Rant: Blew $40 on a used reference book that saved my research project

I was at a library book sale near Cleveland last spring and picked up a 1997 copy of "Familiar Medical Quotations" for 40 bucks... thought it was a dumb purchase at first, honestly. Then my history paper on 19th century public health needed a solid primary source quote about cholera outbreaks, and that book had a line from a doctor in 1849 that nailed it. My professor even asked where I found that reference because it was so obscure. The rest of my sources were all from databases and modern articles, but that one old book gave me the hook I needed. It's not something I'd normally spend money on, libraries usually have everything for free, but this one was so specific it saved me hours of digging through old journals. Has anyone else found a random book at a sale that turned out to be worth way more than the price tag?

2 comments

2 Comments

amymiller6d ago

Next time check the inside cover for former owner notes. Found a math textbook with someone's margin notes that explained half the problems better than the actual text. Made the whole $25 worth it for that alone.

richard_west57d ago

My buddy found a 1960s field guide for 50 cents that ID'd a rare plant and got his whole paper published online.