Tag Archives: rare books

Two Lovely Things

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This fine Saturday morning I am sitting in my friend’s house in Glen Ariff, N Ireland, drinking tea and valuing books. Liz runs a camping and ceilidh barn, but is rarely here because she’s trotting the world as a storyteller. I think she’s in England today.

The view from my bedroom window this morning

Sitting in Liz’s space surrounded by bookshelves, I’m going through her rather extensive collection. As a former librarian, Liz received a lot of books as presents over the years from places where she’s told stories.Some of them are worth quite a bit, and I am having fun plying my old trade as a bookslinger.

Liz is eyeing a bit of downsizing for her caretakers’ flat at the barn. The barn is divided into three bits: Liz’s private space, the dorm and services for the guests, and a studio for ceilidhs and workshops, sessions, etc. You have to go outside to get between the three.

Of course it’s drizzling today, so I made myself a cuppa tea from the ceilidh barn stash, carried it over to the flat, and changed into my comfy slipper socks. It took this PhD with two master’s degrees about an hour to realize that, instead of changing to shoes and dashing through the rain to make another cuppa each time, I could bring the milk and sugar to Liz’s place and use her kettle. Not much gets by me. I think I’m on my ninth cup of tea, so perhaps my brain is sloshing.

One shelf done, 27 to go….
When I lived in Scotland I wrote a column for a US paper about life overseas and they were collected into this sweet little book, my first. I’ve written nine since then with some major publishers even, but the first is always special!

Some amazing titles live on these crowded bookshelves. And of course there’s the lovely moment when I found one of the books I’d written. Pride filled my heart – until I valued it online. We won’t talk about that.

If you want to be in on the book sale once it starts, leave a comment on this blog post and we will contact you when the time comes. Some books will be listed on eBay, plus there will be a barn sale and possibly an online FB Marketplace sale as well. We will let you know.

The lucky tomes that may get to travel the world via eBay, based on their desirability and value

Now, a quick dash to the toilet and back to the bookshelves with cup number ten.

Destined for FB Marketplace, or perhaps a nice ‘buns and books’ barn sale?

Your Old Book is not *%#^%$ Valuable, OK?

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People come into the shop on a fairly regular basis, clutching a single tome wrapped in plastic. They have the hopeful idea that this will purchase their retirement on a small private island.

Sorry, but here are the seven most common reasons we see on why your book might cover lunch at Applebee’s but no more:old books

7. It’s a paperback. Trust us on this one; by the time a paperback is old enough to be antique, it’s too battered to be pretty. Planned obsolescence in the binding glue, or something like that.

6. You have the book club edition. Jack and I got very excited in the early days, finding we had an old hardback of Laura Hobson’s Gentleman’s Agreement, which goes for $600 in a first edition. We had the sturdy, ubiquitous one instead. It’s like the difference between an Aston Martin and an MGB GT; both are pretty, both are cool, but only one is hard to find.

5. It has worm holes. Yes, even if the worm is dead, even if the cover still has its gilt lettering and hand-sewn edges intact, those holes aren’t adding character, they’re subtracting value. Ask any Science Fiction fan: worm holes are bad news.

4. It has Reader’s Digest in the title. Just stop it, ok? We don’t want to buy it and neither does anyone else on the planet.

3. Something has chewed the corners. Dog-eared, maybe; dog-chewed, nyet. And no, we don’t want to hear what got it, or how. Just leave quietly without touching anything. Thanks.

2. The author is still alive. I once mentioned to my agent Pamela, just before visiting her in NYC, that in the used business, a dead author’s work tends to be worth exponentially more than that of a live one. After a brief pause, she asked in honeyed tones, “Do you like Ferris wheels, dear?”

1. It’s part of an encyclopedia set. Unless it’s pre-1800s (we’ve seen one in six years) make a book angel out of it and be happy.

So your book is probably not valuable in terms of money, but let’s not forget it’s still a wisdom house, a snapshot of words between covers that–barring dogs and old glue–hold them in one place, and through time. It may not be worth money, but it’s still valuable. Enjoy it; display its pretty cover; read it, turning the pages gently (and possibly wearing gloves). It’s yours to discover.