Picked up a beat-up copy of The Dog of the South at a library sale for 50 cents and it blew away the fancy bestseller I paid full price for

Last month I grabbed this old Charles Portis novel from a library sale bin in Tulsa. It was all yellowed and had someone's coffee ring on the cover. I'd been struggling through this heavy literary novel I dropped $28 on at Barnes and Noble. The Portis book just had this easy flow where the main character goes chasing his ex-wife's deadbeat dad through Mexico in a broken car. Every chapter had some weird funny detail that made me laugh out loud. The expensive book felt like homework while this 50 cent find felt like hanging out with a buddy who tells wild stories. Has anyone else had a cheap used book completely show up a pricey new one?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_price715d ago

Oh COME ON now, you can't seriously think a beat up library copy is better than a crisp new book. I buy brand new hardcovers specifically because I want them to be MINE, not some stranger's leftover with their nasty coffee rings and folded pages. There is something special about cracking open a fresh spine and being the FIRST person to experience those words. Half the time with used books you end up with underlines and notes from some bore who thought their highlighter opinions mattered. The price tag on a new book represents the author getting paid and the publisher investing in quality editing, not just whatever got tossed in a $0.50 bin because nobody else wanted it.

angelacooper15d ago

Get that feeling all the time now honestly. Its like we've been trained to think expensive equals better but cheap stuff has this raw energy to it nobody can fake. My buddy spent forty bucks on that new Colson Whitehead hardcover and it sat on his coffee table for six months while he devoured a beat up copy of Travels with Charley he got for a dollar. Theres something about a book that someone else has already broken in and carried around that makes it feel more alive. Like the coffee stain and the dogeared pages are proof that another person got something out of it too. The fancy ones feel like theyre trying too hard while the cheap finds just do their job.