smile even by Spiky standards), the Penguin Dictionary of Pirates (which admittedly is keech, but still, pirates!), A version of The Arabian Nights with many, many more stories than the Penguin Classics version I had before, far too many £1 gems to call to mind all at once, The Wind In The Willows, an obscure story about a hunchback who met the Baby Jesus, hunners of finds I can't call to mind right at the moment... and my highly boingsome sister Irene found the absolutely delightful Concise Household Encyclopedia, which has given us many a laugh.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

I got a couple of tiny volumes of Ruskin essays from 1907 at one of those all-you-can-fit-in-a-carrier-bag-for-£5 events, though the rest of the bag wasn't so interesting. Doesn't mean I didn't still fill it up, of course.

My single favourite odd find, though, has to be The Tragedy of Richard II: The Life and Times of Richard II (1367-1400), King of England (1377-1399), Compared to those of Richard of America in His Second Administration by Robert J. Myers (Acropolis, 1973).

[poblana-wannabe.livejournal.com]

Hi Elettaria, this is off-topic but I was just wondering, is Clarissa happening this year?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I gave up, not enough was happening. Quite a few people signed up for it, but progress was stalled when some important jobs (which I couldn't do myself due to disability) didn't happen as promised. Next year, maybe.