25 June 2007

Secondhand


When I go book hunting I prefer the secondhand stores. Unless its a recently published book, I stay away from 'proper' bookstores.. There's just some kind of immense joy I get when I find an Asterix, or Tintin, or Peanuts, or Garfield, or Calvin and Hobbes(Yeah I mostly go for comics..) secondhand. It just isn't the same when I look at a brand new copy.. one that hasn't been opened, spine intact, no writing on the first page..

And hey, theres always the fact that its cheaper to buy it secondhand. You can bargain with the seller too. And if you don't want to keep it, most sellers let you return it, charging a small reading charge (10-20). Its cheaper than a usual circulating library and therefore great!

If I see a used book store, I have to go in and browse. It's a compulsion. And I almost always walk away with a purchase. Not surprisingly, a large chunk of my pocket money goes in buying/borrowing books. (The rest of it goes in food, believe it or not..)

Most used bookstalls/stores have a majority of novels of every kind. I guess those are the most popular to read and return. When I can't find a comic I usually get one of those.

There used to be sooo many of these stores at Flora fountain.. pity the BMC decided to get rid of them. Thankfully they left the job half done and about 5-6 of these stalls remain. And on Sundays, it seems all the others who had to leave come and sell their books on the footpaths (the BMC is off on Sundays..). Thats when you can easily buy books for very cheap coz these people just want to get rid of their stock..

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