posted by ebourne on Uncategorized

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I will be the first to confess to love of books and an unbridled addiction to buying books. I have loved books for as long as I can remember. Reading widely helps to inspire me as a writer while it also feeds my spirit. As a consequence of this love of books, I have always been surrounded by a vast collection lining my walls and stacking up on every available surface. But, since I currently live in a small apartment in the city where space is at a premium, I have to maintain some kind of control of the inflow of books into my home. There is no more room for bookshelves, so I have resorted to putting some of my books in boxes. Those boxes are now stacking up and, well you know where this is going. At the end of last year I came to the obvious conclusion that it’s time to let some of my beloved books go. I began sifting through the boxes ruthlessly editing down until I had gathered a few nice stacks of books that I was willing to part with.

I spent the whole afternoon on Saturday on Amazon listing them by describing their condition and setting a price. When buyers search for a book title, they can purchase it new from Amazon, or buy it used from second-hand book dealers or individuals like me who are selling from their private collection. I managed to find a couple of jewels that made this process that much more rewarding. I found one first edition hardcover book that is OOP, Designing Knitwear, by Deborah Newton. I also found a softcover book that I picked up from a box of free books that a neighbor had set out on the sidewalk one summer afternoon. The title of the book is, Frogs Into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. I’m not an NLP practitioner, but the book caught my eye because John Grinder came and gave a lecture at my college when I was a student. I remember that his speech had quite an impact on me, although at the time I had no idea of who he was. Anyway, when I was listing it, I discovered that I have a rare first edition that was published in 1979. There are two other copies listed used on Amazon in the $90. price range.

The exciting news is that by the end of the day I had already sold one of the books I had listed. So, while I won’t grow rich selling off my surplus books, it feels good to be able to recoup some of the money I spent on them. It also feels good to know that these books will be moving on to the hands of someone who will make use of them.