Comments on: Shall I compare thee…In Praise of Ex-library books

By: Creating Demand in your Bookstore | Bookshop Blog

Creating Demand in your Bookstore | Bookshop Blog — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:32:04 +0000

[...] your specialty niche. When interviewed for radio or print, I naturally emphasize my Michigan titles, but I also get in a [...]

By: Discount Cookbooks

Discount Cookbooks — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:53:00 +0000

Our family loves ex-library books! Twice a year the library has a used book sale and we fill up bags and struggle to carry them to the car. We are homeschoolers, so I dare say we have more books in our house than most families. I recently bought Carolyn Hayward’s “B if For Betsy,” and am reading it aloud to my children. It is fun reliving my childhood with my children, through the sharing of my favorite books from childhood. We own a complete set of the Borrowers series and are now collecting The Chronicles of Narnia.

By: A visit to the Boston Antiquarian Book & Ephemera fair | Bookshop Blog

A visit to the Boston Antiquarian Book & Ephemera fair | Bookshop Blog — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:04:06 +0000

[...] Helen Keller Optimism book pictured in the aforementioned post. It didn’t sell (just $20! Ex-library [...]

By: James

James — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:23:38 +0000

I remember writing a dissertation on Coleridge’s kublai khan back in ENC1101… I hated it then but have since gone back and re-read it. Definitely more enjoyable the older/ more cultured you become.

By: prying1

prying1 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:19:45 +0000

Would have loved to see Coleridge’s face at that point in time. They didn’t have point and click cameras back then did they. Too bad. – A video of it would have been great. –
~~

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:02:16 +0000

There’s a funny story about Coleridge and Wordsworth at Dove’s Cottage examining an uncut volume. Coleridge wanted to get a proper implement for opening the pages, but Wordsworth, wielding a butter knife fresh from buttering his bread, opened the book with that, butter and all.

I’m more or less in the Wordsworth camp on this one – better to cut the pages with a buttery knife than to leave them uncut – it’s just too depressing to see a 200 year old book that has never even been perused.

I would amend though – try to at least find a butter knife NOT covered in butter first.

By: prying1

prying1 — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:53:07 +0000

Hey Tom Thanks for posting this. – Your line,

“And worse yet if its pages be uncoup’d
It might as be a rock, a hole, a shad”,

made me realize that I didn’t know the actual term for those pages where the signature is folded over, untrimmed and you have to peek between the top or bottom edges to read it or get out a letter opener to separate them. Inspired me to do a bit of a search and found one piece by J.A. Judson that calls them simply “Uncut Leaves” – Much easier that the unwieldy lines I’ve used in listings.

The address below (PDF) is from 1905 – “Deckel Edges and Uncut Leaves”.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9500E6DD1F3BE631A2575BC1A9649C946497D6CF
~~~~~
I find a book like that and I know that it has never been read. Do authors turn over in their graves when the edges are finally cut? I hardly think so…
~~~~~

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:58:21 +0000

Thanks for the kind words. Ex-library lovers unite – we will feel shame no more!

By: Bruce K. Hollingdrake

Bruce K. Hollingdrake — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:53:39 +0000

A couple of comments just came in via email:

Dear Tom, I have never responded to a blog before, but your post about ex libris books spoke to me. I sell very nice books on the net Gardening, Cookbooks,Interiors,etc. In addition ,I like to have wonderful cheap books for my local less affluent customers to love.(Being a retired teacher influences this)I LOVE EX LIBRIS BOOKS TO FILL THIS NICHE. I have local college students and young mothers needing children’s books and ex libris are affordable and they are GREEN. I really believe in a downward spiraling economy this is a good tack.

Kay Graham

****************

Ah, thanks Tom. I thought I was all alone in my
love for ex-library books. Well bound, well
loved, and broken in (or not). I’ve often found
books I’ve searched for that were former library
books and are nearly pristine. I guess it really
is all in the eye of the beholder.

Jessica L. Lloyd-Rogers