Rare Used Books
Independent stores battle for book sales
Sandy Miller checks out some of store owner Laural Bidwell's picks for fiction and non-fiction at The Wild Burro bookstore in Hot Springs on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. "This is the best bookstore around," Miller said. "In the hills or otherwise. She knows the books really well. Most of them she reads and if she hasn't, she at least knows a lot about them." (Kristina Barker/Journal staff)
Chris Romano and Deb Jilka had already made plans to add new books to the shelves along with used books at their Spearfish bookstore, BookTrader & More. But the recent news that Borders in Rapid City is closing, with no other bookstore lined up to take its place, made their decision seem more savvy.
"It's forcing us to actually think a little bigger, and to make the move a little faster," Romano said.
Even with opportunity in the local market, making a living selling books - actual books from an actual bookstore - is a challenge in a world of Amazon.com , e-books and Kindle, not to mention books sold in big-box stores such as Walmart.
There are only a few independent stores in the Black Hills that carry new books, and most are devoted to local and regional titles about travel, local history, Native American culture and nature.
The area's only all-new bookstore, The Wild Burro in Hot Springs, is successful because of the customer service its owner, Laural Bidwell, provides, from hosting a book club to booking local music acts to reading constantly so she'll be able to make informed recommendations for individual readers.
Still, the store doesn't generate enough profit to make a real living, Bidwell said, mentioning the joke that the way to end up with a small fortune in business is to start with a large fortune. She opened the shop 10 years ago with savings after a career as an accountant in Denver.
But there are so many rewards to the business beyond a profit, Bidwell said.
"Most of the people who run independent bookstores in small towns know they're not going to get rich," she said. "They're doing it for love. I make pretty much nothing. I get by and I have fun, and I get to bring my dog to work."
She said independent booksellers rely on "hand selling," or personal recommendations.
"I had a teenage reader who was addicted to Dean Koontz," Bidwell said. "I said, ‘I really want you to read this book. If you hate it, bring it back and we'll get you another one.'"
The girl took the book, Barbara Kingsolver's "The Bean Trees.
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"You have guitars, amplifiers, banjos, parts, books, anything to do with music." Attendance at this year's show was up from shows in previous years, he said. Last year's show was held in Santa Monica. The first guitar show was held at the Fairplex in
many are looking for used books instead of new and we can help with this,” Ann said. With more than 120000 books lining the shelves at The Book Store on Casino Drive in Lake Elsinore, the Marshall's believe their shop is providing a rare service.
She knows the books really well. Most of them she reads and if she hasn't, she at least knows a lot about them." (Kristina Barker/Journal staff) Chris Romano and Deb Jilka had already made plans to add new books to the shelves along with used books at
Acknowledging that, in an era when the biggest news in publishing is the battle between Apple and Amazon for control of the e-book ecosystem, a machine that allows readers to get physical versions of rare books seems hopelessly anachronistic,
In general though, I really love books set in Dublin, particularly ones set in the past." Fiction or non-fiction? "I love biographies. Brendan Behan's The Borstal Boy and Memoirs of an Irish Rebel are favourites." Has he always preferred Irish writers?
How Used Bookstores are Saving the Universe « Classics Used and ...
The Environment
I couldn’t find any numbers for books alone, but about 54.3 million tons of paper and paper fill American landfills every year. Among that 54 million tons are countless libraries worth of books that could be kept in circulation instead of weighing down our waste infrastructure.
When you buy used books, you don’t just help keep them out of landfills; you also help preserve our natural resources. It is estimated that 24 trees are needed to produce one ton of virgin printing paper.
Used book stores are such a part of the fabric of American life that it is easy to forget that they are as important environmental centers, as important as newer (and therefore more visible) reuse centers like TerraCycle in Trenton.
Save the environment. Support your used bookstores.
Education
Used books improve education by providing low-cost options to fill a home with books.
Not only are used bookstores already a fraction of the cost of new bookstores, some (Classics in Trenton NJ for example) provide books for FREE for local kids. You don’t get lower-cost than that!
What impact does having books in the homes of kids have? Especially books in the homes of low-resourced families in struggling school districts like Trenton?
The following is from “ScienceDirect – Research in Social Stratification and Mobility : Family scholarly culture and education”
Only 40% of children from bookless homes with unschooled parents can be expected to finish Year 9, compared to 88% of children with unschooled but book-rich parents, a huge 48 percentage point advantage.
A home library is also a big advantage in getting children through high school, for illiterate and university educated parents alike. For unschooled parents, the advantage of a large home library is 33 percentage points, about the same as the 37 point advantage for primary educated parents, 40 for incomplete secondary parents, 41 for parents with high school education, and 38 for university educated parents.
Classics Used and Rare Book in Trenton (117 South Warren) has consistently handed out over $4,000 in FREE books every year to Trenton kids through their Books at Home Program .
Support education. Support your used bookstores.
Community
Far more than other businesses, used bookstores are meeting grounds for the community to meet and discuss matters of community importance and then taking action. Random collections of customers at Classics Used and Rare Books, for example, have volunteered to help restore a vandalized mural, provided back-to-school backpacks for foster kids, and knitted helmet liners for soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
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