Antique Book Store
Posted on | December 23, 2008 | No Comments
I got into out of print books out of necessity a couple decades ago. You see, I was reading the books of E. Nesbit to my kids, but I was dismayed to find out that many of them had gone out of print. Although many of them have since been printed, back then you couldn’t find most of these classic children’s stories ? especially in the United States. I went to an antique book store, and was gratified to be able to find most of them. I even found a couple first edition books, although at the time I opted to buy cheaper versions.
I started coming back to the antique book store. I was amazed by how much I enjoyed the feeling of antiquity. It was nice to see these old, classically bound books and feel their age in my hands. The textures, the smells, and even the look of the fonts all thrilled me to the core. That was when I decided to start collecting rare books.
I’ve always been a voracious reader of eclectic tastes, and my antique book store days were no different. I would find anything and everything. I would look at antique maps and books of ancient history, treatises on philosophy, and of course works of fiction. I especially loved children’s books that had been out of print for a long time. The illustrations were beautiful, and the volumes were often expertly bound. I didn’t have a lot of money at a time, but I used pretty much all of my recreational funds to buy more antique books. Soon, my collection started to grow.
At one time, I even opened up an antique book store of my own. At that point, I had more than a thousand volumes, and I got investors to help me buy many additional volumes. It actually started to do pretty well as antique book stores go, and I was making enough money to support myself without working another job. After a while, however, I had to call it quits. I couldn’t stand seeing all those books slips through my fingers. It was just too intensely painful for me to sell off my precious antiques.
Nowadays, I am back shopping at that antique bookstore I used to go to when I first got started. The owner has retired, and now his children tend the store. They added a new room, and the collection has grown by leaps and bounds. I’m proud to have such a great antique book store in my neighborhood. It makes me happy to be able to sift through the sands of history at will. To this day, it is my favorite place to go after a long, busy work day.
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