Friday I went book hunting in secondhand stores. It's a hobby that I have taken up to help me through the mind numbing boredom that antiques shopping can sometimes be. I generally find second hand bookstores in the same areas as antique shops.
The future of the book?
It struck me while browsing that this may be the future for books in the solid paper sense. I imagined in 20 years time scouring high end antique stores for a paper versions of those classics of the 21st century. Explaining to grand nephews or nieces that this was the way information used to be contained.
Then I wondered if this whole bound and covered paper container fad will die a new generations grow up with e-readers.
The quarry, the kill
So what did I get?.
- Far from the Madding Crowd -Thomas Hardy
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
- The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
- The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
- The Aeneid - Virgil
- A Doll's House and Other plays - Henrik Ibsen
- Kidnapped - R.L. Stevenson
- Bryant on Bowls - David Bryant
- Fundamentals of Lawn Bowls - Albert Newton
Those last two are real classics :) And what did I pay? All up $10.50
Now I know I could get at least half of these titles for free as e-books - in fact since I was donated an e-reader, I have( thank you). But I am one of those lovers of books, if I see a nicely bound copy of a classic, at $1 each I simply can't turn away.
How about you? Do you enjoy hunting for old classics in dusty back rooms of secondhand stores?
