# Authors whose books are always available at thrift stores, used book sales, etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880 "2011-09-28T14:17:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/41 "2011-09-29T12:24:26Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > I was comng in here to mention **Wild Animus**. It is ubiquitous in Connecticut thrift shops as well. I am afraid to try to learn more about the book; for all I know it is an updated translation of the Necronomicon. I dared. It sounds like [some venture capitalist](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Animus) wrote a bad hippie-ish novel, published it via a print-on-demand method, and [distributed copies everywhere, sometimes for free](http://www.universitypressclub.com/archive/2010/02/wild-animus-hits-princeton/). Reviews seem to indicate it’s a bomb - [nearly literally](http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/may/04/suspicious-package-outside-beinecke-a-false-alarm/) in one case. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/42 "2011-09-29T14:20:16Z")
Two things that haven’t been mentioned: Ann Rule rules the true crime genre in used book sales. Chicken Soup for the Soul and all its imitators. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/43 "2011-09-29T16:08:13Z")
Danielle Steel (especially the Klone and I) Nora Roberts/JD Robb, Stephen King, Scott Turow, John Grisham, 40 year old pamphlets on filet crochet. Crossword and/or Scrabble dictionaries. Poker and/or Blackjack strategy guides. Biographies of Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/44 "2011-09-29T16:22:49Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > (re: Reader’s Digest condensed)…I’d only read them, however, when I was eating Campbell’s condensed soup, for consistency. Possibly the funniest remark I’ve ever seen. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/45 "2011-09-29T16:52:45Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Possibly- but I agree, I don’t see many Stephen King books. Perhaps that’s because the people who like him keep the books to read again, or to share with someone else later. I’ve seen quite a few Stephen King books at the sales I’ve been to, but they tend to be his lesser works - like The Tommyknockers, Needful Things, Insomnia, etc. rather than the classics. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/46 "2011-09-29T18:15:50Z")
Chicken Soup For The\_\_\_\_\_\_\_Soul. And various volumes from Womans Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, which every household seemed to have collected during the 60’s. (We had a set and I read them from cover to cover, very interesting and useful information.) ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/47 "2011-09-29T18:28:18Z")
> [@YoSaffBridge](#): > > I was at Goodwill just the other day, and there was an abundance of Danielle Steele books, and an impressive collection of the Left Behind books. > > I always see autobiographies and true crime stories that were hot a few years previously. I expect in three or four years’ time, there will be tons of Casey Anthony books in the thrift stores. The local Goodwill had and still has an impressive collection of Danielle Steele and Left Behind books. I’v enever seen such a collection of complete crap in my life. Yes, they had Wordperfect for Dummies 😃 I wouldn’t pay a nickel for 95% of the stuff there. When we moved out of my house into a smaller townhome I decide to ditch almost all my books. I had a huge collection of books that I had going back to 7th grade. My wife doesn’t read em. My kids aren’t interested in em. So…time to ditch them all except for the few I know I will want to read again. I donated them all to good will. They actually set up a new temporary section for my books and put them all in there. Many many shelves 🙂 I went back in 3 days later and, except for about 4-5 books…THEY WERE ALL GONE! Obviously a hunger for different kinds of books at GoodWill 🙂 Cashier said they were flying out like clockwork past 3 days. ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/48 "2011-09-29T19:35:43Z")
Oh man…I’ve sorted god knows how many books for used bookstores, Friends of the Library, etc. Authors not already on the list: Sharyn McCrumb, Anne Rivers Siddons. Also (at least here in DC): Terry McMillan, Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston. I agree with _Future Shock_, _Megatrends_, and _Passages_ from the list link given by **The Lovely Margo Lane**. I’ve always thought that _…And Ladies of the Club_ is designed purposely to fuck up all attempts to create a neatly alphabetized fiction shelf. There has been at least one copy at every used bookstore I’ve worked at, it never sells, and it completely screws up an entire shelf in your already-crammed S section. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/49 "2011-09-29T19:43:17Z")
Kitty Kelly. I think it’s a requirement that all library sales have at least five copies of “The Royals” on their tables. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/50 "2011-09-29T19:52:10Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Kitty Kelly. I think it’s a requirement that all library sales have at least five copies of “The Royals” on their tables. Wow, The Royals. Man, that book was bigger than Jesus when it was first released. One more that needs to be added: **Twilight** And one more that will be a booksale staple in the future: **The Secret** ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/51 "2011-09-29T20:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Der Trihs** : > Possibly books written for political causes that are bought in bulk by groups supporting the writer to inflate the book sale figures; IIRC Ann Coulter is one such example. Unless they just burn all the unread books or dump them in a landfill they’re going to turn up somewhere. At first, I read that as “Unless they just burn all the undead books…”. Which would seem rather apt, for some of them. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/52 "2011-09-30T00:12:55Z")
There’s usually at least one two-volume book that only has one volume. And yearbooks/almanacs, usually at least 15 years old (e.g. _The Year in Music 1993_). There’s often a volume of World Book encyclopedias as well. No idea why it’s usually World Book. ---
**Author:** ![bashere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bashere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bashere)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/53 "2011-09-30T23:22:00Z")
**Clan of the Cave Bear** (or Jean Auel, generally) used to be dependably present at thrift stores. Has it finally died out? ---
**Author:** ![LadyJane84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@LadyJane84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadyJane84)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/54 "2011-10-01T00:22:43Z")
I can’t believe that it’s gone this far without anyone mentioning V. C. Andrews. Her sleazy dramas take up at least 30% of books at my local flea market. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/55 "2011-10-07T16:01:47Z")
While I mentoned Mary Higgins Clark in the OP, her daughter Carol Higgins Clark and ex-daughter-in-law Mary Jane Clark are well represented, too. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/56 "2011-10-07T17:39:35Z")
> [@bashere](#): > > **Clan of the Cave Bear** (or Jean Auel, generally) used to be dependably present at thrift stores. Has it finally died out? I don’t know, but they certainly go hand-in-hand with James Michener books in the category “Books my grandma would read”. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/57 "2011-10-07T21:49:13Z")
> [@bashere](#): > > **Clan of the Cave Bear** (or Jean Auel, generally) used to be dependably present at thrift stores. Has it finally died out? Now that she finally wrote another book in the series, we’ve sold out of her used stuff. People wanted to catch up on the old ones before reading the new one. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/58 "2011-10-08T18:41:55Z")
Long, long ago, I took a Shakespeare course from A Professor who spent every class paging through his yellowed notebook & droning on about the Freudian/Oedipal story behind every damn thing that Shakespeare wrote. _Hamlet_? Well, there’s a hint. But he found the same pseudo-Freudian theme in _every_ play & poem. The Histories? Why, England was Mom & everybody wanted to _have_ Her! Did he give any clue that all classes of people enjoyed those plays & still can? Nope. Any hint of the music of Will’s language? Nope. Just his bored/boring recitation of the one theme he’d developed so long ago–before he dried up entirely. For years, every used book store in Houston had at least one copy of The Professor’s one slim volume of verse. I never opened one because I figured he had no language skills. Apparently, most of the people who’d acquired that volume agreed with me… ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/59 "2011-10-08T20:30:22Z")
I see most of these at the used book venues that I frequent and will add _Guinness Book of World Records_ any year to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880/60 "2011-10-08T20:33:41Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > _Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten_ Everything by Kindergarten author Robert Fulghum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whose-books-are-always-available-at-thrift-stores-used-book-sales-etc/597880.md?page=4)