What makes an appealing Used Bookstore

 I guess the answers are as varied as used bookstore aficionados although there are two main camps. There are those who revel in an old, dim, dusty, crowded jumbled place, floor to ceiling books, with piles of books in the aisles.

They enjoy the thrill of the hunt - rummaging through boxes, searching behind the rows of books on shelves, climbing ladders to reach the very top. There is always one more box to root through, one more shelf to scan. They come with no specific book in mind-but something they know they ‘need’ when they see it.

It’s the slightly dusty, musty smell that gets the juices going, the dust mites dancing in the sun’s rays that lead them to the treasure.

The other extreme are those who get excited by shelves of books that are well organized and labelled.

All the books are off the floor, only one row of books per shelf. Ideally, the books in every category are in alphabetical order.

Shoppers often come with a specific title they ‘need’ to fill in a collection, or to read on the recommendation of a friend or book reviewer. They tend to be people looking for a bargain - a good current book at a fraction of the cost of a new book. They probably are on a tighter schedule than the ‘rummagers’.

 Whatever the shopper preference-we at the Friends of the Library Used Bookstore love them all - and they will all find some elements to feed their passion for books.

 We try to be organized-but don’t always succeed. There are often boxes of books to root through, and books in any order, some where they don’t seem to belong.

 We have a theory about that- because we operate with a large team of volunteers with different views and interests, a book is often moved from one section to another- and that gives a shopper, especially a regular - more chances for serendipity to work!