# Used books **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 26, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010 "2009-11-26T05:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sloane\_Cabot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@Sloane\_Cabot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloane_Cabot)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/21 "2009-11-28T00:45:42Z")
Treehorn used bookstore in Santa Rosa, Ca is pretty tight. I would never got to a Barne’s and Noble. As long as you are not trying to buy a first edition or something they really aren’t that expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/22 "2009-11-28T03:27:52Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > You want to know the really freaky part? Those books. Take a closer look at them. > > The Electron’s Retreat by Isaac Asimov, 1959 > Another robot detective story featuring Elijah “Lije” Baley > > Star Wish by Heinlein, 1957 > A sequel to his Hugo winning 1956 Novel, Double Star > > Falling through Andromeda by Arthur C Clarke, 1958 > A novel of Interstellar colonization > > Try to look those books up on any database. They don’t exist. But why would anyone go to the enormous trouble to print obvious fakes of novels by famous authors, and even make them look “used”? > > My guess is that when you go back to this store, you’ll find a building that has been abandoned for many years, showing no signs that it has ever been a bookstore. Did they have issues of Unknown from the early 1950s also? If so send me mail, I need to complete my collection, and those are hard to come by. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/23 "2009-11-28T03:38:51Z")
Used bookstores are destinations for me, and I suspect for many people. Thus being a bit off the beaten path in a place with enough room and low rent might be helpful to survival, so long as they build a clientele. But I’ve bought at least 3500 used books in my lifetime, so I might be an outlier. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/24 "2009-11-28T03:45:45Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > and picked out five books; three Heinlein, a Clarke, and an **Asimov**. Just dropped by to say thanks. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/25 "2009-11-28T06:08:37Z")
A back street? That’s nothing. Here’s the [website](http://www.rodgersbookbarn.com/) for Rodger’s Book Barn in Hillsdale, New York. Notice that fine map. Notice the roads marked “summer only”. I’ve been on those roads - some of them don’t even have gravel. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/26 "2009-11-28T06:17:44Z")
Strangest place to go used book shopping? Porn shops. There are local ordinances in some areas which prohibit a business from selling just porn. They’re required to have a fixed percentage of the business assigned to selling non-porn products. Now for most of these places, porn is the only real business - they’ll have a front room set up with products supposedly for sale but all the customers walk past them to get to the “real” store. Except people like me. Because one of the most common products dumped in these non-porn areas are old paperbacks. So I’ll stop in and browse the paperback racks. The best part is bringing the books back to the checkout counter. Some of these clerks have never had anyone actually trying to buy anything from the front room before. They have no idea what the prices are supposed to be or how to ring up the sales - I’ve had clerks have to call up the owner and ask them what to do. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010/27 "2009-11-28T06:36:50Z")
D and I are voracious readers (3-4 books a week between us) and since we’ve had to economize recently, we found this swap thing online. (It may have even come from a post _here_, I’m not sure. Anyway, we joined, and it’s saved us boucoups of money, because you use ordinary printer paper to wrap the book and then you send it library rate and there ya go!🙂 Anyway, it’s [paperbackswap.com](http://paperbackswap.com) if you wanna check it out. That’s not to denigrate the used book shops, btw. It’s just great that when you have limited space and don’t have room for hardbacks, this is a great way to get rid of 'em. Q [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/used-books/519010.md?page=1)