I have never understood the concept of a "used" book.

Today I am spending my morning in the locker rooms under the bleachers of Spawn's school gym, helping to set up for the annual used book sale. Over 40,000 used books are sold every year to support the school library. You'd think that in a podunk town this size there wouldn't be 40,000 extra books lazing about, but apparently the absence of anything resembling a nightlife results in a certain sort of intelligentsia.

I am just as cheap as anyone else when it comes to spending my money on things that have been pre-owned, but the whole idea of a book being "used" is somehow odd to me. Sure, I bought used textbooks in college because they were cheaper than the shiny new ones, and often with great notes in the margins, but to me the term "used" implied diminished and that doesn't make any sense to me. Are the words any less meaningful if someone else's eyes and brain have read them first? Is it worth less because the spine is broken?

Not that I am going to argue at pennies on the dollar for tomes, of course. And helping to sort and set up gives me a sneak preview and lets me pre-shop. The school library makes money, my tuition bill doesn't go up (as much) and I get stacks of new reading material. Everyone wins.




-- Mox