To the good point I think we are reading more, I think to the bad we are probably reading less of books and magazines and newspapers than we did before the internet became full bloom.

I think the written word is in a new vehicle what with on line books and such.....just hate taking the laptop to the beach....

My library used to accept a replacement if you lost a book, but now you can't do that so I have to fork over $25 for the copy of Brave New World that my son lost. I'll KILL him! Actually I'm forcing him to pay it, he needs to learn.

Possible you are right about that.

Has the amount people read increased or decreased over the last 10 years? I bet it has increased, i.e. the total word-count average per reader from all content, printed and electronic, increases year-over-year.

Hello to Kathrynn. I once found an airline seat stub for someone going to Europe in a paperback I bought at a Salvation Army store.

Also have bought a used book or two with a dedication written on the inside cover. We have over the years purchased some older print books and that seemed to be much more of a fashion in days gone by.

Then there was that time I found the $100 monopoly bill as a bookmark left behind.

What??? Your library is much nicer than mine.

I just had my library replace a book for $6.50. A bargain! And I told them that since they were replacing the book I wanted the damaged one. Double bargain!!

It is NEVER just $25 to replace a book. More like 75.

EWWW-------bacon?????

Ruth wrote: "I once found a slice of bacon. Bookmark?"


Oh my gawd, Ruth! You totally lived this comic strip!



From Unshelved, http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?st...

Eew. I think I would be pretty grossed out by bacon in a book.

Real bacon? I find that so hilarious! Did it turn the pages greasy?

I just found fast food coupons in the library book I started last night, but that doesn't compare to actual food!

I once found a slice of bacon. Bookmark?

Re treasures in books....I have found pressed flowers, and a photo dating from WW1 of two brothers, one of whom had died in Passchendale, according to the writing on the back.

I agree!

I've never understood what possesses people to leave snotty notes like that for their neighbors. I've privately seethed over plenty of things, but the last thing I want is a feud with someone you can't really avoid.

I have one I want to send in from a woman who lives on the next block from me. She parks on my block (though not in front of my house), and a couple of weeks ago left me a message that said (punctuation hers) "STOP Pulling up on the BUMPER or Park where you LIVE"

To which I wanted to respond "LEARN to parallel PARK" since I was at least a foot away from her, but she always fronts into spots, and tries to leave half a spot on either side of her. A

The ironic thing (and the reason I didn't leave any response) is that she is a meter reader/parking police woman.

Oooh, that's fantastic! I love passive aggressive notes. There was one in our bathroom at work the other day. I would have taken a picture if I'd known about this site. It said something like "Please don't spray your NAUSEATING air freshener in this bathroom as there is no air circulation and it is making me sick." I really wanted to write "I'd rather smell air freshener than shi..."

That's funny - I was about to mention Found as well. The thingsinbooks site just crashed the crappy PC I'm on, but I'll check it out again later.

There's always this one too: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Fun! That reminds me of http://www.foundmagazine.com/

Have you ever found treasures in a used book? I once ..."

You might like to take a look at http://www.thingsinbooks.com"thingsinbooks.com

I recently found a train(?) pass for a transit system in what appeared to be Russia, although I'm just taking a stab at the language that it was written in.

Edited to clarify - I found it in a library book.

Yeah, strong odor of any kind is horribly distracting if you're trying to get into a book. This is one of the things I don't like about the library...I have a psychological issue about reading library books in bed because I feel like they could be dirty, which limits things for me. But the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Besides, there's no guarantee that new books aren't tainted with something. I was trying to buy a nice hardcover copy of Pnin for a friend at Borders the other day, but someone had smashed a piece of gum about 5 pages into the only copy they had left. I wonder if employees get to take damaged books home!

Yay find! I've found things in old books but never anything as cool as that.

Ooh. That sucks. I kind of like the musty smell that old used books (and used book stores) have. I adore the catacombs at the Strand in NYC...

Have you ever found treasures in a used book? I once checked out a book that clearly hadn't been touched in years, and found three black and white pictures tucked into it: two of horses, one of a guy in his 1950s underwear (and undershirt, thankfully) and horn-rimmed glasses, sitting in a lawn chair smoking.

I got a book from the library last year and had to take it back because somebody had either sprayed it with perfume or been wearing sooo much perfume when reading it that it soaked in.

Kathrynn wrote: "Just joined, so catching up.

The only time I buy a used book is when the book I want is out of print and it's the only way I can get my hands on it. Prefer new books because I don't like smelly..."

Welcome, Kathrynn!
Yes, smelly cigarette smokey books are the reason I've always avoided paperback book exchanges.
You do take a chance when buying used books over the internet, although they are supposed to indicate condition in the book's description.

Just joined, so catching up.

The only time I buy a used book is when the book I want is out of print and it's the only way I can get my hands on it. Prefer new books because I don't like smelly, creased, torn, marked on, etc. I can't stand to read a book that smells like smoke!

Never heard of Brodart (book jacket covers). Thank you for the info!

I buy book covers from general book covers.com and the prepackaged arrangement (at the bottom) comes with a variety of sizes that meets my needs.

Most of the books I get on amazon are about 2.30$ postage, so they get 1.70, but then what did they pay for the book originally? Some are a lot more and it's still the 3.99 fee. And then like you said, the time to package and mail it, and the materials to do that. We had a book store in Sarasota that sometimes had stacks of books they would pay people five cents each to take! It was a remainder bookstore and it would get to the point that the shelf space was more valuable.

There are several possibilities none of them mutually exclusive. First is as people have said, to ship for less and pocket the difference. Second that a customer may buy more than one thing - come to look at the one cent book, stay to buy another thing or two. Third is that if they do a good job you may come back and buy something more expensive another time - or at least give good feedback which will improve their customer rating. Not every sale has to make a profit. If it gets you a steady customer its worth throwing away the profit on a few things.

In my experience, the entities that do it are doing it in bulk, so it must be worth it in the aggregate.

Shipping is about $2.70 for 1.5 lbs, packaging maybe 25 cents has to cost, that's not much money for the time to pull the book, wrap and address it, and haul to the P.O. Seems pretty thin margin to me.

I've always just figured as Christy did. They managed to ship for less and pocket the change.

I've wondered about that, too. Christy, your hypothesis makes sense.

I assumed that the shipping was often less than $3.99 and the seller just kept the rest as a “handling” fee. That way they might be making one dollar on a book they never expected to sell otherwise. Not sure though.

While we're on the subject, sort of... Can anyone explain to me the economics of selling a used book on Amazon for 1 cent. I've bought them so that with shipping the cost is $4.00. How can a bookstore justify selling at such a price? The packaging, handling, and postage have got to add up to more than $4.00 and even with the Amazon shipping credit of $3.99 I have no idea how they can justify this.

I agree, I think they served a purpose--they were very popular, that's for sure!!

Every year when we go on vacation to Cape Cod we take a day and go around to the church run thrift stores and almost all of them have book sections. they vary in degree of sophistication, but we go there around labor day and sometimes the books are 25 cents a piece.

We don't have good wills here but the salvatrion army stores carry books, I just picked up a leather bound collection of Dickens' Christmas works (which included some stories of which I was unaware) for $2.

As for the Reader's Digest books I think as Sandi pointed out my first exposure to "Mockingbird" came though them. As was the case with other books that we just didn't have access to. We didn't have a central library in my city until I was a sophomore in HS. We had a bunch of little village libraries that had limited hours before that.

My father never finished high school but he was fanatical about us always having books in the house to read and he is a constant reader. But I think back then the Reader;s Digest books were an affordable way to accomplish that,

Yes, it is an issue. I've had stuff in local galleries and so have many friends. I haven't really thought about it much, because it is local and all. I'm glad you brought it up, it makes me feel like I need to be more careful. I'd love to create artwork for my book if I can get it published, and I would have to know that nothing I used was copyrighted. That's a second part of my dream. The main thing is get it published, but if I could have my collages in it too--that would be incredible!!! I'm dreaming big!

Nothing at all happened. I just had to switch a couple of images. They needed to have me guarantee the works were out of copyright. An email to a friend who works in that area of the law, straightened me out on dates.

I don't think there'd be a bit of a problem showing individual works in minor shows. Who would check? I showed a batch of these in a retrospective exhibition at the college where I used to teach. But this was for a nationally distributed poetry publication.

So if you work with recognizable words, you need to know there is an issue there.

Lori--
Goodwill is awesome. A friend of mine works there and they aren't allowed to buy anything at their own store. Wouldn't that be torture? I know it's a good rule, so the employees don't get all the good stuff--but I don't know if I could take it!!

WOW!!! Amazing! That is so beautiful and there is no way to tell what book that is from. I'd love to know what happened, because I use lots of different images from many sources in my art. I do collage, mostly, and I incorporate a lot of my poetry into the collages. Although I haven't done them in a while. I'm working hard on my book and most of my creative energy is going into that. I seem to see-saw between the two. If I go on a binge of collage, then I don't write. How is it for you?

What happened, Ruth? Sounds kind of scary. I am going to check out that link--thank you!

Leslie, my GoodWill is also just fantastic with books! Everything is in sections and yes! correctly alphabetized. All the HB and trades are in a section of their own for fiction, separate from mass market. It is hit and miss, but I score most every time I go.

Which, uh, is far too often. hee. All my clothes are from there too, in almost new condition - I live right near the best one in Seattle. I've even gotten very expensive shoes that have maybe been worn just a few times for under $10.

Larry, I used work as an artist rep and also functioned as the art buyer in another of my jobs. They are really diligent about the copyright law now which started in the 90s with all the montages being done with Photoshop and other programs like it. I'm sure you can get away with it for individual use, but any commercial artist will not ever risk federal charges by illegally using an image - if they are smart.

I'm not a copyright lawyer, so I can't answer that. I do know that copyright reared its ugly shnozz when Rattle printed some of my Visual Poetry done on the pages of old books. http://www.rattle.com/blog/2008/12/the-e...

But if you take the book and collage and cut and alter it until you can't even tell what book it is, then it can't be a violation of copyright laws, can it?

Except that they're still under copyright.

They are great for altered book art!

I was wondering who read those things! I've only seen them used as decor at Appleby's and other restaurants trying for rustic charm.

Only nuns, if you go by what is on the shelves at the Mercy Centre in Wellington (the top floor of which the nuns run as a B&B - $35/night in the heart of the city!). I read them til my mid-teens but then went looking for thge real thing too. I think using them for book-themed crafts and furniture is a great idea....might use it in my classroom (and I could use the pages for visual poetry with the kids Ruth!).