Ten Inverness Way Blog ... for hikers and readers.
WE WELCOME YOU TO JOIN OUR READER'S BLOG. Please share your favorite books with us and respond to other writers on this blog as well. The first entry is offered by Ten Inverness Way innkeeper Teri Mattson (12-05):
A great article by Damon Darlin entitled “Buying Used Just Could Turn Out to Be the Next New Thing” appears in the December 3rd edition of The New York Times. The article talks about many consumer products that can be bought used at better value than new (i.e. cars, fitness equipment, CD’s and books). Of course, Brett and I have known this about books for a long time.
As avid readers, we’re always on the lookout for great books at great prices. Sometimes we fall prey to internet specials at commercial mainstays, but most of the time our hunts support used bookstores or, at least, the used section of major independent bookstores. We shop library fundraisers and garage sales as well.
Our motivation, of course, is price. We can buy twice as many used books for the same dollar spent on a new volume. Used bookstores offer phenomenal entertainment value. The wonderful aroma (sometimes interrupted by a café mocha walking among the shelves) of books that have hobnobbed from place to place and the touch of their well-worn spines and pages offer great sensual pleasures in addition to the stories they tell. While browsing, we also discover titles no longer in print. Early writings by popular authors that are no longer currently shelved in mainstream stores can be found as well. Of course, our hobby and obsession has a secondary (and maybe even more important) benefit; that being our financial and philosophical support of independent booksellers and literary fundraisers of all types.
We plan to share some of our more memorable reads with you in 2006. Once a month, we’ll tell you what we’re reading and how and why we came to acquire that particular book. The review will be interactive to encourage all of you to read and share your thoughts. Some of the local places we will be shopping for books next year (and encourage you to support as well) include:
Book Passage
51 Tamal Visita Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA
(415.927.0960)
www.bookpassage.com
BookShop/Friends of the Marin County Library
1608 Grant Avenue
Novato, CA
(415.878.0212)
www.marinlibraryfriends.marin.org
Manfred’s Books
60 Fourth Street
Point Reyes Station, CA
(415.663.9646)
Point Reyes Books
11315 State Route No. 1
Point Reyes Station, CA
(415.663.1542)
www.ptreyesbooks.com
Stinson Beach Books
State Route 1
Stinson Beach, CA
(415.868.0700)
December 2005 Recommended Reading:
In keeping with this month’s “used book” theme, try reading Sixpence House, Lost in a Town of Books, by Paul Collins (Bloomsbury, NY 2003).
“Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh Countryside – to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the “Town of Books” that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants and forty bookstores. Inviting readers into a sanctuary for book lovers, Sixpence House is a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.”
A great article by Damon Darlin entitled “Buying Used Just Could Turn Out to Be the Next New Thing” appears in the December 3rd edition of The New York Times. The article talks about many consumer products that can be bought used at better value than new (i.e. cars, fitness equipment, CD’s and books). Of course, Brett and I have known this about books for a long time.
As avid readers, we’re always on the lookout for great books at great prices. Sometimes we fall prey to internet specials at commercial mainstays, but most of the time our hunts support used bookstores or, at least, the used section of major independent bookstores. We shop library fundraisers and garage sales as well.
Our motivation, of course, is price. We can buy twice as many used books for the same dollar spent on a new volume. Used bookstores offer phenomenal entertainment value. The wonderful aroma (sometimes interrupted by a café mocha walking among the shelves) of books that have hobnobbed from place to place and the touch of their well-worn spines and pages offer great sensual pleasures in addition to the stories they tell. While browsing, we also discover titles no longer in print. Early writings by popular authors that are no longer currently shelved in mainstream stores can be found as well. Of course, our hobby and obsession has a secondary (and maybe even more important) benefit; that being our financial and philosophical support of independent booksellers and literary fundraisers of all types.
We plan to share some of our more memorable reads with you in 2006. Once a month, we’ll tell you what we’re reading and how and why we came to acquire that particular book. The review will be interactive to encourage all of you to read and share your thoughts. Some of the local places we will be shopping for books next year (and encourage you to support as well) include:
Book Passage
51 Tamal Visita Boulevard
Corte Madera, CA
(415.927.0960)
www.bookpassage.com
BookShop/Friends of the Marin County Library
1608 Grant Avenue
Novato, CA
(415.878.0212)
www.marinlibraryfriends.marin.org
Manfred’s Books
60 Fourth Street
Point Reyes Station, CA
(415.663.9646)
Point Reyes Books
11315 State Route No. 1
Point Reyes Station, CA
(415.663.1542)
www.ptreyesbooks.com
Stinson Beach Books
State Route 1
Stinson Beach, CA
(415.868.0700)
December 2005 Recommended Reading:
In keeping with this month’s “used book” theme, try reading Sixpence House, Lost in a Town of Books, by Paul Collins (Bloomsbury, NY 2003).
“Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh Countryside – to move, in fact, to the village of Hay-on-Wye, the “Town of Books” that boasts fifteen hundred inhabitants and forty bookstores. Inviting readers into a sanctuary for book lovers, Sixpence House is a heartfelt and often hilarious meditation on what books mean to us.”
posted by Ten Inverness Way at 11:57 AM
4 comments
