alt Hacker NewsDiscarded delights: The joy of ex-library books (2021)
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I primarily read theology, and lots of early-to-mid-20th century Anglican theology. So, many of the books I read are out of print—and thus only available used. I’ve found that reading in a niche area tends to put some interesting copies in my lap. I have quite a few copies around that previously belonged to “famous” (at least within my little world) theologians. Many of these other copies are often ex-library, often from seminary or monastic libraries. It’s always interesting to see what libraries are getting rid of and to think about the monks or nuns who sat around reading them. (Or not, as the case may be—they were withdrawn, after all.)
My favorite is a copy of Martin Thornton’s The Function of Theology, which had been deaccessioned from the library of the Seminary of the Southwest at some point. I happened to flip to the back to glance at the loan card. It had been borrowed precisely one time—October 23, 1987—but it had been borrowed that one time by a priest who became a friend of mine in 2021 during a course at a different institution. The small world of Anglican theology! I texted him a picture of the book, and he still remembered checking it out.
I opened a bookshop after a long run in tech to try to slow down, and one of the pleasant surprises was the joy in accepting used book donations. I re-donate most of them, but have found some wonderful bookmarks and inscriptions in many. The words matter most, of course, but the tangible evidence of people decades or centuries ago is something that speaks to me profoundly. One inscription in a tiny book of prayers mentioned a friend passing it on after it had been placed under her deceased infant sister's chin, which was both morbid and moving. Autographs of spooks like J. Edgar Hoover conjure up other feelings. One other comment: the very old books will probably be around for a few centuries more after the newer ones have turned to dust.
If you are going to collect books as physical objects, rather than their much more convenient digital versions, then it strikes me you should actually find the signs of previous interactions with that object (library stamps, marks from other readers etc) make them more interesting than pristine copies that no one has read.
Favorite ex-library book: "The Unix Environment" by A. N. Walker. Ex library: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NY. Cost from Alibris: $1.
My university regularly put discarded books in a cart in front of the library with a money box, so you could just take a book and put one or two euros in the box. Among other things I got a copy of Benoit Mandelbrots "The fractal geometry of nature" which I still treasure to this day.
Just a few weeks ago I got an absolutely delightful email:
> Ні! This might seem a little out of the blue and it is but a few years ago at a library book sale I got the book "Pi in the Sky". It has your personal library stamp on it, so I guess YOU got it at a library sale and then re-donated it? I had never read anything about math before that was at all interesting and it got me reading lots of other "popular" math books and I got really interested in number theory. I am now a freshman at CMU and planning to be a math major!
My late mother was an avid reader of library books. She used to mark the books she had read by filling in the loops of the letters on the copyright page. Apparently she noticed the hidden codes that other readers used to similarly mark books they had read: a circle around page 10, a line on page 20, &c.
I wonder if the author has come across such marks?
One of my favorites that I return to regularly and am continually fascinated by is an ex-library book, Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century. It's an "enthno-archealogical" study of about 30 families in early 2000s California.
I love the ambiance of libraries and used book stores so I tend to buy books with a little wear and tear and appreciate their uniqueness.
At the same time I'm loathe to make my own marks in books. I hadn't thought about that contradiction before.
> Sadly, ex-library books have a poor reputation because an old library book can have many miles on the clock
Depends on the clientele. I love finding ex-Bohemian-Club-library books, for example, because they are absurdly well cared for. My most recent one of these was a copy of “San Francisco's Ocean Trade Pᴀsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ Fᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ — A Story of the Deep Water Service of San Francisco, 1848 to 1911.” (1911) because I was very familiar with the coming of the railroads but not so familiar with anything earlier than that: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/San_Fran...
Loved the bit about one of the early steamships used to carry freight up and down the Sacramento River getting outclassed by an ox team — moo moo moo https://i.imgur.com/GVCVY0r.jpeg
I always liked the hardback editions of children’s books in UK libraries in the 70s and 80s , and have sought them out secondhand since. Favourites were the US Danny Dunn science story series - almost all of which were amazingly available in the UK, Dr Who hardback editions of the famous Target novelisations - pre-vcr the only way to access old stories (even in the Uk these were very rarely repeated). Hugh Walters 1960s/1970s sf books (passage to Pluto, journey to Jupiter, expedition Venus etc.)
Also the Agaton Sax comedy detective stories, and the largely unknown Uncle the elephant books by JP Martin.
Can I just drop a word of love and appreciation for Abe Books? I don't buy physical books a lot, but when I do, Abe is definitely the first place I look. The books drop ship from the actual seller, and it's remarkable that I've never had a problematic delivery, after a dozen or so.
My favorite book I've gotten from them was A Psalm for the Wild-Built, which was previously a library book, funny enough.
I have a few ex-library books. Ex-library to 'ex libris', if you will! I bought them at used book stores and can't fight the sneaking suspicion that I am in possession of stolen property!
I love heavily marked up used books. They make me feel a kinship with another person. Me and "Dan" from 1956 have physically held the same copy of Terman's Electronic and Radio Engineering!
My favorite ex-library book was "Engineering with Nuclear Explosives", discarded from the Stanford engineering library.[1]
[1] https://archive.org/details/engineeringwithn00plowrich/mode/...
Two very important books for me were both bought in the same library clearance sale when I was around 6/7!
1. A biology text book which is how I learned about sex! 2. Children's Britannica World of Science & Mystery "FUTURE CITIES" which inspired my love for the future and technology, and still has pride of place on my bookshelf. I even wrote a lil thread on Twitter about it [0]
I have a fun copy of Mechanized Information Storage, Retrieval And Dissemination (1968) formerly from The Free Library of Philadelphia, covered in "identification required" labels for some reason. There's also a Cinema Props stamp inside the cover, so it may have been set dressing in between the library and the used book store where I got it. https://www.librarything.com/work/17927078/book/215905873
And sometimes you find little gems, too!
I have a copy of "New Rules for the New Economy" by Kevin Kelly, signed as part of the Global Business Network that he and Steward Brand founded a long time ago.
Having read Fred Turner's immensely great book "From Counterculture to Cyberculture", that is a valuable little piece of history to me.
Danger!
I made the mistake of following the link to AbeBook's list of books for sale. As a result, I spent $60.
You have been warned.
Growing up as a kid with not much money, I think quite a few of the books on my shelves were ex library books.
My beautifully bound 1898 score of Mendelssohn's 'Songs without Words' picked up for a song (sorry!) in a junk shop, has the inscription "To Ethyl with love from Mother and Dad Aug. 16th 1911". A treasured item in my library with additional resonance.
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I used to hang out at used bookstores regularly. Mostly to find cheap but good quality books for my kids when they were younger. I once managed to get a used copy of Paul Graham's On Lisp which was discarded from the technical library of a company somewhere.
The main point of interest is that physical items age and retain artifacts of their lives. I found a childrens book that was discarded from an American library where a girl had scrawled in pencil that she was proud that she finished it. I've seen one which was awarded to a man for being top of his class in college in the early 1900s. The bookshop I used to visit once had a book sold to him which contained a letter from Rabindrnath Tagore in the original in between the leaves of the book.
It's a fascinating feeling and quite primal.