Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Adventures in Bookselling II


 

One of my nephews asked about what I was reading now. Of course, I always have a stack of books nearby. Some novels, art history, books on art and antiques, and, of course, Galveston history are all in the current pile.

But I thought I would share something that happened several weeks ago. I happened to come upon a collection of books being offered for sale. At first glance, there was nothing special about it. No leather bound classics, no first edition fiction, no coffee-table books. There was no self-help books, no cookbooks, and not a single NY Times bestseller in the bunch.

But to a old book dealer like me, it was a goldmine. Books on trains, WWII airplanes, tanks, riverboats, logging, and canals. CANALS! Hell, in forty years of slinging books, I'd never had ONE book on canals. And here were a dozen or more. And lots more subjects, most of which you'd be hard pressed to find in your mall bookstore.

Whoever had built this collection had to special order half of the titles. The other half had been shopped from used book stores around the country over many years. Many of the books were maybe ten or twenty years old. Some were a hundred and fifty years old. There were books I could quickly sell for twenty bucks, and then there were some worth a grand or more. Just a terrific selection of titles that I would give my right foot for, if I still had an open shop. Or if I had the space to store them.

The books were in 500 banker boxes, totaling about 10,000 books. I was ready to rent a moving truck, drive half way across the country, and hire some local strong backs to load the boxes. I WAS READY!!!

But then reality set in. I'm supposed to be retired. I don't have the space for 500 boxes. And then there's this damn pandemic thing going on. So I passed on them. It killed me to give them up. I hate myself.

So I had a couple shots of Makers Mark (well, maybe more...) and have been moping for the last few weeks. I'm over it now. I survived. Life will go on. But, I gotta tell you, I did look into some store fronts for rent.

Come to find out, I miss the book biz.

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