Chapter 17 The Choice of Books

Here’s one more charming find from last weekend’s book fair:

I don’t believe it has any significant value, either literarily or monetarily. It just pleases me.

I hunt for books wherever I go: library sales, estate sales, auctions, used book shops, antiquarian book shops, book fairs, and even the shelves of my friends and family. (I know. I have no shame.) I’ve begun to make other booksellers aware of my interests so that I am periodically offered a title that was picked specifically with me in mind. I’ve had good “finds” in each of these venues.

Sometimes I know what I’m looking for and sometimes I just happen upon it. Both methods of buying satisfy me. When I finish re-shelving everything I packed up from the book fair, I plan to go to book hunting at one of my favorite venues:

The County Historical Association in the area where I live has an open shop in the basement of a very old (about 100 years old, and that’s old for this area, which was pretty much leveled by the 1906 earthquake) and beautiful courthouse building. The Old Courthouse, as it is commonly called, was recently restored and is currently a history museum for the county. While the upper floors feature a beautiful dome, stained glass, and large murals, the basement has stone walls and a warren of rooms filled with books of all sorts. I like hunting for books here because it’s often hit or miss. Sometimes I go and I find no books I want to buy. Other times, I feel as though I have stepped into a fine library, finding wonderful collections, association copies, or decorative bindings donated by denizens of my county. The fun is not knowing ahead of time which type of visit it will be.

Either way, it’s always a nice visit, because it’s a beautiful building. It’s quiet in the basement, and you can see the shoes of passers-by out the windows. Mid-day on a weekday there, among the stacks of books, it feels like being in a cave, surrounded by treasure that is there only for you, while the rest of the world goes on in complete oblivion to the plunder below.

I also get to attend the Friends of the Library Sale in San Francisco next week. It’s their annual Big Book Sale, and I’ve only been to it once before. I came home with a few good finds.

My very favorite place to scout is a monthly library sale in a university town near mine. The volunteers who run the sale are very organized and efficient — no hoarders or people pushing and arguing allowed here, and it has lots of books — about 60,000 spread out in three different rooms. I once found a signed Ansel Adams book there for .25 cents. That sale is coming up in mid-October.

I’ll also be visiting a few bookshops in the area in an effort to replenish the stock I sold in Sacramento last weekend. Where do you find the best choice of books?